fil-LOW-kah-list -- (n.) A lover of beautiful things.
"Beauty in things" said David Hume, "exists in the mind which contemplates them." For the most part, we were all born philocalists but the tendency to treasure beauty waxes and wanes over time. Sunnier personalities see beauty everywhere, drawing from their surroundings that special glow-joy that comes of loving the world and all it contains. Darker personalities tend to ignore the beauties or blessings of life -- grounded in a kind of self-absorption that blinds them from the good and highlights all that is negative. Philocalists on the other hand are selfless and shameless lovers of the outer world; they're not thinking of themselves and their placement in society as much as they are enjoying society and the world it operates in, they enjoy SEEING the world, not worried about how the world sees them and so, philocalists are happier souls for it. So here's to ensuring our inner Philocalist is ever-fed, ever alert, and ever ready to seek and treasure the beauty that envelopes us everyday.
~Wordeby's by Chanel Rion
🦋ART: 'Woman and Flowers' (1868) by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema 🦋STYLE: Romanticism 🦋NATIONALITY: Dutch
This combination of word and artwork reminded me of one of my thoughts put to paper... "What once was truly loved, will always be cherished, no matter how many times it has to be mended. The one who truly loves doesn't see the scars of past failures and repairs, but the beauty that endures through having overcome our troubled past." ~ Philip Brower