Beautiful and Useful

I read this today during my lunch-time perusal of twitter:

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”

[William Morris]

 

If I could be anyone in the world, one of the top five contenders would definitely be Cath Kidston: designer and creator of all things fabulously floral and vintage.  Just standing in the shop or browsing through the catalogue makes me feel better.  I am hopeful that, by the slow and steady purchase of many of her gorgeous products, I might - over time - become her, through some sort of osmosis.  I will keep you posted.

 

Don't her products meet both of Morris' requirements: they are both useful and completely beautiful.  Yes, many would argue that a peg bag or a scrubbing brush need not be festooned with flowers, but why not?  Why not enjoy things that are both useful and beautiful, as William Morris urges?  Isn't this the best of both worlds?

 

As I was thinking about this at lunch, I got to thinking, not so much about what I fill my house with, but what I fill my heart and mind with. 

 

How much of that meets those two criteria: to be either useful or beautiful?

 

A lot of the clutter in my heart is neither useful nor beautiful.  It consists of left-over junk from past experiences.  Negative words which have no truth, but which I continue to speak over myself.  False hopes, ruined hopes, past hurts, bad decisions, regrets, grudges.  The list could go on.

 

And these things serve no purpose.  They simply sit in my heart and fester and rot and they stop me from appreciating what is beautiful and good and true.  They taint my vision of the world.

 

Regardless of how all of these things got into my heart - whether by my own mistakes, or someone else's- it is my responsibility to deal with them: to sift out what is useful or beautiful and to keep a tight hold of it.  And to throw out the rest.

 

What is in our heart matters, because it is the source of all life.  Proverbs instructs us,

"Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts."

[Proverbs 4:23 MSG]
 

And David prayed,

"Surely you desire truth in the inner parts [...] Create in me a pure heart, O God."

[Psalm 51:6,10 NIV] 

  

Whist I can't yet afford to furnish my whole flat with Cath Kidston's beautiful and useful products, I can choose to furnish my whole heart with that which is both beautiful and useful.