For seeing the ultimate beauties
of a work,
no knowledge or good will is sufficient;
this requires the rarest of lucky accidents:

The clouds that veil these peaks
have to lift for once
so that we see them glowing in the sun.

Not only do we have to stand
in precisely the right spot in order to see this,
but the unveiling must have been accomplished by our own soul
because it needed some external expression and parable,
as if it were a matter of having something to hold on to
and retain control of itself.

But it is so rare
for all of this to coincide that
I am inclined to believe that the highest peaks of everything good,
whether it be a work,
   a deed,
      humanity,
         or nature,
have so far remained concealed
and veiled from the great majority
and even from the best human beings.
But what does unveil itself for us,
unveils itself for us
once only.

The Greeks, to be sure, prayed:
“Everything beautiful twice and even three times!”
They implored the gods with good reason,
for ungodly reality
gives us the beautiful either not at all
or once only.

I mean to say that the world is overfull
of beautiful things but nevertheless poor,
very poor when it comes to beautiful moments
and unveilings of these things.

But perhaps this is the most powerful magic of life:
it is covered by a veil
interwoven with gold, a veil of beautiful possibilities,
sparkling with promise, resistance, bashfulness, mockery, pity, and seduction.

Yes, life is a woman.

–excerpt The Gay Science, Book 4, Section 339 by Friedrich Nietzsche

What a unique assessment of life.  I have voiced my overview of “life” from time to time.  I suppose that we all do.  A retrospective experience of my own life has never resulted in words as provocative, as fruitful, as to-the-point as these…

How much of life comes down to “dumb luck,” just the right timing, “being there” when an awe inspiring event occurred?  And then there’s misfortune.  The ill timed set of circumstances that you cannot outrun, or from which one cannot hide. 

Nietzsche notes the surplus of beauty in the world, that is unappreciated, unrecognized.  He writes how the soul comes prepared, a need of the soul is met, finding “something to hold on to” when by serendipity it is in the right place at the right time. 

The photo was captured by a family member a few minutes ago.  A fallen tree lay over the narrow forest path leading to Lake Michigan.  Following the path under the fallen tree, a hawk is encountered perched on the tree.  Having just killed a squirrel, the raptor looks into the lens of the camera.