Ashes to Beauty stories
Do you have a Beauty for Ashes testimony that would inspire the world? Did God take your ashes and turn them into His beauty?
If you have a testimony you would like to share scroll to the bottom of the page and submit your story.
INSPIRED BY A PHRASE
What is my own "Beauty for Ashes" story? It is about an amazing young woman named Sharon Kirch who inspired me to write and to realize all the gifts God has showered on me all my life, but especially now in the present.
I am an ecommerce support person at Electronic Merchant Systems, a credit card processing company close to Cleveland, Ohio. Part of my job involves calling new ecommerce merchants to welcome them to processing with our company and to arrange training with them. So, on a daily basis, when my training appointments come in, you can imagine that I am bombarded some days with several DBA's (doing-business-as, or company names).
I am by vocation a writer and a poet, and one of those DBA's wouldn't leave me alone. It hit me when we were creating the account here, and would not leave me. I wondered at the strange turn of phrase: BEAUTY FOR ASHES. How beautiful. How poetic. But what does it mean? I couldn't wait to be the one to call the merchant to find out.
In the meantime, I decided to use this phrase as a title for a poem I would write. My beloved father, Anton, had passed away last November 28, from a variety of conditions (diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, vascular problems). He was very important to me. I now realize that he had been slowly dying all year long, but it was such a rude shock to all of his family and friends, because he was such a vibrant person. No one could accept it.
My mind has since accepted that my father's system just shut down, and that it would only be a matter of time before collapse. This is normal and natural. But the heart does not let it go.
This year, a new friend, Charles, came into my life. He is about 30, and he is very bright-eyed and lively. He looks like a stevedore, but he sells food in our corporate cafe. I couldn't believe it one day when he told me that he is actually a gardener who takes after peach, apricot and almond trees in his Parma, Ohio backyard. With our average temperature in Cleveland at 43 degrees, this is a miracle in itself that these trees survive, so I credit this to a very sensitive caretaker.
Charles is strapping, full of life, beautiful. He is the beauty for my ashes -- the feeling of powerlessness I had when I kissed my father's face in the casket and felt the coldness of stone.
God takes away sometimes, but He's giving to us ALL THE TIME.
Thank you, Sharon, for being the inspiration for my poem.
BEAUTY FOR ASHES
10-3-06
beauty for ashes
an orchard keeper
his temple pricked
by grapevine thorn,
dripping
amaranthine
he is bright-eyed
beautiful and strong,
fresh
as the grapes and peaches
he handles with care,
and as nascently
pure inside
as a seed
in the oval womb
of a walnut.
he steps, strappingly
past the fountain
on crowned floors
of stone
fruit for stone
the transparent white face
of a corpse beloved,
glowing under the light;
the makeup foundation
smears over
grainy stone
at my kiss …
cold, so cold
the lip, smoothed out
from prior struggle
to be incinerated,
ground
into particles
there’s no sleeping
in peace
the cosmetics
render the remains
an illusion
of life
only the light
inside the stone
is eternal
and moves to
the Maker
as the orchard keeper,
his fruits melding
into himself,
yearns toward
the sun
the juice, richness, soil
of life
spilt into your hands
the earth trembling
like a volcano
from inside
joy for stillness
these two
are a part of me
one is the past,
my progenitor
who lives in the blood
coursing through
my veins,
whose facial imprint
I carry
and the other is
the present,
my counterpart in name
and friend.
ISAIAH 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
MY FATHER-IN-LAW