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Where Beauty Lives

In this episode, Where Beauty Lives . . . 

Have you seen God in a shimmer of light?
In a shadow that dances or stars in the night?
Not tucked in a book or perched in the sky,
But right in the dazzle that slips past your eye.

In puddles and pinecones, in pebbles and air,
In the whoosh of the wind or the curl of your hair —
God isn’t hiding on some distant shelf,
But laughing and leaping and being itself.
Not grumpy or gloomy or watching you frown,

But spinning the world in a marvelous gown!
In bluebirds and brushstrokes, in fireflies' glow,
In the hush of a moment that asks you to slow.

So don’t wait for thunder or tablets or signs —
Just follow the flicker that shivers the pines.

Ask questions, see colors, be curious too,
And beauty — beauty—will whisper to you:

"I’m here in the quiet, I’m here in the gleam,
I’m here in the in-between spaces you dream.
So soften your eyes and open your heart —
That’s where the seeing of seeing will start."

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