A geode is a small pocket in a rock which is filled with beautiful gems or some other minerals. It is the hidden beauty beneath a standard rock outside. They are beautiful and similar in many ways to life. How often have we gone 'exploring' and happened upon a treasure unseen before. Perhaps it was the angle of the sun or simply the glistening of the dew on the grass in early morning hours. Perhaps it is simply the joy of breathing deeply of the fresh air in the trail you chose - and without cell service either!
A geode looks like a rock. Yes, there are signs, but most people happen upon them by serendipity unless they are professional rock mavens or talented amateurs. I have had that exciting privilege to happen across a rock which I noticed for no reason in particular. Picking it up, my amateur rock expert friend examined it and told me she thinks it is a geode. Okay, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and I had a geologist split it and lo and behold - beauty where there had been none before.
Therein was my hidden error, not a thing of beauty as we define it but rather a forgetting, an ignoring or taking for granted of the beauty to be found in our daily lives, in simple things and experiences. Beauty does not need to wait until an extraordinary something or other crosses our path. Perhaps it took lo these many a year to understand the truth of the maxim: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It matters not what others think, only your eye. Of course, I am referring to items or deeds within the boundary of sanity and legality, not a twisted false beauty arising from violence and hate.
Recently I came across an article written about breaching of walls, the negative side of it yet also the good which can arise from that action. Perhaps there is contained within some beauty, albeit nontraditional. Think about it. What, for example, might arise from that breaching, which otherwise might never have happened. Something of beauty. The breaching of the Berlin Wall, literally brick by brick, is one such time.
At times walls must come down for walls inevitably send out negative vibes. Why must we wall something in or out? Why do we put up walls in our private lives? Is it a form of protection or an act of deflection?
What is the purpose and reality of that wall, the geode of life which can be breached - with care and proper opportunity. The beauty of the courage of concentration camp inmates and other prisoner camps, to rebel, to escape, to destroy the ugly places of hate, that is a beauty which we wish had never any cause to exist. Or beauty can be found in the inspiration, the faith, in the face of the ugliness of humanity, as liberated prisoners gathered together in religious service.
When a wall of oppression and hate is breached, a possibility of beauty arises, even if it takes time for its actualization. First steps into freedom, followed by second steps, followed by an understanding that beauty can be found in a normal life, rather than in unnecessary, even frantic, desperate, seek and search activity for geodes, real and symbolic.
Yes, there are times we must find those geodes, to remind us that we can, together, bring beauty to the world, even where its existence is challenged. Together it can be achieved. Not easy, but then again nothing worth having comes easily.
Do we, will we, choose the togetherness of beauty, of cooperation, of positive goals and aims or do we fall prey to those who preach negativity and togetherness in ugliness.
Only we can choose. Let us all make the right choice. Let us all live in the beauty of life, even with its struggles rather than immerse ourselves in the ugliness of hatred, greed, and evil.
Together. Together. Together.
Together we can
HEAL THE WORLD.
HEAL YITZY!
Yitzchak Elimelech ben Chana Sarah
May he be granted refuah shelaymah bimheyrah beyameinu.
AMEN, AMEN.
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