"…as we begin to recognize…beauty, we become more beautiful ourselves." – Plotinus
When Laura Hillenbrand met Louis Zamperini (left) the hero of her book, Unbroken, she first studied his hands. There were the scars from a bird that pecked at him while he struggled to survive at sea & the mark where his wedding ring caught in the wreckage of his downed plane.
Through those scars Hillebrand connected with the truth & beauty of Zamperini's suffering & survival. Perhaps she believes, as did Simone Signoret, that "individual courage is the only interesting thing in life " and its own ladder to Love.
We seek Beauty – often through fairy tales or in magic. But, she is always near. She lives in your mirror & in every patient you see.
Does your soul seem enigmatic because you imagine it will materialize for examination? Plotinus wrote in the Ennead that "…because it has no size, the Soul's nature…contains the whole cosmic body in one and the same grasp."
We enter our beauty's mystery by conversing with love at the deepest level. How do you talk with your scars? Which of your truths are too painful to touch? How do you experience a dying rose?
Conversely, how do you befriend your most beautiful encounters? Each happened because you brought your best self to those engagements. Bring that self to each new encounter.
Your scars begin to heal when you face them. Your heart strengthens when your pain allows you to ease another's.
Deep encounters happen only through radical persistence – rare because most of us sip only life's surface. Zamparini met torture with superhuman courage & survived to savor Beauty. Hillenbrand herself summoned uncommon strength to outlast Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Beauty is Love's finest prize. Every time you find her you become more beautiful.
Invite your best self to every encounter: with friends or enemies, with sun or amid storms, and Beauty will always appear.
-Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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