Living Tree Poetry

“Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person we can contribute nothing to him.  One does not help a person by discerning was is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted.  Christ looked at everyone he met… and saw the beauty hidden there.  Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what he did was call out this beauty.”
Anthony Bloom

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.”
Hafiz

“So will the king greatly desire thy beauty for he is your Lord.”
Psalm 45:11

My Prayer today is for vision.  I write this in the gathering dusk.  The blind partly transparent, so that through the strands of thread I perceive a pale blue sky, framed by clouds tinged pink by the setting sun.  I notice that if I draw my focus in, I only see the blinds, grey and dominant in my sight, but if I extend my vision the veil falls away and the clouds and the sky take my attention.  It all depends on how deeply I choose to look.  And the darker the room becomes around me, the clearer the pink and blue sky shines through.  Hafiz says ‘I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being’.  A beautiful quote on first reflection, but when you think of it, without darkness light would not be so apparent, and the darker the contrast the greater the light.  We all have our flaws, our drawbacks that cause people to resist us.  We can all be unapproachable and unappealing, with blinds clearly drawn (often for our own protection), AND YET there is always beauty for those who look.  Always. As astounding as the beauty that beckons to me right now, as I lift my eyes, clouds now burnished a deep golden rose, and the blue sky cleared to extend to each edge of my vision.  There is a universe within each of us.  Marvelous beyond comprehension.  Today I pray that the blinds across our vision would fall away and we would see people as they truly are, calling out their goodness, and the beauty at their essence.