Beauty isn’t all about just nice loveliness. Beauty is about more rounded, substantial becoming. So I think beauty, in that sense, is about an emerging fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth, and also a kind of homecoming for the enriched memory of your unfolding life. (John O’Donohue)
This evening marks the Eve, or beginning, of The Feast of The Transfiguration – when Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and together they went to a mountaintop, where Jesus was transfigured (his divine nature was revealed) before the disciples. (See Luke 9:28-36.) It’s one of my favorite feasts — because it’s all about getting a glimpse of that which truly is — about an emerging fullness, a substantial becoming.
This summer the dog and I have been visiting Crescent Beach a lot — for walks, swims, painting sessions. And when I did this I thought about how the water and rocks shape one another, that there’s a conversation between them. Their substantial becoming are beautiful and transfiguring to me in just the way O’Donohue suggests.
May you find your life open to transfiguration, too.
Lael
