The Power of Beauty

Rev. Jeffrey Symynkywicz, October 12, 2003

Beauty is not (always) an effete creation,
dainty painting of delicate flowers.
Sometimes, it is born in power,
in pain,
even in ugliness.
Is there anything more beautiful
(in a profound and moving sense)
than a storm cloud, dark and brooding,
ready to usher forth in majesty?

A terrible beauty is born (a real poet said),
and we stand terrified by the beauty
that is in us,
in everything, in all,
because it makes us have to rearrange
the comfortable but threadbare furniture
of our days
and get on with living.

But the Spirit that unites us all—
bird and beast and human ones—
rocks and trees and mountains and storm clouds—
is One,
and indivisible,
inseparable from the beauty in all that is.

It’s a question of seeing,
and knowing it’s there;
of our being still,
and listening for it;
it’s not a matter of finding it
after long and arduous journeying,
or unraveling every mystery.

But rather, it’s a matter
of letting the Spirit find us;
and of letting the beauty speak
to our newly opening hearts.

jbs
10/30/98 - 10/12/03

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