Wresting Beauty from the Darkness

Putting yourself in another's shoes can be hard on the soul. Since my post yesterday on Fallujah/Sudan, graphic images on the news and deeply disturbing reports all over the internet about these and so many other situations, I've felt my inner being dragged down into the dark and cold of a place without hope.

I'm lucky in that this place exists only in my head - I'm not living it. In fact I'm living a peaceful dream compared to many! I can afford to take delight in sudden rain after days of heat, in a small vocal bird singing joyfully in the birdbath at lunchtime, in the scent of moist earth seeping through my office window. If I want to go outside I can do so in safety, I have food in my cupboards and in my belly, and my health is pretty good. I can even afford to carry excess fat, having had more than enough to eat in recent months and years. I'm not starving, or thirsty, or cowering in fear.

And yet today my soul seeks beauty to balance the ugliness. I want to grab images of peace and serenity and let them soak deep into me - listen to wind and birdsong and let it banish the echoes of sorrow. I want to sit and bask in the shadow of my mountains, feel the cool green grass between my toes.

In the last few hours of this day, I'm going to refocus on the good and the lovely. Wash my hands of the grime and the ash. Throw off the soul-dragging hurt for others less fortunate than myself.

No, I will not forget them.

But for my soul's sake, it's time to immerse myself in the lovely.