The Essence of Eternity

This was sent to me by my friend Lee --


A passage from the book -- The Red Tent by Anita Diamont:

In Egypt, I loved the perfume of the Lotus. A flower would bloom in the pool at dawn, filling the entire garden with a blue musk so powerful it seemed that even the fish and ducks would swoon. By night, the flower might wither, but the perfume lasted--fainter and fainter, but never quite gone. Even many days later, the Lotus remained in the garden. Months would pass and a bee would alight near the spot where the Lotus had blossomed, and its essence was released again; momentary but undeniable.

Egypt loved the Lotus because it never dies. It is the same for the people who are loved. Thus can something as insignificant as a name—two syllables, one high, one sweet—summon up the innumerable smiles and tears, sighs and dreams of a human life.

If you sit on the bank of a river, you see only a small part of its surface. And yet, the water before your eyes is proof of unknowable depths. My heart brims with thanks for the kindness you have shown me by sitting on the bank of this river, by visiting the echoes of my name.

Blessings on your eyes and on your children. Blessings on the ground beneath you. Wherever you walk, I go with you.