Our endurance of hard times can depend on moments of beauty or inspiration. These are often very small features of a day, barely noticeable to anyone outside our frame of reference. Where might you look for such things in the ‘everyday’?
The Apostle Paul endured a great many hardships - and seemed energetic and determined in spite of them. In a reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 20 , he speaks to the elders of a new church in Ephesus about all the trials and persecutions he has suffered, and how he continues regardless:
“And now, as a captive of the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me”
Surely, in order to endure such trials he must have found moments of consolation, encouragement or beauty in order to get through. Was this found in the Holy Spirit? If so, how?
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Reflect on any time of hardship you have gone through. What were the consolations which helped you through? Perhaps a person, a place or an activity. Remember and give thanks for them.
The natural world and our “ordinary” lives offer many metaphors or symbols for getting through difficult times.
The following poem was written by Jacky Stride a few years ago in late Autumn. It is a response to a moment when she spotted a simple thing of beauty wandering along a grey path under grey skies and an experience later that day when she listened to two women who had endured many hardships:
Beauty in the Hard Places
I saw a flash of gold
on the hard , grey path.
A buttercup, holding on to summer,
vulnerable to heavy feet.
Beauty in the hard place.
I listened to two women
telling their stories of hearing
and following the call of God.
Offering their lives in willing service.
Beauty in the hard places.
Our bodies connect to all things,
of this world and beyond.
We must listen to that deep
place of knowing in our gut,
to find beauty in the hard place.
Trust the call which comes
from your connection to everything,
or risk missing the golden glow
of the buttercup on the grey path.
Beauty in the hard place.
Pause and reflect: do you find it easy to know that you are connected to everything?
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The Examen is an ancient Spiritual Practice that invites us to review each day at its close. It is a simple concept: we sit at the end of a set period of time and recall the moments of Consolation, of gratitude or when God’s presence was particularly felt; and / or moments of Desolation, difficulty or a sense of being cut off from God. We wonder what they say to us.
It can be done creatively. For example, you might use a selection of stones, some of which stand out in colour or texture. Handle them and come across those that are arresting. Beautiful, shiny stones or any that stand out for some reason might represent aspects of your day or your experience which were hidden among the “ordinariness” and could have been forgotten.
Depending on our circumstances, we may find it quite easy to find gold in the routine. Equally, it might be very difficult.
It can be even more difficult to see the gold when considering others’ pain. At the moment, something approaching war is happening again between Israel and Palestine: a conflict that seems to offer no glimpses of consolation.
Let’s remember even in our anxiety and despair to pray: prayers to help these and others who suffer to look for, notice and remember the beauty they see in hard places.
You may be interested in reading works by Victor Frankl, or reading about him. He is best known for communicating about a wholehearted appreciation of beauty in even the most brutal and hopeless circumstances.