Lake of Beauty

by Edward Carpenter <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Chicago Lake 2011 Let your mind be quiet, realising the beauty of the world,&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;and the immense, the boundless treasures that it holds in store.
All that you have within you, all that your heart desires,
&nbsp; &nbsp;all that your Nature so specially fits you for 
that or the&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;counterpart of it waits embedded in the great Whole, for you.
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;It will surely come to you.Yet equally surely not one moment before its appointed time&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;will it come. All your crying and fever and reaching out of
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;hands will make no difference.
Therefore do not begin that game at all.Do not recklessly spill the waters of your mind
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;in this direction and in that,
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;lest you become like a spring lost and&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;dissipated in the desert.But draw them together into a little compass, and hold them&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;still, so still;
And let them become clear, so clear – so limpid, so mirror-like;at last the mountains and the sky shall glass themselves in&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;peaceful beauty,
and the antelope shall to descend to drink and to gaze at her&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;reflected image,
and the lion to quench his thirst,
and Love himself shall come and bend over and catch his&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;own likeness in you.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;- New Zealand Prayer Book, pg. 157&nbsp;(click below for MP3 file) Agatha Nolen Lake of Beauty