Reflection

By Marisa DiBello, RSM

Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth
in the beak of the owl?
Who has it, and who doesn’t?
I keep looking around me.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?
“Some Questions You Might Ask” by Mary Oliver
Photo by T.S. DiBello

Cranaleith’s guests from area programs that work with the homeless community often pick up a gift that allures their eye…their touch…their heart. I see them trace the distortions and scars it bears like a caress. I watch them marveling over the form of an eggplant, a velvet pod, a flow of light. I follow their gaze, lifted to the curve of branches bent by what they carry and what they seek. So many satin stones and sculptured bits of bark find their way into their pockets…each shape a wonder, just as it is… each one drawn to the kinship that discovered them.

And what about their own beauty…the curve of their cheeks, lined by years of hardship, widened into smiles of joy? What about their bearing, bent under their own burden and longing, lifted toward a greeting that announces their dignity? What about the souls shaped by their stories…stories of fragility and resilience, suffering and grace, darkness and impossible wisdom? Each shape a wonder, just as it is…each one a gift to one who discovers it. Each one a revelation of the One Who abides there…Who yearns over them.

In this jubilee year of mercy, we ask the courage to be shaped by such encounters. We ask to shape a world that cherishes such gifts.

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