What beauty

After writing 'On Grace' I listened to a conversation between Caroline Ross and Dougald Hine called, 'Taking Beauty Seriously'. There was so much that I appreciated in here that I will return again. However what stands out in this moment was the way I heard beauty being spoken about as a saving grace.

Caroline,

"I've been at the point of wanting to die because of events. And it is always beauty that brought me back. Sometimes that beauty can be called relationship. Sometimes that beauty can be called red rock or daisy or sea beet in my case. But always beauty brings me back."

Dougald,

"Years later, I realised that we'd (himself and Paul Kingsnorth as the Dark Mountain project) instinctively or intuitively grabbed for art as necessary if you're going to create a space where you invite people to step into the dark.

And it's the same thing you just said. It's having enough beauty to be able to stay with the dark for long enough that your eyes might begin to adjust, that you might begin to see things differently."

I'm resting now in a moment of thanks for all the ways in which my mind, body and spirit have been able to see, hear, touch and feel the beauty in this world. So that there could be a storehouse, a repository, of beauty, of grace; deep enough, and profound enough to hold me steady in the darkest of territory.

So that during those times of very rock bottom, something inside, something outside, something inside and outside, could light up at the same time to draw me back towards life.