Find Me

   I was just looking for one beautiful song to start the morning and then I found this site.
You have to feel good after listening to this song called "Blow Up" by Kid Francescoli
    In this music video, a person named Julia asks her boyfriend a question: "If I am ever missing, will you try to find me?"
     You want him to find her, but on morning 366, she disappears and the guy must follow clues to find the girl.  How far would you go to find the girl of your dreams. Would you follow her like Jay Gatsby did, in the novel The Great Gatsby, even to the edge of doom?
    
     Here is some more info on the video from the directors.

 Lyrics to "Blow Up"

Each night I wake up in heat
How do you want me to find sleep?
Your walk is my TV show
I don't need more, I don't need blow

We don't cook and we don't fix
Summer wine is all we need
Seven glasses in a row
We don't need more, we don't need blow

Rules of the game:
To help you find the girl you aim
She loves pain and she loves sugar
She loves kisses, she loves hazard
As Alice she takes a pill, as a ghost, she haunts the field
In the steam her finger draws
Something smiling, I do not know
Tic tac, tic tac the end is near
When winter comes, she disappears
One means two, boy, don't miss the train
You are warned, you're not to blame
Red, yellow, blue, a dancing girl in front of you
Another thing you cannot see
Read the book and follow me

I'm in New York and I'm fine
I've got your love and peace of mind
Playing on my pillow drums
And sleeping on your pillow butt

We don't cook and we don't fix
Summer wine is all we need
Seven glasses in a row
We don't need more, we don't need blow
We don't need more, we don't need blow

Open Arms

“Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.”  ~Leo Buscaglia

 

To embrace others we must open our arms. In this openness, we are most vulnerable to pain, sorrow and joy. If love is our desire we must be willing to reach out to those who need us. Reach out and touch somebody's hand. 

The word arms, can also refer to weapons or firearms. I am sure Leo would agree that to open our arms would release any weapons of hatred against humanity. By taking the war out of our arms, stripping our hands of all violence, we can reach an even greater love. 

    When you negotiate for peace, as when Senator George Mitchell helped form the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland, which has held for 15 years, we resurrect a fundamental truth:
   We can love in war-time, but in peace-time our love can be even greater. This concert above represents the Nobel Peace Prize concert for
 former Finnish President Ahtisaari, who also helped in Northern Ireland negotiations.

True Love

"True love is a night jasmine, a diamond in the darkness, a handful of stars tossed into the night sky, the heartbeat no cardiologist has ever heard."  ~ Jim Bishop

Jasmine flower

   
  I am sipping some green tea with jasmine as I write this entry. If you can hear your love's heartbeat through empty darkness and lonesome nights, that special sound will last even when neither of you is young or beautiful. The heartbeat of love will have a melody and a force that penetrates the darkness. True love shines like a handful of stars and is just as bright. In the darkness, love is a diamond.  

   

The Longest Day Of The Year

"To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides."   ~David Viscott

      Today is the first day of summer.  It is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the celestial new year, and the day with the most light in it...so seek the light within you...

       Since the daylight is a little longer today, use this day to shine your love a little longer and to receive that glow from  love a little longer. 
       It is not really the longest day of the year since everyday has 24 hours. Yet, if we define daylight  as that time "from sunrise to sunset", then the world is a little brighter today.
     Summer begins, crickets sing and there is love in the air. This song is a fun way to begin the summer.

Lead With Your Heart

"Lead with your heart; the rest of you will follow."

The Peruvian writer Carlos Castenada wrote in his book The Teachings of Don Juan about following your path in life.

This book records the experiences of an anthropology student who becomes the apprentice of Don Juan, a Yaqui indian "man of knowledge" who is also a shaman.  Don Juan, over a period of five years, teaches the author a little of his knowledge. He teaches through giving his apprentice various hallucinogens (psycho-active plants): peyote, datura, and a mixture of psilocybin mushrooms, genista canariensis, and other plants. Each of these plants has its own way of teaching, its own demands and its own kind. Here is an excerpt: 

"I  say it is useless to waste your life on one path, especially if that path has no heart." 

