shimmering

"Weary, resigned, occupied for several hours still with its immemorial task, the grey day stitched its shimmering needlework of light and shade, and it saddened me to think that I was to be left alone with a thing that knew me no more than would a seamstress who, installed by the window so as to see better while she finishes her work, pays no attention to the person present with her in the room."
--The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D.J. Enright, p 479 of the Modern Library paperback edition

"One morning, after several weeks of showers and storms, I heard in my chimney—instead of the formless, elastic, sombre wind which stirred in me a longing to go to the sea—the cooing of the pigeons, nesting in the wall outside; shimmering and unexpected like a first hyacinth gently tearing open its nutritious heart to release its flower of sound, mauve and satin-soft, letting into my still dark and shuttered bedroom as through an opened window the warmth, the brightness, the fatigue of a first fine day."
--The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D.J. Enright, pp 186-187 of the Modern Library paperback edition

"Aramaic Lord's Prayer

O Silent Sound,
whose shimmering music pulsates
at the heart of each and all,

Clear a space in us where thy melody
may be perceived in its purity.

Let the rhythm of thy counsel reverberate through our lives,
so that we move to the beat of justice, love, and peace.

Then, our whole being at one with thy song,
grant that the earth may be filled
with the beauty of thy voice.

Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share
what each being needs to grow and flourish,

And give us courage to embrace our shadow with emptiness,
as we embrace others in their darkness.

But let us not be captive to uncertainty,
nor cling to fruitless pursuits.

For from thee springs forth
the rhythm, the melody, and the harmony,
which restores all to balance, again and again.
Ameyn."

- rendered by Mark Hathaway based on the work of Neil Douglas-Klotz in 'Prayers of the Cosmos', 1990.