And Because Love Battles

     Before you meet the one you love, it is like  "living in the prairies" , says the poet Pablo Neruda. It is desolate, lonely, and dry. Love has it's battles; the battlefields of love are there for most of us to recognize. Love also has its detractors.
    But for those who love, love is a "field of agriculture" - blooming, growing and nourishing.
    Watch a reading and film of the poem  here.

And Because Love Battles

       by Pablo Neruda

And Because Love Battles

And because love battles
not just in its own burning fields
but also in the mouths of men and women,
I will finish this fight by taking the trail
from those would come between my chest and your fragrance
to plant their confused plants.

They will say about me
nothing worse, my love,
than what I have told you myself.

Before I knew you,
I lived in the prairies.
I never waited for love to come.
I ambushed the rose and fell upon her with fierceness.

What more can they say?
I am neither good nor bad, but a man.
They will bring up the danger
of my life, which you know,
and with which you have mingled your passion.

For it is good, this danger.
It’s the danger of love, of perfect love,
for all life
and all lives.
And if this love brings us
death or prison,
I’m sure your big eyes will close
(as they close when I kiss them)
with pride,
with double pride, my love,
yours and mine together.

They will come to speak before my ears
to tear down the tower
of the sweet, hard love that joins us.
They will say, “The one you love
is not the woman for you.
Why do you love her?  Surely
you could find another more beautiful,
more serious, more deep,
more other … Do you understand me?
Look how slender this one is.
Look what a face that one has.
Look how she dresses.
And so on, and so on …”

And so, in these lines, I say to you:
I love you like this, love.
Like this, I love you:
as you wear what you wear,
as your hair floats,
as your mouth smiles
light as spring water
running over pure stones.
Like this, love, I love you.

I don’t ask bread
to teach me anything
except how to care for each day.
I know nothing about light,
where it comes from, where it goes.
I only ask the light to be light.
I do not ask the night
for explanations.
I await it, and it swallows me.
And it’s the same with you too,
you who are bread and light
and shadows.

You came into my life
with just what you had:
things made of
the light and bread and shadows
for which I waited.
And I need you that way.
I love you that way.
And to those who will hear this tomorrow,
they can read here what I will not say.
But let them keep their distance today,
for it is still early for such arguments.

Tomorrow we will give them only
a leaf from the tree of our love, a leaf
dropped on the earth
as though it had been made by our lips
as though it were a kiss that had fallen
from unfathomable heights
to show the fire and the tenderness
of a love that is true.

– Pablo Neruda

Translated from Spanish by Paul Weinfield, © 2013

The Battle of Love by Paul Cezanne

   

                                               

Iditarod And Learning About Love And Happiness

Ruby - AKC registered Siberian Husky

“Mostly, it was just me walking them. My own private Iditarod. And it wasn’t a picnic. Just so you know, if you ever see a person walking four dogs, there are two things you can cross off your list of what to exclaim: (1) “Who’s walking who?” and (2) “Looks like you got your hands full.” Both lines are stupid and someone else has already said them. You might consider saying, “Hey, pretty girl!” or “Wow, four dogs sure make you look thin!” 

― Julie Klam, You Had Me at Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secrets of Happiness

                                                           Iditarod by Soon Hee Newbold

Happiness is wordless. Dogs show us that without speaking our language. Love can also be a wordless communication. We can learn to recognize that wordless happiness and learn a lot about human love, by caring for a dog.

Two Gardens

                       The Wind, One Brilliant Day                                                                        

                The wind, one brilliant day, called
                to my soul with an odor of jasmine.

              "In return for the odor of my jasmine,
              I'd like all the odor of your roses."

              "I have no roses; I have no flowers.
              All the flowers in my garden are dead."

              "Then I'll take the waters of the fountains,
              and the yellow leaves and the dried-up petals."

              The wind left... I wept. I said to my soul,
              "What have you done with the garden entrusted to you?"

                                         ~ Antonio Machado  (translated by Robert Bly)

    In  memory of the great martyr, humanitarian, peace-keeper, and preacher of love, I present this video of The Civil Rights Garden dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr.  His birthday will be celebrated this year on January 19, 2015.  The garden is located in Atlantic City, New Jersey and appears to be a beautiful way to celebrate the life of Dr. King. The video is from the photographs of Anthony Smedile.
    The Spanish poet Antonio Machado confronts us with an eternal question. "What are you doing with your Garden (meaning Your Life)?"  If your life is dedicated to helping others, giving love and trying to make the world a better place, then I think your Garden is well planted.
      Poets and Dreamers leave us with a Magic Life.

Songs of Happiness

The Coca-Cola company ran a contest to find 52  Songs of Happiness. You can listen to one of those songs here by a New Jersey woman [Ashlee Kingsley "Ice Kingdom"], whose original song got chosen.
This contest made me start to think  -

What  does happiness sound like? It might sound a little like these words by Hafiz.

"Stay close to any sounds that make you glad you are alive." ~ Hafiz

"Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you.
I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in the darkness, the astonishing light of your own being." ~ Hafiz

    Happiness sometimes appears like the sound of running feet on a pavement or road. The running is toward
something that attracts us or that gives us light.
   You can even sign us up for a free  course on happiness here.

Next time you sign up for a 5K race or more, think of those sounds that make you glad you're alive.

The World Spins Madly On

The beginning of each New Year  is  a great time to make "a fresh start".  You can make a new resolution. You can change what can be changed.
Some things continue to haunt us though and this animated video is a reminder of "lost love". It is called "Thought of You", based on the song below by "The Weepies".
    http://vimeo.com/14803194

If it does seem "like the whole world is moving, but you're standing still" there is still a good reason to find joy and hope. You have to wait for it. New discoveries are made everyday for illness, new jobs become available, new circumstance can arise from lost opportunities.
   As for love, well certain thoughts, like certain people are unerasable.  Love leaves its feathers somewhere near you even after it's gone. That love is the foundation for a new journey and new hope.
Take your faults and sufferings and make them beautiful.
    To quote fashion editor of Vogue magazine, Diana Vreeland:

“I think when you’re young you should be a lot with yourself and your sufferings. Then one day you get out where the sun shines and the rain rains and the snow snows and it all comes together.”

Think of the New Year not as a number, but a new color.  What color will you choose?

Listen to the artist, Ryan J. Woodward describe his artistic vision here.
http://vimeo.com/21096567