RESUSCITATORS OF BEAUTY
I glance over in the middle of the movie because somehow, I know his eyes, like mine, will be filled with tears. This is the same man who met me at the gate this evening with blood stains on his forehead—in the midst of slaying dragons all day, both invisible and those taking human form, my knight stooped down to scoop up his keys and sliced his head on his office door—
Six staples in his hairline without any drugs and still, the sweetness of our favorite scene makes him cry.
This is not a story about a husband, although I could write about him for years.
Instead, this is a story about the preservation of beauty in every circumstance.
…and not only its preservation, but magnification when juxtaposed to something seemingly so “other.” For me, that’s the definition of Sanctuary at its best.
Over the years I have seen my share of dust and decay. Abandoned spaces. Forgotten. Boarded up. There is nearly always this sadness of something lost, lingering there.
Yet, if I am anything, I am the redeemer of dreams.
And picturing what can be, even when surrounded by all the mess, accesses this part of me that feels a bit divine—
Experience teaches that resurrecting dreams is the work of the hands—
the peeling away of years of decay,
the gritty scrubbing of muck and grime,
the tearing down, and building up, re-purposing and rearranging.
Our sanctuaries are microcosms of an imperfect world, a place where marvelous and messy coexist.
In design, the most powerful visual statements juxtapose elements that seemingly don’t belong together—Old and New. Bold with Serene. Dark and Light. There is something mysterious in the pairing, a “Third Element” that reveals an inexplicable brand of beauty that is difficult to define. But the heart knows and it yearns to linger there.
This is the season of the Third Element—wounds and wonder, confounding and complex. Layers scrapped away with bloodied nail until something not new, but rather intrinsic, is exposed. Beneath the dust and clutter, beyond the day-in-and-day-out, we are rediscovering a beauty that is more experienced than seen… and we are beginning to recognize it even in ourselves.