“Pain Passes, But the Beauty Remains”

                  In the last years of his life, the French Impressionist painter Jean Renoir continued to paint despite intense pain and physical limitations from rheumatoid arthritis.  At one point he said: “Pain passes, but the beauty remains.”[i]

                  His pain ended with his death, but the beauty of his work lives.

                  I’ve participated in many memorial services in my life.  In such times we have a deep instinct to look for the best in someone’s life, which we hope will transcend whatever pain they endured.  If the person has been able to live a full and meaningful life, this can be easy.  But if the person’s life was marked by tragedy, the desire to focus only on the positive can feel inauthentic — perhaps a way to avoid our own pain and doubts.

                  This week I spoke at a memorial service for a man who died in his late 80s. He’d gone in for a heart procedure that was intended to give him several more years of vitality.  But things happen, and he died at the hospital.  Yet at the service, we reviewed the span of his life, the legacy of his love, and the many joys he knew; all this was far more important than the way he died.

                  This week I also knew a person whose life was drawing to its completion. She had a life of many adventures and much love, but this last year was marked by personal tragedy.  I don’t want to look away from the tragic elements, but I see even more clearly the splendor of her life.

                  From the pain, I want to learn empathy and compassion.

                  From the beauty, I want to practice awe and reverence.

                  Perhaps this drive for transcending suffering is ingrained in life.

A friend who is vacationing in the Caribbean posted some photos this week and commented: “I took a walk on the beach in Barbados tonight and found four turtles coming to shore to lay eggs. I spent about an hour watching one come out of the surf, on to shore and then digging a hole to lay eggs. Incredible.”

                  Patience.  Endurance. Hope. Don’t we all wish this for ourselves and for others: “Pain passes, but the beauty remains?”

Lead image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Self-portrait, 1899, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, USA.

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[i] When Art Hurts”