The Gardener

The Gardener  XXVIII- Rabindranath Tagore

"Your questioning eyes are sad. They

seek to know my meaning as the moon

would fathom the sea.

I have bared my life before your

eyes from end to end, with nothing

hidden or held back. That is why you

know me not.

If it were only a gem, I could break

it into a hundred pieces and string

them into a chain to put on your neck.

If it were only a flower, round and

small and sweet, I could pluck it from

its stem to set it in your hair.

But it is a heart, my beloved.

Where are its shores and its bottom?

You know not the limits of this

kingdom, still you are its queen.

If it were only a moment of pleasure

it would flower in an easy smile, and

you could see it and read it in a

moment.

If it were merely a pain it would

melt in limpid tears, reflecting its

inmost secret without a word.

But it is love, my beloved.

Its pleasure and pain are boundless,

and endless its wants and wealth.

It is as near to you as your life, but

you can never wholly know it.

                                 Listen to Kandale Tumi More on sitar

   The Nobel Prize winner and polymath , Rabindrabath Tagaore, wrote his poetry in the Bengali language of his native India. He also wrote songs like "Kindale Tumi More" ( my favorite from the collection above). The translation of "The Gardener", a volume of love poetry, is by the author. 
   "Love has no limits," he tells his lover and queen. Love is not merely a  gem that can be cut into pieces and strung into a necklace. Nor is it just a flower. He tells his beloved that his love is boundless and endless in its wants and wealth.
   Our life is  a gift and love is another gift. With these two gifts we need nothing more in this world for happiness.  But love is also a mystery and "you can never wholly know it".

Three Strands

Damien Rice

Two people enter marriage based on their prior experiences. Yet marriage connects deeper than physical togetherness. It requires that the couple "understand each other's thoughts and dreams." (Gibran)
  If the basis for  marriage has its foundation in friendship, then subsequent arguments will not break apart the strands of the marriage knot.
   This quote and story about marriage is illuminating:

“Though One May Be Overpowered, Two Can Defend Themselves. A Cord Of Three Strands Is Not Quickly Broken.” – Ecclesiastes 4:12

"My husband proposed with a ring that had this life verse inscribed on the inside. This verse is incredibly meaningful to both of us. Understanding that two are better than one, but that two with God is even stronger has saved our marriage multiple times! The three cords represent a husband, a wife, and God. As the three form a close relationship with each other they cannot be quickly broken. Oh how so many marriages would benefit from clinging to this verse!"

  Damien Rice's song is bittersweet and the character is preparing for  a life filled with lies, death and problems. Nevertheless, the author of Ecclesiastes has  good point. This is powerful stuff.

Full Moon

  Full Moon rises
(over the Anasazi ruins
known as Wukoki in Wupatki National Monument, Arizona)

One of the most dramatic sights in the night sky—and inspiration for poets, artists, and lovers for millennia—full moons captivate us like nothing else.
The golden voice of Frank Sinatra sang a song about the Full Moon ( His birthday was  yesterday, 12-12-2014). In this song, the singer is lonely and sad while observing the full moon.

                                                                          "Full Moon and Empty Arms"

   In 1995, Bob Dylan sang a moving birthday tribute to Frank Sinatra  (in honor of "Ol Blue Eyes" 80th Birthday) called "Restless Farewell." 

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY , MR. FRANK".  And to all the lovers out there who sit beside a full moon and wonder about holding someone special in their arms. Take the words of Mr. Dylan to heart:

                And though the line is cut, it ain't quite the end
                I'll just bid farewell till we meet again

We can look up at the sky every month and watch the full moon. Let's hope that are lives are as full as Frank and Bob. There is always a chance that love will come again.

Time and Eternity

   Time is recorded to calculate our paychecks and to determine how long the commute will take us to wrk. If you are smart, you will also record the time of your first kiss with the one you love.
  We can tell the date of our birth, but how many of us know the time?
    One jazz musician name his hit song "6:00 AM" to immortalize the birth of his daughter.
Life takes us on a journey. It is not how long you go on your journey, but how you spend the  time you are given while you are here.
    Time is a boundary between the past and the future, between yesterday and today. Time reveals to us what  we have enjoyed and it also leaves us with a memory ("suitcase of memories") of things that cannot be destroyed.
     If we have no clock, we mark time with sunrise and sunset -- the day begins and the day ends. But love has no ending. It's super power lasts forever.
    Music touches our hearts. Many musicians  record other musician's songs. These covers are also acts of  love.
     Cyndi Lauper wrote the above song with Rob Hyman.
 

