Friday, May 25, 2007

Whatever Has Beauty Is Real

Welcome, beautiful traveler. I wish for you only the best and ask from you nothing. (Although I hope you won't spam my comments.)

I have been away from this blog for some time, and my dedication to the goddess has gone through a period of lapse. I apologize for the absence, to you and to the goddess herself, and ask that you not mistake erratic posting here for doubt.

In part, my absence has been the result of a period of peace. Contentment more than despair has accompanied me on my path since the previous post; I started writing a new novel just ahead of that entry, and it progressed quickly and to my great satisfaction. As I noted early in this blog, my adoration of the goddess arose out of desperation as much as anything else, and I have not been so desperate of late.

But even as contentment has led me to stray from daily observances to the goddess, a sense of guilt has nagged at me for doing so. Are not good times the times in which I should be most thankful?

This, of course, is foolishness -- not that thanks are uncalled for, but that I should feel guilty for failing to give them.

The goddess gifts us with beauty -- each day, each moment, so long as we look for it. Guilt, in contrast, is one of the homeliest of human emotions. It is practical, but dour and drab and incapable of lifting anything up.

So when I feel guilty on behalf of the goddess, I am in a way casting aside all that her worship is supposed to bring.

I write here now, therefore, not out of guilt, but to move from guilt to grace. To shrug off a nagging of the conscience and replace it with thankfulness and with an attempt at giving. I don't know that you, beautiful traveler, are out there and reading this, any more than I know that the goddess is real in the traditional metaphysical sense of the word. But I wish to give you whatever benefit I can of my thoughts, just as the goddess has given so much to me.

For the notion of you is beautiful, just as the notion of the goddess rings with pure and effervescent beauty. And in bringing beauty to the world, these notions take on their own reality, since they -- the goddess, and you -- have had an impact on my life.

Be well. Look for beauty. Turn guilt to grace wherever you can.

Lovingly yours,

A devotee