Laud

Beauty is the central seat of Joy.
Great things happen when you're there:
Colors happen, music - at a playful pace
of hearing. Heartbeats stutter. All the body
takes on warm, internal glow. There is sparkle,
there is smile, there is reverence as well.

Beauty is the pithwood of the Tree of Life,
Avatar and Saviour. It is feeling, it is
thought - risen to a lightness that
cannot be put to words. Words are only
messengers. Nothing can rephrase the
message that they bear. We are beings

with eternal souls, artists made of clay.
What we try to do, we do because of
Beauty. It is wonder, it is goodness,
it is half enough, but never really certain
- how we fuse desire to matter, try
to imitate the visions we conceive.

Beauty keeps ahead of us, runs a race
that tempts our feet to follow. We are glad
to chase the Dream, glad for bittersweet
and ache. If it hurts, it hurts for meaning,
hurts for true expression. We are hands
that squeeze and mold the elements
before us - voice of written word. Beauty
will sustain us through it all. This is why
we come together, what we live to say:
Beauty is the central seat of Joy