… with our faces so close to the love mirror,
we must not breathe, but rather change
to a cleared place where a building was
and feel the treasure hiding in us …
from ‘A story they know’
Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)
How would I feel if on this everyday Monday morning an Archangel greeted me like this:
Good morning!
You’re beautiful with God’s beauty,
Beautiful inside and out!
God be with you.
This translation of Luke 1.28 from The Message then continues with Mary’s reaction:
She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that.
Yes, I can imagine that I too would be shaken up:
One, believing myself to be beautiful is a stretch too far most days;
two, I’m never gracefully grateful about taking compliments, always on the look-out for loop-holes and bias;
three, I have known many times when it is utterly impossible for me to believe that God is with me, so this angel’s blessing might be all too easily dismissed this time as well. (The perception that one is abandoned and completely eternally alone is what I name as ‘the Great Lie of depression’).
My automatic reflex filters out all I can from the words until nothing remains; then nothing can be demanded of me.
Yet what if …
what if this time, I actually allowed Wonder to greet me and bless me?
what if …
Loss creates an unbelievable amount of space for life to enter in. What you feel as emptiness is life’s new home, and what you feel as loneliness is the urge to hold life’s hand again.
from Second Firsts,
Christina Rasmussen
hole vs whole. iPhone image. (with grateful thanks to Bekah and Debi.)
image into ikon 
Your reflections are hitting deep and filling a reservoir with beauty and creativity. Thank you for image and text.
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