Others’ words can ripple, echoing a charged
resonance within us, sparking recognition, even love, in
our own inner naves. Trying on the inward sightings of
others can clothe us gently, even if for a moment,
easing us towards the places where our own feet form
root and bridge.
In “Late Have I Loved You”, I chose the words of
Augustine to enclose and diffuse the mantle of a woman
suspended in the weightless moment of perceived grace.
Augustine’s words trace a fluid line between her
ordinary waking world and her awareness of ‘that which
is hoped for’. It is a penetrable, fragile cloak. Her
feet rest on two spheres, one which is seen and one
which is less seen. Her left hand holds an active flame
whose source is unseen yet flows within her, symbolizing
the ‘fire which does not burn’. Her right hand drops a
flower, representing her turning away from the beauty of
the visible world, and alludes to her choosing the inner
world of spiritual life.
The text: “Late have I loved you, O beauty so ancient
and so new. Late have I loved you. For behold you were
within me and I outside and I sought you outside and in
ugliness fell upon those lovely things which you have
made. You were with me and I was not with you... I was
kept from you by those things, yet had they not been in
you they would not have been at all. You called and
cried to me and broke upon my deafness and you sent
forth your light and shone upon me and chased away my
blindness. You breathed fragrance upon me and I drew in
my breath. I tasted you and now I hunger and thirst for
you. You touched me and I have burned for your peace.”
–
St Augustine
Mel Ahlborn
MB Ahlborn – Illumination
55 Sanders Ranch Road
Moraga, CA 94556
(925) 631-1387
E-mail:
illumination@earthlink.net
www.illuminationstudio.org |
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