"Please send me your last pair of shoes, worn out with dancing as you mentioned in your letter, so that I might have something to press against my heart." - Johann Wolfgang von Goeth
When we are babies we must first learn to crawl, then walk, then run. If we are lucky, when we are older, we may fall in love and understand what it means to learn to fly. Love lifts up our feet and gives us wings. The closest experience to flying is dancing. You partner lifts you in his arms, up into the air, or you jump (saute) across the room. The piano player of this song, Bebo Valdés is 83. Dancing makes you younger. Listen to Bebo play and imagine you have pressed against your heart some lover's old dancing shoes Locumis refers to African slaves who were brought to Santo Domingo and Cuba. Dancing also makes you feel free.
This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application...
You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:
1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die. 2. An old friend who once saved your life. 3. The perfect partner [man (or) woman] you have been dreaming about.
Knowing that there can only be room for one passenger in your car, whom would you choose?
You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first; or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.
The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer:
“I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams.”
Some things do get better with age but spices are not among them. So when looking through my cabinet, I was shocked to realize how long some of my spice containers had been around. Sincespices and herbs can be an important way of adding flavor,I ran out to the store to get fresh spices. I was making a spinach and carrot quiche, and both my bottle of red pepper flakes and nutmeg were outdated.
All McCormick items now have "Best by" dates printed on them. If your container or package does not have a “Best by” date code (mm/dd/yy), it was manufactured prior to 2004. Here is a list of herbs and spices for romance. Have you had success with any of these yourself?
I haven't tried it, but it does contain a few of those spices of romance.
Here is some music to play while you are cooking. Dave Koz used to play in the cookin' band with Emeril Lagasse.
The popularity of Martin Luther King, Jr. continues to this day, but this is how he wished to be remembered:
"If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, which isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards, that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I’d like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr tried to love somebody. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Coretta Scott King, wrote in her autobiography that it was "Balm in Gilead" that "my husband quoted when he needed a lift."
The first stanza she cited in "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr." reads:
Sometimes I feel discouraged And think my work's in vain But then the Holy Spirit Revives my soul again.
Sometimes we are willing to follow love to the very edge of the world. We travel to the "edge of the ledges" we've made between our past and the uncertain future. The love we seek only provides a path to the traveler, not necessarily a final destination. The book, "Come To The Edge", written by Christina Haag, a girlfriend of John F. Kennedy, Jr., seems at first to be about a tabloid star, but it is really about taking love to the ledge or edge of your being. When you are in love, you can feel your heart beat fast and happiness is your only cosmetic.
She describes her relationship with this famous American as "the sunniest years of her life". I think when she reflects back on her time with him, before his untimely death in an airplane crash, she steps off into something solid to stand on - her beautiful memories.
And he wants everybody to share that passion and joy. Once
smitten, the young Frenkel became obsessed with learning as much ofmathematics as he could. (“This is what happens when you fall in love.”)
Frenkel created a film called "Rites of Love and Math" to help others appreciate the beauty of mathematics. The“formula of love” used in the film was one that Frenkel himself discovered (in the courseof investigating the mathematical underpinnings of quantum field theory). It is beautiful, yet forbidding. The only numbers in it are zero, one, and infinity. Isn’t love like that?
To get an idea how mathematical beauty can open the door to love , listen to the counterpoint of Bach'sPrelude and Fugue No.1 in C Major from The Well- Tempered Clavier.
The miracle of love is that it takes many forms. We experience it as kindness, giving, mercy, compassion, peace, joy, acceptance, non-judgment, joining, and intimacy. We see miracles everyday, but we forget them just as quickly.
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” ―Thích Nhất Hạnh The miracle of love is that it is eternal and everlasting. When we return to love, when we put love back in our hearts, there is a complete transformation of everything we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.
As Marianne Williamson said in her bookA Return To Love:
"There would be no war because we wouldn’t fight. There would be no hunger because we would feed each other. There would be no environmental breakdown because we would love ourselves, our children and our planet too much to destroy it. There would be no prejudice, oppression, or violence of any kind.
There would be no sorrow. There would only be peace."
"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do." ~Steve Jobs, Commencement Speech at Stanford Steve Jobs was lucky. Not just because he was a billionaire and CEO of Apple Computers. And not because he created the world's first animation studio - Pixar. He was lucky because he met an amazing woman and fell in love. At his famous commencement speech to graduates at Stanford university, he mentioned three stories about his life: Connecting the dots, doing what you love and a story about looking in the mirror. "For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Steve Jobs reminds us: There is no reason not to follow your heart. This is his 20th anniversary message to his wife : "We didn't know much about each other twenty years ago. We were guided by our intuition; you swept me off my feet. Years passed, kids came, good times, hard times, but never bad times. Our love and respect has endured and grown. Now older, wiser, with wrinkles on our faces and hearts; we know many of life's joys, sufferings, secrets and wonders and we're still here together. My feet have never returned to the ground."
It's amazing how beautiful (and yet very distinct) each person's love story is.
When your "feet never leave the ground", you have met the person of your dreams. That connection is ethereal.
"Once upon a time, in deep winter, a queen was admiring the falling snow, when she saw a rose blooming in defiance of the cold." ~ from Snow White and the Huntsman Love takes us out of the dark forest and into a different place. Perhaps we call that place a land of enchantment, covered with beauty and joy. We cherish that enchanting world for as long as it might last. The fable/movie Snow White delivers a timely message about survival, even when the odds are not in your favor. For like that rose which blooms in defiance of the cold, true love triumphs over all odds, evil will always be punished, and the pure of heart will get their heart's desire."
When we fall in love we know that there must be an element of defiance. We must overcome the obstacles, the disappointments, the illusions, and the non-fairytale realities. I am reminded of this song "Falling Slowly". We come to this land of love with hope, expecting to survive, just like that blooming rose.
Take this sinking boat and point it home We've still got time Raise your hopeful voice You have a choice