• Jazz great Miles Davis recorded an instrumental cover of this in 1985. When Miles heard the Cyndi Lauper track, he just fell in love with the melody. In fact, Miles played this tune in almost all of his concerts from 1984 until just before his death in 1991."
  
  Lauper told The Sun July 25, 2008 that this is her favorite of all the many cover versions of this track. She added: "I mean it's Miles. Wow. Mindblowing!"

   
 The philosopher Nietzsche wrote:

“I shall return, with this sun, with this earth, with this eagle, with this serpent – not to a new life or a better life or a similar life:
I shall return eternally to this identical and self-same life, in the greatest things and in the smallest, to teach once more the eternal recurrence of all things,
to speak once more the teaching of the great noon-tide of earth and man, to tell of the Übermensch [Superman] once more…”
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Convalescent

 
 
 

Thanksgiving

Don Henley wrote a song  called My Thanksgiving. It is about finding gratitude in everyday,
and learning how to give love and how to receive it. 

Well, a lot of things have happened
Since the last time we spoke
Some of them are funny
Some of them ain't no joke

And I trust you will forgive me
If I lay it on the line
I always thought you were a friend of mine

And sometimes I think about you
I wonder how you're doing, now
And what you're going through

'Cause the last time I saw you, we were playing with fire
We were loaded with passion and a burning desire
For every breath, for every day of living
And this is my thanksgiving

Now, the trouble with you and me, my friend
Is the trouble with this nation
Too many blessings, too little appreciation

And I know that kind of notion, well, it just ain't cool
So send me back to Sunday school
Because I'm tired of waiting for reason to arrive
And it's too long we've been living these unexamined lives

'Cause I've got great expectations, I've got family and friends
I've got satisfying work, I've got a back that bends
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my thanksgiving

And have you noticed that an angry man
Can only get so far?
Until he reconciles the way he thinks things ought to be
With the way things are

Here in this fragmented world, I still believe
In learning how to give love, how to receive it
And I would not be among those who abuse this privilege
Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge

And I don't mind saying that I, I still love it all
I wallowed in the springtime
Now, I'm welcoming the fall

For every moment of joy, every hour of fear
For every winding road that brought me here
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my thanksgiving

For everyone who helped me start
And for everything that broke my heart
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

Gratefulness comes with every breath. The Japanese have a special word for it called Naikan. It  means "self-reflection". This form of meditation on the duality of life: : good-bad, bitter-sweet, right-wrong - requires intropection to accept one's life.
   The practice of Naikan is a form of mental psychotherapy that helps a person resolve emotional conflict and anxiety.

What  are  you grateful for this Thanksgiving? Listen to Billy Collins read the poem The Lanyard.
It leaves no doubt about his gratefulness to his mother for... well, just about everything.

Seeing Beauty

    "Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."

                                                                 ~ Franz Kafka

        Beauty surrounds us and is inside us. Someone may possess a beautiful dream inside themselves.  Another person may have a beautiful song within them.  When you appreciate beauty, says Kafka, you remain youthful. Perhaps, we should mark our birthdays, not chronologically but by another method. 

         What beauty did you see today? The greatest poets know that beauty is timeless and ageless.

    You cannot judge beauty only by the surface appearance of things. Close your eyes and listen to this song below. Can you hear the beauty? 

 Khalil Gibran said, "Beauty is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,                                   
                      But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears." 

    In September of 1942, a young doctor named Viktor Frankl, his new bride, his mother, father, and brother, were arrested in Vienna and taken to a concentration camp in Bohemia.  It was events that occurred there and at three other camps, including Auschwitz,  that led the young doctor - prisoner 119,104 - to realize the significance of meaningfulness in life.

    In his book, "Man's Search for Meaning", Viktor Frankl,  prisoner and Holocaust survivor,  wrote about his experiences and how the love of his wife sustained him:

  

 1.  "But my mind clung to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness.  I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look.  Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.

 2.  "My mind still clung to the image of my wife.  A thought crossed my mind: I didn't even know if she were still alive. I knew only one thing--which I have learned well by now: Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self.  Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance."

   When you love someone deeply, the image you see lasts even when you close your eyes. Neither sleep, remote distance, imprisonment, nor passage of time changes that beauty.

Sunny and Windy

                       
   The weather forecast may report "sunny and windy days" and that should also be the ideal forecast in in your heart.
   If you watch this video above, it starts in Paris and ends in New York. They call Paris the "City of Light."
   Why is Paris so bright?

