By Deryn
Nov 1, 2025
Join the discussion and follow me on these networks!
In times of chaos and disruption, have you ever wondered how one individual can make a difference in an impossible situation? At a recent conference I attended, one speaker told a story so profound, it left a lasting impression on my soul. He explored the intersection of beauty and chaos - how, in a world unraveling with uncertainty, anxiety, and relentless noise, beauty becomes an anchor, a breath, a healing balm. We were invited to consider beauty not merely as decoration, but as intercession; a muted form of resistance and hope.
The story shared during the conference that deeply affected me was the story of the cellist of Sarajevo. During the brutal siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, a mortar shell landed in a crowded marketplace, killing twenty-two civilians who were standing in line waiting for bread. The next day, a cellist named Vedran Smailović dressed in full concert attire, brought his cello to the exact crater left by the explosion, sat down amid rubble and danger, and played. For twenty-two consecutive days thereafter, one for each victim, his violin sang the song of lament. Bombs could still fall. Sniper bullets could still fire. Fear could still consume. But beauty, defiantly, still sang through the chaos.
He did not stop the war. But he stilled the terror of those who heard. His cello notes rose like a prayer from the smoking ruins, carrying with them something deeply human, sacred, and strangely comforting: the reminder that even here, we are not abandoned to darkness.
As I listened to this story, something within my heart stirred, a desire to bring beauty out of the chaos we are living in now. I remembered a time in my life when the sound of the cello reached into my soul with its deep, haunting resonance. The vibrations unlocked tears I didn’t know were waiting to flow. I was so moved that I painted a cello in a style like Picasso's painting after the Spanish Civil War. Broken, displaced, its curves and quiet dignity, breathing soulfully, almost as an act of devotion. I didn’t fully understand why then, but now I do: the cello became my symbol of solace in chaos, too.
In times of upheaval, we need not only answers. We need resonance. We need something that calms the trembling inside us, something that reminds us we are more than our fear. The soul needs something that says, “Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10).
This story was a challenge, not just to create, but to become like that cellist in the crater. When the world breaks open, show up with beauty. To offer colors, melodies, words, gestures of kindness, dances of healing, poems of courage, brushstrokes of peace. To be still points of calm in a spinning storm.
Beauty, when born from a place of compassion, becomes a kind of muted protest against despair. It says, “There is still goodness. There is still tenderness. There is still hope.” Beauty reminds us that God still breathes in broken places.
We are entering uncertain times. The future may hold chaos, noise, and fear. But in such times, more than ever, people need the cello’s song, whether literal or metaphorical. They need art that doesn’t deny the darkness, but lights a candle within it. They need voices that don’t shout over the storm, but soothe the soul’s trembling. An artist friend of mine, Jeremy Troughton, recently did a piece of art, painting a man with holes in his chest. The words he used to describe this painting also resonated with me. ”I carried circles in my chest — not targets, but lanterns, lit from within, by the promise to feel gently.”
Perhaps we are each called, in our own way, to bring our art, however humble, to the cratered places of the world. To paint peace. To write comfort. To dance in defiance of despair. To sing faith in the valley of dry bones.
Beauty does not merely decorate life - it dignifies it. And sometimes, beauty is the sound that keeps hope alive when everything seems lost.
I would love to hear your thoughts on beauty redeeming the darkness.
If you would like to explore more about environmental rejuvenation, spiritual harmony, and sustainable living in our journey towards a brighter, greener future. Please subscribe to my monthly newsletter as I will feature the poem in it. Additionally, I can offer you a coloring poster to help you identify your needs, boundaries, weeds, and future seeds. This is a meditative exercise, giving you time to slow down and think about these things. Get this here.
Join the discussion and follow me on these networks!
Family stories are, perhaps, our own memorial stones. They remind us of who we are. They steady us when life becomes uncertain. And they help us understand that history is never merely something behind us; it continues to live quietly within us.
We are not separate from the past; we are shaped by it. The lives of those who came before us have influenced the world we now inhabit, just as our own lives will influence those who come after.
History is often described as the story of power, how it rises, shifts, and reshapes societies. Yet power does not move only through governments and armies. It moves quietly through families, through the opportunities and losses that shape the paths of individual lives.
When we tell these stories, we remember that history is not distant or abstract. It is personal.
0 Comments