Moving Forward: The Beauty Within

Lisa Allgood, Executive Presbyter

“Your beauty… Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God’s sight.”                                  – 1 Peter 3:4    

One of my favorite artists does a woodblock painting with a saying over it (and a secret prayer under the many layers of paint) – it’s called a “whisper”. I have several and have given away many as gifts. One came back to me after a dear friend passed away – part of it became the title of her last book.  But that’s a story for a different day.

The whisper that sits on my desk at home is about rocks.  Yes, stones.  And crystals. And shells from the shore.  And even feathers sometimes.  It reads: “A day filled with finding stones that are shiny with magic & even if no one else believes, it’s one of those things she loves best about the world”.

Yup, I’m part hippie too. Especially when it comes to hearts.

Many of you have seen the photos in my office of heart-shaped nature.  Many of you have heard the story about the heart rocks we used to make the girls (my daughter and step daughter) find while hiking, to help them forget how bored they were.  I have over a hundred, and still find (and collect) them today; they often feel like a God whisper just to me.  So on my desk near that whisper is a shell that looks like an angel wing, some teeny tiny coins found in Israel, stones shiny with magic (one given to me by my grand-ish son at his 1-year birthday party), and the crystal pictured below.

I bought this while wandering through a cute town on Long Island right after my daughter moved there – we were exploring her new “place”.  She remarked that it reminded her of a broken heart, and I said I thought it showed that sometimes we do have to be broken open to find the beauty inside – that crystals grow inside the rock, rarely outside. And that takes time.  And it takes growth.  And I think it gives wisdom.

So a reminder to you that there is beauty within – even in the hardest places – but it may take time, and some brokenness, to let it be seen.

Wishing you wellness and wonder as we enter fall…