Nurturing Beauty is our theme for May. I find this a wide-open exercise, with the potential to deepen meaning in our lives. First, though, we must understand beauty as more than something pretty to look at. Beauty is something that captures our senses and opens us to a new awareness.

This new month opens as we emerge from the intersection of major religious observances in the Jewish, Muslim and Christian traditions. The faithful in these traditions have reflected on principal stories that inform their understanding of what it means to live ethically within the bonds of their religion. Around the world many have held hope that the power of this convergence, the first in 33 years, would “remind people,” as one spokesperson for Germany’s Coordination Council of Muslims explained, “that we are all siblings in humanity and must work together for good.”

I have expressed often during the last two years that we are living in liminal time. There is a sense now that we are coming back together, and yet, it is not the same. We are living with adjustments to changes that will continue to influence our perceptions and our decisions. Some of these changes affect us in very personal ways, such as our concerns for our own health, or new insights about our highest priorities in life. Some changes are global and challenge our previous understanding of what it meant to live a normal life in society.

There is much uncertainty about our future, as a people, as a country, as a world. Nurturing Beauty is an invitation to focus on what we have within our own realm that may offer grounding and direction for our future.

Our Soul Matters Theme Circle will be reflecting on Nurturing Beauty and these words of introduction to the Theme.

Welcome to Nurturing Beauty

Beauty.
We appreciate it.
How could we not?
We wonder at it.
Get absorbed in it.
Analyze it, if it’s got a frame around it.

We make it. Grow it. Point at it. Collect it. Share it. Save it.

But how often do we listen to it?

How often do we ask, “What is it trying to get me to hear?” Rather than, “Do I like it or not?”

It’s just so hard to step outside
our mangled view of the world
that sees everything in the light of consumption. Not everything is here for our possession.
Not everything is here to entertain us.
Not everything is meant to be put to use, even you.

We must find our way back,
to those questions that were once alive
but now are buried deep:
“What if beauty is here to make us wise?” “What if beauty is the way the sacred speaks?”

Yes! Yes! It does so much more than decorate. It demands. It calls. It asks for commitment.
It doesn’t just say “Love and appreciate me.”
It says “Protect me! Fight for me!”

It steps out in front of us and points to a precious world that needs our help.
It paints a picture of new ways of living
and declares, “Follow me there!”

It says, “Even in hell holes I find a way to grow.”
It sings, “This world was made for more than work.”
It whispers, “Use me to heal.”
It pleads, “Nurture a new relationship with me. One that allows me to talk!”

So, what is it saying to you?

In love and hope,
Rev. Alice