Tchaikovsky and His Love Letters

Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck  is best known today for her artistic relationship with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. She supported him financially for 13 years, enabling him to devote himself full-time to composition, but she stipulated that they were never to meet.

He  dedicated  his Fourth Symphony to her and during thse years he created some of the world's most beautiful music and wrote her over 1,2000 letters

There is a Russian website where all(?) the Tchaikovsky/Von Meck letters are published: http://www.tchaikov.ru/letter.html

With the help of Google Translate you can read them (in bad English of course, but in general it’s quite clear what it’s all about).

    The title  of the Fourth symphony reads: "Dedicated to my best friend."
He wrote in one of his letters to her: 
  "But I never told you that I owe you everything. The main thing is that I love you so much.
    Your Petr Chaikovsky

Their friendship ended with a letter. After 13 years, this invisible friend wrote to tell him she could no longer support him financially. She ends the letter with  the words "remember me sometimes."

The Piano Trio gained much popularity in Tchaikovsky's lifetime and was a work that naturally found its place in memorial events in St. Petersburg and Moscow. It is fitting therefore to listen to this excerpt as both a tribute and memorial to their friendship and love.

A Fortune

Here is a very short story called A Fortune from the University of Florida Digital Libraries  that reminds us that love is the fortune we should seek. Our fortune grows when we can share our love and happiness with others.

   One day a man was walking along the street, and he was sad at heart. Business was dull. He had set his desire upon a horse that cost a thousand dollars, and he had only eight hundred with which to buy it. There were other things, to be sure, that might be bought with eight hundred dollars, but he did not want those; so he was sorrowful, and thought the world a bad place.
    As he walked, he saw a child running toward him. It was a strange child; but when he looked at it, its face lightened like sunshine and broke into smiles. The child held out its closed hand.
     "Guess what I have!", it cried gleefully.
     "Something fine, I am sure," said the man pleasantly.
The child nodded and drew nearer, then opened its hand.
     "Look!" it said; and the street rang with its happy laughter.

 The man looked, and in the child's hand lay a penny.
     "Hurrah!" said the child.
     "Hurrah!" said the man.
Then they parted and the child went and bought a stick of candy, and saw all the world red and white in stripes.
The man went and put his eight hundred dollars in the savings-bank, all but fifty cents; and with the fifty cents he bought a brown hobbyhorse with white spots for his own little boy; and the little boy saw all the world brown with white spots.

     "Is this the horse you wanted to buy, father?" asked the little boy.
     "It is  the horse I have bought," said the man.
     "Hurrah!" said the little boy
     "Hurrah!" said the man.
And he saw the the world was a good place, after all.

                                                                         Hobby Horse




 

You Had Me From Hello

   Kenny Chesney wrote this song after seeing a movie starring Renee Zelwegger. It is one of the most romantic songs as it speaks about "love at first sight".  The lyrics that are the most captivating are:
            "Your smile, just captured me. And you were in my future as far as I could see."

    Some people have used this song for their wedding, others just recognize it as a great truth. When you meet the right person, the rest of the story follows this first simple word  of greeting  - "Hello". 

Kenny and Renee did get married, then had an annulment. Nevertheless, this is a great love song and survives what must have been a great, whirlwind romance, if nothing else. I love the last picture from this video of the barefoot bride and groom.

One of Chesney's biggest hits, the song called "You Had Me From Hello,"  is a takeoff on the famous line "You had me at hello" from Zellweger's breakout 1996 movie role opposite Tom Cruise, Jerry Maguire.

Renée and Kenny met on January 15, 2005, at the Concert of Hope tsunami relief benefit. Kenny was there as one of the performers, and Renée had volunteered to answer the telephones.

   
     Despite their own personal sense of hurt and loss, their compassion created healing and comfort for others.  Only love comes from listening to this song. Their fund-raising efforts and other performers brought $185  million dollars to the Irish Red Cross relief fund.

Eternal Love

“To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception; it is an eternal loss for which there is no reparation, either in time or in eternity.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

 People  who experience love are lucky. Love never dies.  We remember those we love and that  memory is everlasting. The poet Rumi called love "the water of eternal life." I think he is right. We are here on this earth, so we should drink from the water of eternal love. This is the time to love.

   

The Subject Tonight Is Love

The subject tonight is Love

And for tomorrow night as well,

As a matter of fact

I know of no better topic

For us to discuss

Until we all

Die!

