check the verses, free the masses

"The appearance of things change according to (our) emotions and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves." -Kahlil Gilbran.


Rob and I take drives through the country side once every few weeks, when we are ready to step outside of city life, see things with a different lens. He will drive, snaking his way through back country roads, neither of us knowing where we will turn next. After all, it's not stop signs we're looking for ... its the experience along the way.

Last Sunday, I found an angel. An angel that when photographed, lost all detail within its own details.




At first, I saw the angel. I saw the speckled tone, the curve of the figure. And I saw the lighting. The way the bars of the graveyard gate cast shadows across her body, reminders of how even purity needs contrasting boundaries to define itself.




And then there was the delicate features, the sharp cut, the strength in the silence. And with this I began to feel the overwhelming fragility of life, in a lifeless form.



And as I went even closer, I realized how from another position, my perspective changed. How a figure with head bowed, no longer seemed so muted as when my eye could see the intricacy of its form.







And I reveled in the beauty of this object. The beauty that comes from an absence of emotion and an outpouring of pure feeling. And it was a form of worship, my healing, the practice of spirituality ... not tainted by the doctrine of religion.









Even more beautiful ... was the beauty I found in me. When I realized (only days later) amidst all of my revelations that day, none involved the absence of my angel's arms. EVEN WHEN, I was staring right at them ...