“The shapes and colours of flowers and fruit, the curling of a wave or a tendril, the song of birds, the graceful movements of living creatures, the regularity of a crystal or a snowflake – all these and many more things are part of the beauty of the world. It is this which enables us to face up to the ugliness and pain of the world, which also is a continuing feature of it. All things grow misshapen, including human lives. There is grace, and there is also distortion; there is sweetness and bitterness; there is wonderful creativeness and there is senseless destruction. And so we pray that we may learn to live in such a world, and with such a human nature. We are grateful for all the help and inspiration we receive from the frequent beauty of the world, and the frequent grace in human lives.”
Harry Lismer Short (1906 – 1975), Unitarian minister, quoted in Fragments for Holiness for Daily Reflection
Chorlton Unitarians 