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Beauty Looks Back


There are times when just looking out at the world is too much. With impeccable self-possession, she flaunts color, texture, pattern, dimension, and flickering foils of light.   All cascade through my gossamer lens and I am overtaken by the presence of these things.  Only then do I see why photos and video recordings are so widely cherished—they hold the focus, which hurried eyes that have seen-it-all can not grasp.  Yes, much is required to give pause, to linger longer and let all that in.

Oh, but how I long to receive the world, to be daily engorged with streams of color, shapely spectacles or just plain matter.  All of my patience and attention I will exchange for one glimpse of that deep-down presence in things. 

Yet, after my eyes roam the rolling country, tracing every verdant dip and golden contour, they fall upon him – a glorious human face – and I do not know if I can bear it any longer.  I must look away.  All that beauty looking back at me. 

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  1. Wow Maggi! I LOVE your writing! You are absolutely amazing!!!

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Something for my friends...


 The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love,
for your dream,
for the adventure of being alive. It doesn’t interest me
what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain. I want to know
if you can sit with pain,
mine or your own,
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it. I want to know
if you can be with joy,
mine or your own,
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful,
to be realistic,
to remember the limitations
of being human. It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is t...