For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it.

For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it.

For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.

- Ivan Panin 1855-1942

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The Lotus is believed to have originated in Egypt, the Indus River Valley and Mesopotamia.

There are many stories about the lotus flower, some of which have been passed down from the earliest times.

The flower has always been associated in some way with religion. Christians have related the lotus to the divine nature of Jesus of Nazareth. Buddhists see the flower as a symbol of enlightenment, and images of Hindu gods are often depicted seated on lotus flowers.

In some way the flower is a icon of spirituality that unites people of different religions.

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Interlude

Amy Lowell 1874-1925

When I have baked white cakes

And grated green almonds to spread upon them;

When I have picked the green crowns from the strawberries

And piled them, cone-pointed, in a blue and yellow platter;

When I have smoothed the seam of the linen I have been working;

What then?

To-morrow it will be the same:

Cakes and strawberries,

And needles in and out of cloth.

If the sun is beautiful on bricks and pewter,

How much more beautiful is the moon,

Slanting down the gauffered branches of a plum-tree;

The moon,

Wavering across a bed of tulips;

The moon,

Still,

Upon your face.

You shine, Beloved,

You and the moon.

But which is the reflection?

The clock is striking eleven.

I think, when we have shut and barred the door,

The night will be dark

Outside.

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“No sight so sad as that of a naughty child," he began, "especially a naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?"

"They go to hell," was my ready and orthodox answer.

"And what is hell? Can you tell me that?"

"A pit full of fire."

"And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?"

"No, sir."

"What must you do to avoid it?"

I deliberated a moment: my answer, when it did come was objectionable: "I must keep in good health and not die.” 

- Charlotte Brontë 1816-55, from Jane Eyre

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NEXT POST SATURDAY

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