“Your beauty scared him,” lisped the child.

Thank Heaven for beauty.

Here.

In this in-between place.

Where we paddle through

Leagues of darkness

Pushing back hard

Going toward

That light

That beauty

That starts

Like a wink

A wink from Papa

Just starting

On the other side

Of that thick grey line.

It says, “Keep paddling.

You’re almost home.”

And at the wink all the edges blush

And the stars modestly retreat

And the fields open gracious arms,

As Lucy Maud would say,

To greet the beauty.

The true beauty, you understand,

Not what social norms proliferate,

Not that insatiable something that you can’t make your own,

On a good day even.

Not that unreachable pot of gold,

That makes you weary

Trying.

Always trying.

Not that beauty.

 

It’s this beauty.

This beauty that scares him,

That makes him flee

Like all the dark when the great cosmic wink

Lights up all around.

 

I needed this beauty. Now.

This knowing that the earth turns back toward the Light.

That the endless paddling

Brings me to a soft shore

Where I can rest.

I needed this.

This wink that says,

“You can do this,

This now.

See Me,

Everywhere,

Now.”

 

So I gather the beauty like wildflowers,

Fingerprints left behind from Creation,

Snapshots from heaven,

Maybe just the edges of heaven,

But still,

I gather beauty

Because Your beauty scares him

And I watch the darkness

Flee.