1. Paris is often referred to as "The City of Light" ("La Ville-Lumière"), both because of its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment, and more literally because Paris was one of the first European cities to adopt gas street lighting.

   If you're going to enjoy life, you need to find someone or something that gives you light. When that light shines upon you, you are forever changed.You develop a glow that can be seen by others.
       If you are lucky enough to find that light, then row toward it, like Mary Oliver says, and let the wind push your body to embrace it.
   
   
   

   “West Wind #2
   
   You are young. So you know everything. You leap
   into the boat and begin rowing. But listen to me.
   Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without
   any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me.
   Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and
   your heart, and heart’s little intelligence, and listen to
   me. There is life without love. It is not worth a bent
   penny, or a scuffed shoe. It is not worth the body of a
   dead dog nine days unburied. When you hear, a mile
   away and still out of sight, the churn of the water
   as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the
   sharp rocks – when you hear that unmistakable
   pounding – when you feel the mist on your mouth
   and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls
   plunging and steaming – then row, row for your life
   toward it.”
   ― Mary Oliver, West Wind

The Gold of Her Laughter

“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.” 
― Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

   If we are lucky, there are persons we meet in our life who are extraordinary. These people remind us that our world is full of beauty. If that person is a woman, she may fill your life with "the gold of her laughter".  She may make your heart beat "wild with the breeze of her sighs."
 
   Our lives are complicated and far from simple.  Still, when there are cracks in our life, beauty can be found, music can be made, brokeness can be made whole again, and these cracks can be filled with the gold of friendship and laughter.

You & I (Forever)

"Thy voice was a censer that scattered strange perfumes, and when I looked on thee I heard a strange music."
       ~Oscar Wilde, Salome

A beautiful voice, whether by speech or song, is full of flavor. It appears in the air like incense and carries an intimacy, we long to hear again and again. Rosy scents and spicy pumpkin scents are unforgettable in Autumn.

   Read the poem  "Like This" by Rumi. His words always have a deep fragrance.

"If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is,
or what “God’s fragrance” means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.

Like this."

                                Perfume inspired by Rumi  - "Like This" by Etat Libre d'Orange

Yes

Yes  
It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.
Or sunshine, love, salvation.

It could you know. That's why we wake
and look out - no guarantees
in this life.

But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening.
                       ~William Stafford
         

     We are living in an age of constant Armageddon. There are daily threats to our health ( such as the Ebola virus), threats to our security, threats to our families, and threats in our schools.  How can we survive this seemingly endless attack to our well-being?
      By choosing someone with a strong heart, by listening for that loud heartbeat, perhaps we can look out on everyday for love and salvation. "Nobody knows how loud the heart gets."

 In the movie Avatar, one of the characters,  named Neytiri rescues Jake by saying: "You have a strong heart. No fear. "  That's what it takes today to survive. That's why Neytiri chooses to save Jake who is about to be devoured by a creature. We cannot be a society that lives in fear. We need more romances like Jake Sully and Neytiri.

    

The Invisible Pharmaceutical

     There is something healing about the beauty of music. It can change a tattered life, alleviate pain, and for a brief period,  provide a spiritual oasis to someone with mental illness. Listen to the story of Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez from 60 Minutes. Violinist Robert Gupta has called music "the invisible pharmaceutical".
     Music can transform you into a different person, even a more loving and kinder person.

                                                   The Soloist -  Trailer

The Art of Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHh5t52Z6J0

  After three marriages, a very successful recording career, and selling over 125 million record albums, Neil Diamond at age 73  is in love and shows no signs of slowing down. He just married his fourth wife and manager, Katie McNeil.
    Is he an expert in "The Art of Love"?

The Art of Love

The Art of Love ( song by Neil Diamond)

Erich Fromm says in his book The Art of Loving:

 "Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love."

It is never too late to find the melody of love. Why is that?   

Perhaps it is as Joseph Addison (a 17th Century English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician) said:

 "Love is a second life; it grows into the soul, warms every vein, and beats in every pulse."

Maybe love keeps us young. 

Fragile Wind

                               Nitin Sawhney - Fragile Wind


     The wind inspires people in different ways. To some the wind carries a tune of love to our ears. For others the wind causes things to rise like airplanes or  Chinese lanterns. When these lanterns are lit for the memory of those we love, a fragile wind lifts our thoughts heavenward.  In the movie
The Wind Rises, the wind can be a love story "between two people and between a creator and his invention."  In this animated movie, the couple originally meet because the wind blows off the hat of the young boy and the girl catches it.  As adults, they meet again. This time the  wind blows off the hat that is being worn by the woman and the man catches it.

