Simple Joy

Can you picture sitting down with your mail? As you open the letter and unfold it before you is a water color drawing, often witty making a play on the item and your name or place you live. This exquisite water color was painted just for you. Édouard Manet sent you a letter that brightened your day.

Manet and Modern Beauty, Art Institute, Chicago

Manet was a French modernist painter who bridged the gap between realism and impressionism. He was often harshly criticized by the critics because his art did not conform to the standards of a realistic finish. His paintings were considered rough. In his last years, when he was ill, he passed the time by filling the margins of his letters. These delicate water colors seem simple and breezy but he traced them onto the paper in a very deliberate way adding texture and color.

When I went to see the exhibit Manet and Modern Beauty at the Art institute, I was struck by these letters. They had these beautiful paintings of ordinary objects, plums, morning glories, sunbathing cats, water cans, visiting acquaintances.  He took something ordinary and made it extraordinary. Manet wrote a letter asking for more paper and yet the majority of the work is of a leaf and snail.  Wouldn’t you send him paper knowing that the letters he created brought such joy.

What are you doing to help someone else experience that simple joy? Where can you bring beauty and laughter to someone’s life? Take time this month to find moments of joy and beauty. Take time to laugh at the simple pleasure like ice cold lemonade on a hot day, butterflies landing on the flowers, lightening bugs glowing, grand children laughing.

The Holy One will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
   and your lips with shouts of joy.  Job 8:21