I see you

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I looked at pictures today that were not my own.  They were pictures of beautiful people in beautiful places doing beautiful things.  The world seems to have so much to offer.  I thought about it again.  The times I have felt the most satisfied in life had little to do with the beauty around me.  The times I was touched the deepest involved no physical touch at all.  

A few years ago, a dear friend whom I would give a lift home once in a while listened to me patiently as I told him one afternoon about how I was feeling inside.  He said nothing that afternoon, but the next time he saw me, he told me he had a present for me.  He unfolded a butterfly made of paper, and he said to me, once you were a caterpillar (referring to the way I had described my feelings in our previous conversation) but you have now transformed into a beautiful butterfly!  

The things that the eye can't see are what moves us the most.  We look for beauty but find it in unexpected places.  We look for love but how could we possibly find it by looking on the outside when love by its very nature comes from within us?  We look for a connection, but our search is so difficult because a connection cannot be seen.  It must be felt.  It must be experienced, and before we feel and experience, there is sight, that which can lead us astray, but also that which can lead us inside.  

"I see you" they say in Avatar.  That is beautiful.  To really see someone is to look through the eyes into the soul, but who gets that close unless you like what you see?  Or what if you finally get that close and don't like what you see?  Does insight hold greater weight than sight?  I believe it should.  When someone acts selfishly, or arrogantly, or rudely, they become ugly, regardless how beautiful they are on the outside.  The outer peel drops off and all you see is the crusted core.   

There was no greater challenge for me than to work on the inside of me.  Now I am letting God work on the inside of me because I realised I can't do it alone.  And while the outside of me withers away daily, on the inside I grow younger every day.


  

 

  


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