Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking…and waiting to write a letter that would add something meaningful to the conversation. As an introvert, I tend to observe before joining in…and the words are forming with the grace of mystics and poets who continue to whisper across time and space.

This week, I keep hearing the words of Rainer Maria Rilke in my head:

“But because truly being here is so much; because everything here apparently needs us, this fleeting world, which in some strange way keeps calling to us.”

So here we find ourselves in the midst of “so much.”

Many people are tired and want to know when this will be over and when life will return to normal and if the vaccine will be enough and if we will be wearing masks for years and if we will ever be able to (or want to) gather again and if we’ll see loved ones again and if if if…No one “knows” and I am extremely wary of anyone who claims to know the truth about what’s really going on. In any case, the desire for certainty and TRUTH is strong.

Keats said:

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

John O’Donohue continues the conversation in his book, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace:

“There is a relentless search for the factual and this quest often lacks warmth or reverence. At a certain stage in our life we may wake up to the urgency of life, how short it is. Then the quest for truth becomes the ultimate project. We can often forage for years in the empty fields of self-analysis and self-improvement and sacrifice much of our real substance for specks of cold, lonesome factual truth. The wisdom of the tradition reminds us that if we choose to journey the path of truth, it then becomes a sacred duty to walk hand in hand with beauty.”

TRUTH is not just the cold hard facts, but also the warm embrace of beauty. So may you melt into an embrace - the arms of a loved one, the song of birds, the blue sky, the green earth, the soft pillows and blankets of your bed, the sweet silence. And may you let that simply be enough. For now. For the love of truth and beauty, both. Then may you rise to your sacred work, radiant of purpose and pure in service.