To Find Beauty [ADVENTure Five]

Beauty can be found in the most unexpected of places.

It can be found in a manger on the holiest of nights.
It can be found in the shy smiles of a refugee family as they walk into their safe, warm apartment for the first time.
It can be found in the shaky writing of a senior center penpal to a member of a theatrical cast.
It can be found in broken people and shipwrecks. 

It has been a hectic week, as tech weeks for plays usually are. As production assistant, and with a child in the play, I arrive early each day to make sure the dog poop, garbage, and drug props are at the ready, to put together cast gifts, and to make sure everything is in good working order.

Among the props are letters, which are read on stage. They contain words written by penpals of the cast members - words of encouragement and hope, words of tough love and truth. Words that we all need to hear. Beautiful words - even the harsh ones - because they are all written and spoken in love. 

Each of the characters in Stoops is from a place of brokenness. From being bullied to being a bully. From a mistake that could take a life. From illness and loss. From expectations gone awry. And each of the characters has the potential to create beauty in their brokenness - to sew themselves together in community and love. 

This cast amazes me. Each member faces their own challenges in their daily lives. Several are on the autism spectrum. Some struggle with anxiety. One is dealing with the death of her mother, just days before tech week began. Some have learning differences. And yet this diverse bad of teens come together each day and put in the hard work that is performing this play - this play that they wrote, the characters that they created. And I see beauty. Beauty in the fumbles and the recoveries; the support they give each other; the frustrations and the grief; the laughter and the tears. Because through it all, there has been one constant - hope. 

Hope - the excitement that all will come together to create something beautiful. 

Hope - the baby laying in a manger, the promise that all has come together to create something beautiful.