To Be Willing to Be Dazzled

Still, what I want in my life
Is to be willing
To be dazzled-
To cast aside the weight of facts

And maybe even
To float a little
Above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking 

Into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections
are nothing —
that the light is everything —
that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

~Mary Oliver from “The Pond” from House of Light

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —
~Emily Dickinson

Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply wasn’t room for any other thought?
~ Sophie Scholl 
from At the Heart of the White Rose

There are days we live⠀
as if death were nowhere⠀
in the background; from joy⠀
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,⠀
from blossom to blossom to⠀
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.⠀

~Li-Young Lee from “From Blossoms”

I can’t always handle all the truth all at once, especially when it might hurt. 

It is best for the truth to slowly bring me out of the shadows where I like to hunker down, a tight little bud refusing to open. Truth told slant becomes an illuminating back drop, encouraging me to open up and transform, willing to be dazzled by the light.

And then, perhaps, just maybe, I too may be
dazzling to behold.

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