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| photo by tom spencer via soulofthegarden.com |
She is beautiful.
Not because anyone tells her that she is
Or because she thinks she should be
But because she is her one and only Self.
She likes to stand on the edge of the estuary, that place
where the water eddies and twirls and makes funny patterns, that place where
the birds like to land and catch fish and puff up their feathers, singing
little lullabies to the mouth of the sea. She likes to feel the wind as it
rises up off the ocean catching bits of salt and sand, to feel that wind with
her arms stretched wide and her fingers twiddling gently in the breeze. She
watches as the sun warms a drop of dew, giving it glisten, and as the moon
lights up a wild rose, giving it voice. She watches and she learns. She listens
and she smiles. She sees and she is happy.
She stands there for days on end, for weeks that turn into
years, and every day that comes, brings something new. The wind brings new gifts, the
birds sing new songs, the plants grow new life, and the sea, oh yes the sea,
she brings new secrets, new hopes, new dreams. The birds might land on her, the plants might tickle her
skin, and on windy days the sea might even kiss her with its spray. And while
she takes those gifts as one might accept love, she doesn’t need to be told she
is loved, she doesn’t need to be told she is beautiful. She just knows that she is.
The River Birch standing on the edge of the estuary, that which marks the place I most like to write, is beautiful. I tell her so every day. And
yet, I know it does not matter to her, it does not change what she is. For she
is beautiful whether I tell her so or not. She is beautiful not because she
thinks she should be. She is beautiful because she is herself. You see, somewhere
deep beneath that peeling white bark, in a place we might call soul, she knows
that she is who she was meant to be and being who you are meant to be can only ever be ... Beautiful.
* * *
This week my Wish is that you take the time to remember who
you are. When you peel off all the requirements and all the expectations, who
are you? Are you a dreamer? Are you a lover? Are you someone who grows wings
when you step outside, when you let the gentle gifts of nature soothe your
modern-rushed wounds? What feeds you? What calms you back to the place you
recognize as soul?
When you find that place that is who you are, that feels
like soul, swim there, dive there, dwell there for as long as you possibly can. And then when you finally decide to rise your head from the depths of your Self,
from the depths of your soul, you will surely see a very special gift, a gift that you
have carried with you all along. Whether you are a bird or a fish or a River
Birch that stands tall along the edge of the sea, whether you are big or small
or rich or poor, or hobbling on one foot or two, a stranger in your own sea, when
you are who you are meant to be, you are nothing less than ... Beautiful.
You are beautiful
Not because anyone tells you that you are
Or because you think you should be
But because you are your one and only Self.
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