Bits of Beauty

The ice frozen on the remains of the vine I grew this past summer on the side of my house was gorgeous this weekend. I almost missed this bit of beauty. But I ran to the grocery Sunday afternoon and when I hopped in the car there it was, just waiting to be discovered. It was just around the corner, literally, and it could have disappeared before I got to appreciate it.

It made me wonder how many things like this I have missed. How much have I not noticed, skipped over, or been in too much of a hurry to perceive? The list might well be lengthy.

For the last few years the message has repeatedly come to me that I need more beauty in my life. Here was beauty brought to me and I almost overlooked it. I must learn to peek around the corners.

Vardoger

A friend told me tonight that I'm a vardoger.

I had to look that up, to see what it was.

The wiki says:
The vardøger or vardøgr is a spirit predecessor, from Norwegian folklore. Stories typically include instances that are nearly déjà vu in substance, but in reverse, where a spirit with the subject's footsteps, voice, scent, or appearance and overall demeanor precedes them in a location or activity, resulting in witnesses believing they've seen or heard the actual person, before the person physically arrives. This bears a subtle difference from a doppelgänger, with a less sinister connotation. It has been likened to being a phantom double, or form of bilocation.

The word vardøger is a Norwegian term defined as "a premonitory sound or sight of a person before he arrives." In Finnish Lapland the concept is known as etiäinen.

Needless to say, this is a fascinating thing to think about. A concept I wasn't even familiar with that has been applied to me. Although, I must confess, if I'm a vardoger I don't know it.

But this certainly reminds me why I like to have conversation with really smart people.