Quarried Light

“A lot of experiences that we have in the world are torn, broken, hard experiences, and in broken, difficult, lonesome experiences you earn a quality of light that is very precious. I often think of it as quarried light.”
― John O’Donohue from Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for a Modern World

Today I was captured by the God of the Universe who seemed like a 4-yr.-old with a divine can of silver glitter. The snowflakes this morning captured the sunlight with a sparkle seldom seen from my front porch—or at least I have seldom been alert enough to notice them.

As I photographed them on my front porch all gathered in a precious sacred, fluffy mound (see above), they seemed to be celebrating the ordinary wonder of just Being. I am reminded of the many courageous people all around me today who are mining for the “diamonds of their souls” in one form or another: Living courageously with grief, unanswered questions from decades ago, regular throbbing pain, or minds touched by dementia.

Scientists remind us that each of our bodies is made of carbon from cosmic stardust. But our stardust shells contain a well of Light for us to draw from and reflect outwardly to the world, in as many different ways as there are snowflake designs—unique because it contains our transformed pain as much as our personalities. It made me think of something I read once about seeing God in everyone you meet. “I am seeing the face of the Holy One of Being.”

I’ll close with another quote from John O’Donohue:

“We should never forget that death is waiting for us…you have to begin to transfigure your fear…at the end of your life when death comes, it won’t be some kind of monster, but it can actually be a friend who hides the most truthful image of your soul.”