                                                                                         ~Hafiz

The story of the poet Hafiz who lived in Iran is adoringly described on another blog site. The poet's muse was a ravishingly  beautiful woman whose name was Shakh-e-Nabat  (meaning ‘Branch of Sugarcane’). 

    The shape of this poem on the page reminds me of a Valentine heart.  The message is universal. Love shapes our days and nights.  Speak about love, every chance you get. Our heart is made sweeter with love.

                                                                Sugar Cane

Stumbling Toward Love

                     .
                                                                       "True North"

The enemy is in my mind
But the little belly aches give it, light
If I could be inside my body while I move my mouth, then, I
Could better swallow what I feel
And it would only be like water in a, whale
I could release you to the ocean with a mighty sound

I'll find true north, somewhere, somehow
When the road ends, and spits me out
I'll call my friends, and wipe my nose
Ill find true north, and stumble out

C'mon be a comedian
Got to admit there's something funny in the
fall to ruin
You're broken, hungover, and living in your parent's house

You'll find true north, somewhere, somehow
When the road ends, and spits you out
You'll call your friends, and wipe your nose
You'll find true north, and stumble out

I'm
I'm
Stumbling
Home

I'm
Stumbling
Home

Am I air or am I water will I dry or will I drown?
I built everything I wanted then I tore it, down

I am sure
As hot as cold
The more I learn
The less I know
I'll find true north, and settle down
Release the lowness of my doubt
I'll call my friends, and wipe my nose
I'll find true north, and stumble home

                                                     ~Jillette Johnson, from her song True North

  Here is another story about stumbling toward enlightenment by Geri Larkin

"There once was a young monk who went to his teacher in tears. He blurted out that he was having a terrible experience with his meditation practice. Every time he settled down, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, all he could see were two dragons fighting each other. One dragon was a deep blue and it was filled with anger and greed and lust. Even its fire was terrifying. It was ferocious, this dragon. The other dragon was just as ferocious. Only the other dragon, pale white, was filled with love, wisdom, and compassion. Its fire was a deep, deep yellow. The young man was terrified of what would happen. Which dragon would win? He couldn't tell and was afraid to watch them fight, which made him afraid to sit. Could the teacher please give him some advice?

"The teacher smiled. He looked at his student, his eyes filled with compassion. 'Do you want to know which dragon will win?' The young monk nodded. 'Why the one filled with love and compassion and wisdom, of course.' But how did he know asked the young monk. 'Because that's the one you'll feed."

    Both  of these entries are about stumbling. Let's feed the dragons tonight. They are hungry, but I'd rather feed the white dragon filled with love. Who knows, it might turn into a beautiful, serene green.

An Equator In Your Heart

                                     "On the Hill"  by Winslow Homer (watercolor)

                                     All the Hemispheres


Leave the familiar for awhile.
Let your senses and body stretch out

Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.
Make a water-mark on your excitement
And love.

Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting.

While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.  

                       ~Hafiz   (translated by Daniel Ladinsky)

   Today is a beautiful day.  Go lie down and stretch out your body on some slope or hill and think of this. If you live in the Western Hemisphere, somewhere in another  hemisphere, someone else is stretching out their body or their senses on another hill. 
   There are many things we can change, simply by changing our thoughts. There are  a thousand forms inside of us to explore. Welcome them all.
    I think about these words of comfort: "All the hemispheres in existence lie beside an equator in your heart."
    The equator of our heart must be quite big to hold all those hemispheres. So think about that power inside your body today. Perhaps our heart is bigger than we imagined and capable of great possibilities, including love.
   Hafiz, (c. 1320 to 1389)  was a beautiful, mystic, Sufi poet from Persia. He did not know the anatomy of the heart (Leonardo da Vinci would display his anatomical drawings about 1489).  His description of our heart is not anatomic. Our hearts are as big as the universe. I will look at my heart differently now and see not just atria and ventricles separated by a septum, but an unseen equator. Like the tides, our heart has its own hidden rhythm. 

Falling In Love

                                                            Falling in Love at 71 (video)


A lot of things fall in  Autumn.  Leaves fall, apples fall  and so do people, sometime fall in love at the very ripe age of 71. This video makes me smile, especially the ending. Read the full story in the New York Times here.
   Age is no obstacle to love. That is the mystery of love. Here's another sweet love story. This time it is about a nonagenarian and the story is set to music.