“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.”

~ Albert Einstein

Several years ago, while on vacation in Amsterdam, my husband bought me a ring.

It was a thin ring encrusted with seed diamonds to be worn stacked with my engagement ring and wedding band.  One day, shortly after he gave it to me, it accidently slipped off my finger. After spending several days retracing my steps, cleaning out my car and calling all the spots I had visited, I accepted the fact that it was probably gone for good.

About a week later, I had the oddest dream. It was so strange that it woke me out of a deep, deep sleep and left me buzzing with curiosity.

In the dream, a man was painting the interior walls of my house. He was a colorful character, dancing through my home, swinging his arms in an elegant fashion.  The images he produced were entrancing; but, the most amazing part was that he did not have a paint brush. Everywhere he went, beautiful imagery just flowed out of him.

It was as if he had entered my dreamscape to remind me of the magic in the world.

The next morning was one of those crisp, cold, Michigan blue-sky days. My husband and son were out in the yard raking leaves. I was in the kitchen washing the breakfast dishes. I heard Mike yell, “Molly, come quick!”

When I walked outside, he pointed to my ring sitting innocently on the post rail of our side porch. It looked as if it had been gently placed there by invisible hands. It was missing one diamond.

Ever since that morning I have worn that ring snuggly between my wedding band and my engagement ring. I have never replaced the missing diamond.  

I wear it as a constant reminder of my belief that for all things visible there is also the invisible.

For most people, “real” is what they interact with everyday. It is what they think about, what they know and what they can trust. Yet, there are people in every culture who possess the ability to cross invisible thresholds into the unseen.

In fact, I think most of us operate with this gnawing sense at the edge of our awareness that what we see is only part of the story.

This morning while driving to the bagel shop, I drove through a beautiful storm of swirling dogwood petals.  It was, of course, the grace of the wind that gave rise to the spring show.

Every day and in so many ways we are offered evidence of the underpinnings of the invisible—the wind, our intuition, every abstract idea we have ever pondered—and yet, so often, we deny the magic.

Too often, we seek to understand the world only through science, through evidence, through what we believe to be immutable facts.

In my mind, an adherence to accepting only the concrete vision of what one can see, hear, touch, feel or understand limits one’s ability to grow in wisdom.  A “figure it out” mentality limits our imagination. It is impossible for the finite mind to begin to understand the complexities of the universe.

I like to imagine that my missing diamond is in the pocket of my dreamscape painter. Perhaps he took it in exchange for the “magic” return of my ring. As Carl Jung wrote, “Nights through dreams tell the myths forgotten by the day.”

It is my strong belief that mystery is what compels us to move forward.

My ring is all the evidence I need. I wear it with gratitude.

Molly Beauregard is on the faculty of College for Creative Studies where she teaches sociology. She recently has had the joy of integrating transcendental meditation as an experiential component into her classes. Students love the deep rest, stress release and renewed access to their creative spirit. She and a former student, filmmaker Chelsea Richer, are currently working on a full length documentary highlighting their effort to bring consciousness based education programs to college campuses across the country.  The film is entitled “Tuning the Student Mind”. You can see the trailer here.

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Assist Ed: Julie Garcia/Ed: Bryonie Wise

 

{Photo: via Tex OG Jack}