We sat together on the shorelines and stared across the oceans. I did not like what I was. Not because of what everyone was telling me but what I was telling myself. I didn't like the human body. I could see the beauty and the ugliness. She saw my hesitations and smiled.

" You know.. you don't have to feel that way if you don't want to. It's as easy as letting go. "

I looked to her and felt the cold on my feet. I don't know how long I had submerged them in the water.

" And what if it's not easy for me? Letting go I mean. "

She smiled again and took me by the hand. Tracing me out along the surface of the still shores.

" You don't need to submerge yourself. You don't need to dry out either. It's as easy as you want it to be. You just haven't forgiven yourself yet, so it's hard. "

She was beautiful in every way because I felt nothing. I never did want to feel my body. I just wanted to feel my soul. All it took was laying in the waters. Not drowning but rising.

My memories betray me. I forget at times what it is like for some of you. To look at another, feel the blood rush, the adversarial constraint of physical urges. The chemical stimulation that begs for release and a warm body. There is so much beauty in this world and in each other. I just wonder now why we treat it all as one large feast. That in our eyes we become appetizers and lose our individuality. That our hopes and dreams, happiness and frustrations are left in the wake of our hungers. It could be a work of art...but that's not how we see it now...is it..?