                                                                        The Wind Rises 

    The wind can caress us and touch us as gently as a kiss; it can play with our hair:

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair” 
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Unlike a hurricane, a fragile wind is always welcome, in whatever delightful form it takes.

The Days Before Marriage

Blake Shelton - God Gave Me You (Official Video)

 In her book Idea to Invention, Patricia Nolan-Brown writes to "Trust Synchronicity".
    "Sometimes you have no idea why something suddenly appears on your radar screen, only to discover a few months later that it holds the key to a splendid new idea....The more you trust yourself and the things that just "accidentally" cross your path, the more wonderful synchronous stuff starts to happen: books fall open at just the right page, products practically leap off the shelves, a friend
"just happens" to mention something that solves a problem. Like magic."
   Love comes into our lives sometimes and can lead to some very happy "accidents"--Why did you meet that special person? What would have happened to your life if you took a different job offer or a different train to work. Stay open to the unexpected,  coincidental and serendipitous moments in life. Blake Shelton is giving us his answer.

    In 2011, country music singer Blake Shelton covered the song for his album Red River Blue. Shelton  said that the song  (written by Dave Barnes) inspired him to propose to then-girlfriend Miranda Lambert; the music video (see link above) included footage from Lambert the night before their wedding. It is like having Blake Shelton as his own Wedding Singer. It is a romantic song and singing it live  a few days before his wedding,  shows his state of mind and his prenuptial gratitude.

When Angels Speak

The angels are so enamored of the language that is spoken in heaven, that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether there be any who understand it or not.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "Intellect," Essays

It is comforting to know that there exists a language only spoken by angels.
But even if we could speak that language, The Holy Bible says:

1 Corinthians 13:1-13English Standard Version (ESV)

 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."

So when you speak,  use  your voice for love.

in love by bell hooks

in love
there are no closed doors
each threshold
an invitation
to cross
take hold
take heart
and enter here
at this point
where truth
was once denied

What Light

Romeo and Juliet 2.2—The Balcony Scene
"But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon..."

~ William Shakespeare


    When you see someone you love, it is  like a tremendous light in the darkness. Romeo describes that light in Juliet's face.  
      When  you see that light fall upon you, you feel joy. You hear music ( birds come further in the stanza) and the music is playing a beautiful melody.  This "fair sun" shines upon us and glows inside us. "Let your little light shine" sings Joni Mitchell, ever so softly.
      This balcony scene has been set to music by Nino Rota,  and  other composers, like Abel Korzeniowski and Hector Berlioz, have also created their unique beautiful compositions. Listen to the actors who played Romeo and Juliet tell their story.
  

Quest

                                    Quest by Ken Pedersen

“Everything you possess of skill, and wealth, and handicraft,
wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?"  ~ Rumi

Our quest for love and kindness never ends.  Listen to Don Quixote's quest:

ALDONZA 
Why do you do these things? 

DON QUIXOTE 
What things? 

ALDONZA 
These ridiculous... the things you do! 

DON QUIXOTE 
I hope to add some measure of grace to the world. 

ALDONZA 
The world's a dung heap and we are maggots that crawl on it! 

DON QUIXOTE 
My Lady knows better in her heart. 

ALDONZA 
What's in my heart will get me halfway to hell. 
And you, Señor Don Quixote-you're going to take 
such a beating! 

DON QUIXOTE 
Whether I win or lose does not matter. 

ALDONZA 
What does? 

DON QUIXOTE 
Only that I follow the quest. 

ALDONZA 
(spits) 
That for your Quest! 
(turns, marches away; stops, turns bock 
and asks, awkwardly) 
What does that mean... quest? 

DON QUIXOTE 
It is the mission of each true knight... 
His duty... nay, his privilege! 
To dream the impossible dream, 
To fight the unbeatable foe, 
To bear with unbearable sorrow 
To run where the brave dare not go; 
To right the unrightable wrong. 

To love, pure and chaste, from afar, 
To try, when your arms are too weary, 
To reach the unreachable star! 

This is my Quest to follow that star, 
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far, 
To fight for the right 
Without question or pause, 
To be willing to march into hell 
For a heavenly cause! 

And I know, if I'll only be true 
To this glorious Quest, 
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm 
When I'm laid to my rest. 

And the world will be better for this, 
That one man, scorned and covered with scars, 
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage, 
To reach the unreachable stars!