The Irish poet, Galway Kinnell, describes Francis as “re-teaching things their loveliness.” In his poem “St. Francis and the Sow,” Francis tells a big female pig, through words and touch and blessing, that she is indeed beautiful—she just can’t see it—and most of us cannot see it.
We all have to be mirrors like this, not just for nature, but for one another—and especially for those who cannot see the bud of possibility within them, those who hate themselves, those who’ve been abused, those who’ve been imprisoned, those who think they are no good, those who’ve been discriminated against.
Those are the ones that we have to mirror like Francis mirrored the sow. We, also, must reteach all things their loveliness.Richard Rohr
My blogger friend, Karen Walrond over at Chookooloonks has a new book coming out--The Beauty of Different: Observations of a Confident Misfit.
You can go to Amazon.com now and get yourself a copy.
I think HoneyBoy already knows that he is beautiful...and different...and lovely.
Have a lovely Love Thursday.
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3 comments:
It's that confidence in their own beauty and worth that cats have to teach us. Off to check out the new book.
And this is why creating community is so important (and having cats, too).
Thanks!
So difficult to do, when presented with what appears to be evil--to see beauty, to see "the bud of possibility within them, those who hate themselves, those who’ve been abused, those who’ve been imprisoned, those who think they are no good, those who’ve been discriminated against."
Yet this is the pathway to peace, perhaps the only pathway. I think of men who do evil in the name of unconscionable greed and power, men who even now are killing some of us with their demand for laws that give them carte blanche to poison us, names many of us recognize easily, and I wonder, can I see beauty in these people, dare I search for a gentle heart to reflect from my own soul?
And again, is this perhaps the only path to peace?
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