May the BLESSINGS of inner peace and quiet joy be with you! And may times of silence and solitude invite you to smell the roses ... to listen to the breeze-sound ... to really see the changing seasons. And, as you slow down long enough to quiet the inner voices, you may begin to sense the great beauty of all that has been given for you to share.
Out of the silence came a vision:
"I have seen a land shining with goodness where each person protects another's dignity as readily as their own, where war and want have ceased and all races live under the same law of love and honor. I have seen a land bright with truth where leaders extend their hands in justice rather than turning to arms, where mercy, kindness and compassion flow like deep water over the land and virtue, truth, and beauty are revered above comfort, pleasure or selfish gain ... a land where peace reigns in every heart, where faith blazes like a beacon from every hill and love like a fire from every hearth. I have seen this land and my heart yearns for it."
One evening I laid my finger on my cheek and found to my surprise that it was wet. I wondered what those tears meant. What was I crying for? I wasn't consciously sad at all or consciously happy. I noticed at this moment that behind it all there was a joy, deeper than any personal joy. It was a joy in the face of the beauty of being. A joy at all the wonderful and lovable people I had already met in my life. But at the same moment, I experienced the exact opposite emotion. I hadn't known before that two such contrary feelings could coexist. Because the tears were at the same time tears of immense sadness, a sadness at what we're doing to the earth, a sadness at the people whom I have already hurt in my life, and a sadness too at my own emptiness and stupidity. I still don't know whether joy or pain had the upper hand -- both lay so close to one another.
In beauty there is God, and in beautiful things there is the refinement and cultivation of consciousness. Creative people live in the world of beauty; for, beauty speaks to the heart and silences the mind.
The only name for the faculty by which we can discern the element of Beauty which is present in every fact, we must discern in every fact before it becomes truth for us, is love ... The relation between those things is simple and inextricable. When we love a fact, it becomes truth; when we attain that detachment from our passions whereby it becomes possible for us to love all facts, then we have reached our peace. If a truth cannot be loved, it is not truth, but only fact. But the fact does not change in order that it might become truth; it is we who change. All fact is beautiful; it is we who have to regain our innocence to see its beauty.
You take the pen -- and the lines dance.
You take the flute -- and the notes shimmer.
You take the brush -- and the colors sing.
So all things have meaning and beauty in that space beyond time where You are.
How then, can I hold anything from You?
For your prayer, your journey into God,
May you be given a small storm ... named after you.
You begin your storm under the Eye of God.
A watchful, caring eye
gazes in your direction
as you wrestle
with the life force within.
In the midst of these holy winds
In the midst of this divine wrestling
your storm journey
leads you into the eye,
Into the Eye of God
where all is calm and quiet.
A stillness beyond imagining!
Into the Eye of God
after the storm
Into the silent, beautiful darkness
Into the Eye of God.
One thing have I asked of love,
that I shall ever seek:
That I might dwell in the
heart of love
all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of my beloved,
and to know love's plan.