oh, that face!

A physical tingling sensation is triggered when we catch a glimpse of beauty. Like a moth to a lamp, we are pulled into its presence with a warm sense of illumination garnered quickly inside our bodies.  Swiftly,  layers of negativity peel away from our thoughts and feelings, sometimes leaving us with only an "Ah" left in our speech.  Time flees. Word descriptors disappear.  Movement stops.  Our gaze tunes in.   The world as we know it is neglected as our focus gravitates fully on the landscape rendered beautiful by our switched on souls.   

Reaction to the presence of beauty is both visceral and spiritual, generating from the core of our being. Our  holy light bulb flickers as we register this closeness to ineffability.  It transforms ordinary into mystical.  Even for one slip of a moment, when we recognize the inner light of beauty, our breathing alters as we enter into the emotional realm of love.  All beauty is a slice of feeling love.  Actually, the more i think about it, the more I believe that when we recognize beauty in our lives, we are responding to the yearning to love, and be loved, but also to feel that innermost desire to belong.  We belong to the beauty of this world.

This reaction occurs as often as we allow ourselves to be aware of our surroundings, but it seems to me that it is the most profound when we recognize the beauty of the human face.   John O'Donohue describes in his book, Beauty, The Invisible Embrace (my copy is the most dog-eared worn book I own because I tend to "jump" into its pages on a daily basis), the attractiveness of the human face begins with the symmetry of it.  However, no face is perfectly balanced.  This is what makes our individual faces so unique. 

In his book, Father O'Donohue writes.............

"Ultimately, it is the soul that makes the face beautiful.  Each face is its own landscape and is quietly vibrant with the invisible textures of memory, story, dream, need, want and gift that make up the beauty of the individual life. This is also the grace that love brings into one's life.  As the soul can render the face luminous so too can love turn up the hidden light within a person's life.  Love changes the way we see ourselves and others.  We feel beautiful when we are loved, and to evoke an awareness of beauty in another is to give them a precious gift they will never lose.  When we say from our heart to someone:  'You are beautiful', it is more than a statement or platitude, it is a recognition and invocation of the dignity, grandeur and grace of their spirit."

Imperfect beautifully

Non symmetrical originality

Soul lit harmoniously

Eye-peeling sparkly

Ordinary in the extraordinary

Life marked graciously

Lovely, lovely faces...... radiating strongly.

The most profoundly moving comment said to me over the past couple of months is......... "You are so beautiful...... You have no idea how beautiful you are........."  Of course, I turned around to see if anyone was behind me!  He couldn't have meant ME!  He must've been commenting on someone else!!!  hahaha!   ME?  Beautiful??  Wow, he must be drinking something pretty hallucinatory!   I graciously thanked him but I'm sure my eyes communicated my real feelings......... skepticism.........!

  Why is it that we are so remiss in seeing our own beauty.....at seeing ourselves as beautiful?  We see in it others so easily.   On the 3rd anniversary day of the death of a man whose poetry, presence and prose.....whose spiritual philosophy he embraced with his heart and soul....... who has taught me to consciously tune into the channel beautiful with my gaze, with the way I live my life............  

On the 3rd anniversary of John O'Donohue's passing,  I want make a declaration (and welcome you to as well).  I want to declare that I will not only continue to see and seek the beauty all around me........ in the faces, in the landscapes, in the secret places it dwells......... I will learn to see it in me too.  Luminous!   As it states on my blog header..... "May you expericence this day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder," I want to strive for just that!   

Each day is sacred.  Each day allows us to visit and revisit wonderment and beauty.  If we choose to.  If we choose to make our gaze align with this goal.......  Maybe 2011 will be the year to begin to recognize the sacred gift a day is..... Maybe at the end of each day, wouldn't it be a good thing to do to simply stop to ask yourself.....  What did I gaze upon, feel, inhale, experience TODAY that was beautiful?  How do I see this day as a sacred gift?  What made that happen???

One day, I will meet him in a pub in Heaven perhaps?  In the meantime,  I hope he knows anyways just how much of an impact he has made in my life.  Father O? The flaming light of your spirit glows and grows ....  Thank you. 

Self portrait pictures of my beautiful radiant daughter.