to be beautiful (pour etre belle)…
Its hard waiting for the shoe to drop, the doctor’s
diagnosis, the child’s secret that bleeds you dry.
These things are but ripples from the skipping
stone that says you must suffer to be beautiful.
If you do believe God is a moth that eats away
all that is dear to us then you have to be very
brave in the waiting or you’ll earn a heart
of stone, polished but not entirely beautiful.
*Il faut souffrir pour être belle – ‘you must suffer in order to be beautiful’
Oh my, John. What a perfect image for a certain way of thinking about God – ‘a moth that eats away all that is dear to us…’ You have put into one line what far too many theologians have tried – and often failed – to do in thousands. Thank you.
Thanks, Diana…I can’t take credit for that line as it comes from Ps 39.11…but it has haunted me since I first came across it in the BOCP.
John, as a parent who’s seen my fair share of doctors waiting rooms, this poem has never been far from my mind in the last couple of months. Thanks for writing it; it’s a great reminder to keep that flesh heart beating.
You’re welcome, Paul…in the deepest sense of the phrase, ‘hang in there’…