To restore beauty to a wounded place, it is necessary to give beauty, even as instinct tells me to hide or flee. The metamorphosis begins with the shifting of my expectations of what it is possible for me to accomplish here. I realize I do not have to fix anything or prove anything, but simply witness.

Yes, I say to the scary but compelling possibility that I can face what is broken, ugly, toxic, damaged. Reaching out with the willingness to make contact with the unbeautiful, I realize that not only am I not dragged down into depression, but just the reverse happens. I start seeing beauty here. I see the place change from something deficient and debilitated to a living being trying to prevail under difficult circumstances. I accept its vulnerability and need and affirm my willingness to close the distance between us. I agree to engage with this place.  

And it is when I take the next step, when I create beauty for the place, that I move past the last threshold keeping me separate. To give beauty is to fall in love with a place and with the possibility of transformation.