     "But how do you know when a path has no heart, Don Juan?"

"Before you embark on it you ask the question, Does this path have a
heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose
another path."

    "But how will I know for sure whether a Path has a heart or not?"

Anybody would know that. The trouble is nobody asks the- question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path."

   "How should I proceed to ask the question properly, Don Juan?"

"Just ask it."

     "I mean, is there a proper method, so I would not lie to myself and
      believe the answer is yes when it really is no?"

"Why would you lie?"

"   "Perhaps because at the moment the path is pleasant and enjoyable."

"That is nonsense. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it."

 We know when we love someone that it brings us joy. Converesly, we know when we have chosen the right path because it is a joyful journey. The path of love makes us strong. Anything else, says Don Juan, weakens us.

These are powerful words to contemplate. Lead with the heart and your journey in love will create a new awareness. The path will be good.

Love After Love

Sometimes when you need it, a song and a poem come along to provide comfort for the painful heartbreak in romance. Confused and puzzled, we stumble upon answers, or we call these meaningful coincidences by it's rightful name: synchronicity.
These two healing works of art, a song and a poem, found me on the same night when I was trying to understand the sorrow of love.

   First the song "Most of the Time" - a beautiful cover of a Bob Dylan gem by Sophie Zelmani.
Bob is mourning the loss of a relationship that for him is not really over. Sophie changes a few words to make us feel the emotional pain and heartache. It is a study in a farewell to love, with lots of regret.

Next, the poem by Derek Walcott called Love After Love reminds us we can recover from the hurt of love.  You can read the poem here, but the meaning has a greater emotional wallop when read by the poet David Whyte.
It is a comforting poem that acknowledges the hurt and the salvation that love brings. The love after love, refers to the need to love yourself again and to a future that will include another love. We never forget our lovers, but the hurt can be forgotten.

"Peel your own image from the mirror"

 I cannot improve upon these comments written about this poem by Elizabeth Gilbert:

"Here in these lines is a small banquet for your soul."

   

Human Love Begins

"Where the myth fails, human love begins. Then we love a human being, not our dream, but a human being with flaws."

Anaïs Nin

Typographic Collage

   This beautiful typographic collage drawing is based on one of Nin’s most timeless insights on love, culled from her many volumes of diaries and her love letters with Henry Miller. I read this quote and understand that when we love, we must be prepared for disappointment and amazement. When we can forgive someone for what they didn't do, we can begin to also love them as a real person, with other priorities.  Love is more than fulfilling each other's needs.
     Take time to appreciate this noble thought by Nin. Then, you can appreciate the gift of love for all that it brings. Our dreams are not flawed, but human beings can be.

Forgetfullness

    The ancient Greeks believed that after we die, our souls are  transported across a river to the afterlife. Every soul is said to receive a choice of rivers to drink from after death.  A drink from  the river  Lethe, will make you forget all your sufferings on earth, and you will not remember your past lives. But you will also forget all your joy and all the times you had love. Would you do it?
    The other river, the Mnemosyne, allows those who drank from it  to remember everything and attain omniscience, but not reincarnation. Which river would you drink from? Does the power of earthly love make you always wish to remember it?

                                                      Sarah McLaughlin - I Will Remember You

Must Love Dogs and ... Dolphins

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

Anatole France

 This type of human-animal love recognizes a divine spirit in everyone and everything. These friendships are not romantic, but they lead to a greater understanding of romantic love. Human-animal friendships, especially with dogs, help us with understanding grief, loneliness and happiness. They teach us about our capacity to love unconditionally.

Dogs are great ice breakers, they keep you company and also win you friends. Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo tells the story of a lonely little girl called India Opal Buloni. One day, she takes home a stray dog she finds outside a supermarket. She names him Winn-Dixie, the name of the supermarket. Life is definitely better with little Winn-Dixie beside her.

   Here are a list of some "dog stories".

Read an excerpt of the novel Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook here  and watch a trailer of the movie  "Must Love Dogs".  It is a romantic comedy about life after divorce.