Face of the Beloved

A favourite children's book I once had is called The Rough Faced Girl, it is the cinderella story in the Native American tradition. The beauty of the book is how the girl sees her beloved evereywhere, in the rainbow, the clouds, the streambed, even the stepsisters. The illustrations are particularly evocative. Here in my research I have a lovely lovely description of this at my lucky delighted fingertips:

The body is like the earth, the bones like mountains, the brains like mines, the belly like the sea, the intestine like rivers, the nerves like brooks, the flesh like dust and mud. The hair on the body is like plants, the places where hair grows like fertile land and where there is no growth like saline soil. Its breath is like the wind, words like thunder, sounds like thunderbolts. Its laughter is like the light of noon, its tears like rain, its sadness like the darkness of night, and its sleep is like death as its awakening is like life. Its motions and acts are like motions of stars and their rotation. Its birth and presence are like the rising of the stars, and its death and absence like their setting.
The words are Sheikh Suleyman Loras and come from a book on the whirling dervishes by Shems Friedlander.
Much Love~