nothing is more powerful than beauty in a wicked world… – Amos Lee

29 Jun 2016

nothing is more powerful than beauty in a wicked world… – Amos Lee

I asked the earth, I asked the sea and the deeps, among the living animals, and things that creep. I asked the winds that blow, I asked the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and to all things that stand at the doors of my flesh…My question was the gaze I turned to them. Their answer was their beauty.

– St Augustine

Lovers find secret places inside this violent world
Where they make transactions with beauty. – Rumi

Close your eyes.
Fall in love.
Stay there.
– Rumi

We live, shields up,
prepared for battle,
expecting war.
We harden ourselves,
with the best of intentions.
Our best defense is protective prevarication.
Our best offense is distracting laughter.
Violence becomes a way of life.
Tenderness becomes a thing we try to remove from our children
as early as possible.
We think we know this –
if we can control the carnage,
if we don’t allow our weaknesses to drag behind us
like toilet paper stuck to our shoe,
No vulnerabilities allowed to peak out like saggy undergarments.
No imperfections leaking out of our ears or fingertips,
we’ll win.
We got this.
We set life up without possibility of change,
without allowing any new circumstances to come to us…

then love comes
with it’s un-understandable mystery
and finds us not ready.
Who could ever be ready for this?
then we seek places,
benches, beaches, back seats…
places to share with the other.
unexpected moments of joy and connection
find us at newly found secret spots
where shields are lowered,
vulnerability given,
tenderness ruthlessly
invades the moment
and beauty is transacted.
soul’s mingle,
hands touch.
Life gets messy and wet.
Car windows steam up on drizzly mornings
as love comes peeking through
working to melt stony hearts,
to return us to joyful living
these are the moments life was made for,
two souls torn from the same clay,
loving each other for a million years and more,
suddenly find each other within the same moment,
and it takes our breath away.