Do you think of yourself as "beautiful?" I'm not speaking of the genes that shaped your physiognomy or the ones that determined the body shape of the sculpture model in the photo (startling as her image may be for the Journal.)

   In The Enneads (quoted by Angeles Arien) the third century philosopher Plotinus wrote "…if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smooths there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work." (emphasis added.)

   Each day, we smooth and cut and adjust the lines of our soul. Or, perhaps, we rough-cut. Maybe, we are simply "cut" by the impact of our world and how daily events carve us. 

   When we adopted the role of professional caregiver, how did this affect Beauty across our careers?

   As a mother or father or friend, how has your beauty touched the way you cared for your children? How is your heart shaped by the way you look after your mother or father or friends or lover?

   I am asking you about the actions you consciously chose. I want to know if you elected Love as your driving energy or whether your scalpel has been driven by Fear? 

   It's so hard to understand how our decisions are driven by conscious choice and how much of us is driven by some for-ordained destiny. 

   If we can change our lives, perhaps it is most clearly by the way we carve away the stone to find the beautiful soul that lies sure and clear and true within each of us.

   We are, by nature, beautiful souls. Love lives strong within us.

   Tragically, rapacious self-interest stinks there as well. Circling like a shark, ego grabs so many of our intentions by the throat and turns them poisonous.

  This is not to over-dramatize our nature. It is to recognize that, as children of God, we are carriers of Beauty. 

   I believe that conscious choice can release this Beauty. With loving intention and courageous acts, we can shape our hearts to receive beauty. Or we can let fear (including fear of art) block God's nurturing hand.

   It is apathy and disdain that wither our soul's garden. It is Love that frees.

   Love.

-Erie Chapman

Photograph: Sculpture in Photograph – copyright Erie Chapman 2012