Bluebird in My Heart

For thousands of years, across hundreds of different cultures around the world, the bluebird has stood as a positive symbol representing  happiness, prosperity, and rebirth. Many cultures hold it to be sacred, including Korean legend which believes the bluebird to be the messenger of the Gods and overseer of Humans. This belief is further supported by early sailors who would tattoo bluebirds on their bodies after safe passage across 10,000 nautical miles.

  In the song above and the poem below,  the bluebird does not represent this traditional view of happiness. In the song, the bluebird has left town and the singer feels that his bluebird can only find happiness when it returns home.  

 In the  Bluebird poem below, the poet suspects he has suffocated or drenched in alcohol the happiness that he discovers is still inside him. Nevertheless, he holds on to the possibility of  personal happiness despite his attempts to conceal and destroy it.  He knows the bluebird inside him (his symbol of love) is yearning for that rebirth. Ultimately, true happiness is something we find in ourselves, not necessarily in our aviary friends.

Bluebird 

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you? 

Charles Bukowski

  

  There is a Bluebird nightclub in Indiana. One of the sweetest singers with a voice like a bluebird, Iris DeMent, gave this interview called In Search of a Song. Listen to her sing.

Measurement of the Heart

“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.”

― Zelda Fitzgerald

Zelda Fitzgerald

   Does the heart hold only a certain amount of love? Or can it be filled with many loves?
You can give birth to one child and think your love is complete, until you have another child and realize the heart has room now for three people-- your two children, and your spouse , if you have one. You love your parents, maybe even your neighbors. And still, there is room in your heart. You may have a secret yearning, like Charlie Brown, for the red-haired girl. And still your heart is not full.

We have an amazing capacity to love, recover from unrequited love and discover new love. There is also the great and inexplicable love that is described in the song below when a man lays down his life for another's soul.


       
                 Heart Man -  Luka Bloom


 

Paradise

“If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awoke - Aye! and what then?”

― Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Anima Poetae from the Unpublished Note-Books of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    It is also possible to imagine paradise on earth, no matter what your religion. Think about this quote:

        "You cannot avoid paradise;
          You can only avoid seeing it."

                           ~Charlotte Joko Beck
                  
      Beck seems to say that our paradise is waiting for us. It is up to us to go find it.

      The world before us is made up of our physical, mental and social sensations. What do you remember when you wake up each morning?  Do you see the blame in the world or the beauty? Do you see the stranger's smile, the fragrant garden, and the gifts you have been given, such as sight itself?

       I would like to believe that no matter how horrible the events of the Boston Marathon Massacre are,  we have also seen evidence of the goodness of humanity in those who helped these victims of the bomb blast. Each person that lost their life was struck down in their youth. Yet when we remember them, what we see is "a dream daughter", an ambitious,  beautiful and talented Chinese graduate student from Boston University and an 8-year old boy with a wish for  peace.

    What we remember about these souls who died and what we see is their love. Love that is this beautiful can never die. To their friends and families we express our sorrow and gratitude that they were here.

                                     One hand, One heart (Leonard Bernstein-West Side Story)

Aspect of Love

“Love is eternal -- the aspect may change, but not the essence. There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is burning. The lamp was there and was a good lamp, but now it is shedding light too, and that is its real function. And love makes one calmer about many things, and that way, one is more fit for one's work.”  ~Vincent van Gogh

Two Lovers-Vincent van Gogh

Find the light in each other and  find things beautiful as much as you can. "Most people find too little beautiful," said van Gogh. It is comforting to view love as a radiant kind of light. It would be great if we could all become lovers of the light.

                                            

                                 Mumford & Sons - Lover Of The Light

  

Light into a Cup

A poet

A poet is someone
Who can pour Light into a cup
and raise it to nourish your
beautiful parched holy mouth.

--Hafiz

When you are ready to love another person, their face has a holy look to it, as if it contains a hidden source of light or inner joy. Listen to this song City of Joy and consider how these old tea cups would look when filled with wax. Click on the caption below for directions from Martha Stewart. I think you should be able  to use left over birthday or anniversary candles as well.
And if you ever forget that nourishing light, lift these cups from the cupboard, put a match to that  wick and re-discover that light again in your lover's eyes.

Tea Cup Lights

Music and poetry share many commonalities. Most prevalent is the ability of both art forms to cut through outer layers of experience and touch the very soul…

Love Your Feet

"I love your feet
because they have
wandered over
the earth and through
the wind and water
until they brought
you to me."
-Pablo Neruda

 If you are going to follow your heart you will be wandering over many roads. No matter, we make a road by walking, says the poet Antonio Machado (sung by Joan Manuel Serrat).  I love the soles of the feet of this person in the picture below. Without seeing her face, you know she is laughing. Imagine your feet and the feet of the one you love. Isn't it wonderful to remember the road that brought you both together?

Photo Credit

French Hearts

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (from his book The Little Prince)

As the poet Wendell Berry has said, there are “things that can be known only by cherishing.” These things must be known “not just conceptually but imaginatively as well. . . . They must be pictured in the mind and in the memory; they must be known with affection, ‘by heart.’

     While on Earth, the Little Prince encounters a fox.  Because he was depressed, the Little Prince asks the fox to play with him.  The fox tells him that due to his untamed nature, he cannot play with the Little Prince.  He explains that they must first establish ties with each other and become friends. After the fox instructs the Little Prince how to tame him, the two form a very strong and meaningful friendship. Through this friendship, the Little Prince learns that "one sees clearly only with the heart.  Anything essential is invisible to the eyes."    

     The Fox is a representation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s ideal relationship: friendship.  Friendship is not easy, it requires time and understanding from both parties.  However, if sufficient effort is made, it can be extremely gratifying.  The Fox is an allegory for the challenges and rewards close friendships bring.

   I remember reading the "The Little Prince" years and years ago. I love the passage above   the most. The illustration is of those words as it appears in the French version. Saint-Exupery , a Frenchman, actually wrote the book in New York and submitted the manuscript to his publishers with his original drawings in two languages: English and French.

    The Little Prince is both the most read and most translated book in the French language, and was voted the best book of the 20th century in France. Translated into more than 250 languages and dialects (including braille), selling over a million copies per year with sales totaling more than 140 million copies worldwide, it has become one of the best-selling books ever published.

      Together with this French theme, I would like you to listen to this love song "She" sung by Charles Aznavour, one of France's most popular and enduring singers. I had not heard it before because it is from another generation. Now, I think it should be remembered as one of the great love songs of our  time.

    

The Great Gift

This day, right now, is special. It will never come again. Life is a great gift.
When you open your eyes and look or remember the face of the people you love, it fills you with a sense of happiness. Sometime if the image in front of you is painful, you have to close your eye and imagine paradise.
  In this TED video about Gratitude, I love the line from the video "we protect what we fall in love with."



    This picture of the leaf that has been cut into the shape of a heart reminds me to look for love and if need be, create it.  It is an inspirational image to feel the pleasure and the beauty of nature.
   But before we can look into the eyes of another person with love, we must first look into our own eyes and love what we see.  Look in the mirror, few of us ever look into our own eyes with love. Practice looking into your own eyes and continue this exercise every day until the criticism gets replaced and kindness and gratitude become habitual.