Journal of Sacred Work

Today's meditation was written by Cathy Self, Senior Vice-President for the Baptist Healing Trust.

     The thoughts shared and explored this week open the possibility of recognition of beauty in the singular act, the solitary figure, the lone caregiver. So many individual acts of courage and love are expressed day in and day out in the hallways and rooms of charities around the world. But most remain hidden, perhaps lost in the vastness of the many like the thousands of shells crowded onto the sands.

     The words of Anne Morrow Lindbergh drew me back in again this week as I reflected on how easily we cannot "see" the one hidden in plain view because, like the color-dripped, singular shell, it has become lost in the crowd. Lindbergh's thoughts focus on gifts from the sea, sometimes broken, often overlooked, but treasures nonetheless. In her desire to collect them all, the author recognizes the beauty of setting the one special one apart, ringed by space:

 "For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. Only in space are events and objects and people unique and significant – and therefore beautiful. A tree has significance if one sees it against the empty face of sky. A note in music gains significance from the silences on either side. A candle flowers in the space of night. Even small and casual things take on significance if they are washed in space, like a few autumn grasses in one corner of an Oriental painting, the rest of the page bare."

     We of course understand that beauty and significance are not dependent on being set apart, and maybe space simply helps focus our attention. The pages of this journal seem to create that space, surrounding and focusing on the one moment, the one encounter that meets need with Love. Much like in her pages as Lindbergh frames her thoughts, this place gives us time and space "to be quiet…to think…to see friends…to talk, [and] even to not talk…space for significance and beauty." She speaks of wanting to remember to "see with island eyes" looking for that one shell, setting it apart to appreciate its beauty and significance.  Perhaps our call is to remember to always, only see with eyes of Love. Our world is full of treasures, and we must not let one go by unnoticed. As you look in the hallways and rooms of your place of giving care, what treasures do you find? How will you set them apart so they will know of their own significance and beauty?