Being Human

from trevor’s encyclopedia of beautiful things

The big, wide world is my palette, humble words are my colors, and a faithful pen is my brush.

I paint the human being.

“See with the eyes of your heart,” an old priest told me when I was a boy, “Hear with the ears of your heart.”

This helps me in my work.

Seeing with the eyes of my heart.

Hearing with the ears of my heart.

It helps me see and hear the essence of people.

“Esse Quam Videri,” says the old Latin phrase.

 To be is more important than to appear to be.

The essence is more important than the video.

I try to paint the essence of the person, who they really are.

I paint Gabby, the most beautiful person in the world.

Her brown eyes are filled with fire and rain, a perfect mix for a shy, poor boy like me.

Her hands and feet are both soft and tender, cracked and calloused.

Her smile, her sonrisa, is a sunrise and a light for the world.

Her naked body is imperfectly perfect, perfectly imperfect, and beautiful like the good earth, making my heart go beat, beat, beat when I am near her.

I paint the old priest, Fr. Gustavo, the kindest person in the world.

His clothes are tattered and torn from so much giving.

His cross is tarnished, the one given to him as a gift at his ordination, a reminder that God is in each and every person each and every moment of each and every day.

His shoulders are hunched from so much praying.

His face is full of love, agape love, a love that seeks nothing in return.

I paint Dr. Maria, the most compassionate person in the world.

Her dark eyes sparkle like the stars reflected in the river around the mountains of El Salvador on dark, summer nights.

Her forehead is wrinkled with deep concentration and empathy for the poor migrant workers on the land around her.

Her hands heal by touching wounds and holding hands as long as hands need to be held, as long as it takes for comfort to come.

I turn to Gabby in the morning light.

I hold her close, as close as I can to me

Her heart goes beat, beat, beat for me, too.

We know love.

We know beauty.

We know each other.

We know.