Your Warm Embrace

"At least one moment everyday
I hear the echo of your voice
And though it's only in my mind,it stays with me
I have no choice..."

My thoughts are clear and the picture of my love is distinct and special. This duet captures the spirit of a love that is not forgotten. When love is ageless, the face you remember is that glorious day you first met. Love is ageless and its image in your mind only improves with time.

Rays of Comfort

Love brings us 1,000 dreams and lifts us high. Two lovers, a thousand miles apart and yearning to be back in each other's arms, may find a ray of comfort as they gaze upon the same Moon, knowing that they are bathing together in celestial light from the same source.

    So whether it is night or day, the sky is where we find our comfort. Look up. Stay positive and you will never fail. In the dark sky, we see stars that have their own stories to share.

The Gift of Love

                                             Wedding Music

Jean Anouilh - French Playwright

Before you can love another person you must love yourself. Only then can we pass this gift to others.
The gift of love is sweet, musical and timeless. The gift of love is ageless and without borders. When we love another person, we share our inner feelings,  becoming vulnerable,  buy taking a chance that our love is the greatest gift we can pass on to another person.

"The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (The Wheel of Life, 1997)

The Second Sunrise

"The echo of her laughter is the second sunrise I awaken to each day, and at night I feel it is more than stars looking down on me. " 

           ~Jerry Spinelli ( from his book Stargirl )

The new morning opens with rays of light, but a second sunrise also occurs when the right person walks into the room. This indoor sunrise is different from the outdoor one. This second sunrise is the transformation of darkness to light, from ugliness to beauty, and from hatred to love.

Sunrise over New York City & Newark Liberty International Airport

When the second sunrise shines, you can turn your head toward the incredible light and hear the laughter.

Embrace

During a surf session on Halloween morning 2003, Bethany was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark, which bit off her left arm and seemed to end her career as a rising surf star. Just one month after the attack, Bethany returned to the water and just over a year later won her first National title. In 2007, she realized her dream of surfing professionally and since then her story has been told in a New York Times best selling autobiography and in the 2011 film, SOUL SURFER.
For many in the surfing world, the term “soul surfer” (coined in the 1960s) often refers to someone who doesn’t compete, who surfs simply for the pleasure of surfing.
   If you are anchored in love and faith, you can overcome any insurmountable obstacle.Finding your courage allows you to embrace your passions.

The Pillow You Sleep On

   When you close your eyes at night, do you dream of a love that's far away. Despite the smoking,
Dean Martin captures the essence of a lover dreaming about his distant mate.
   Sleepers who snore can also laugh at this new device which seems to alleviate that common complaint of couples.
   It's called nora. Sweet dreams to all.

Pianos on State

Once  a year, for one week in October, in the romantic city of Santa Barbara, California, pianos are placed on State Street for anyone to sit down and play. They are decorated by local artists and the event is called Pianos on State.


 This Oktoberfest is a beautiful reminder that music and romance make a wonderful connection. If you were to sit down at the piano and play I think the exquisite beauty of the song "Julia" by Ludovico Einaudi would be a sensational melody to play as the stars come out.

Piano on State Street

Imagine

   There is a light in some people that never goes out.  John Lennon, who was born today, October 9, 1940 was one of those lights. I try to remember his words of wisdom about peace now, as the the world seems more violent and destructive,  and the response to gun violence and campus killings is answered with messages of more violence.

   John Lennon asked us to imagine peace.  I wish today we could imagine it and learn to live with each other on this planet. In memory of his great work and to celebrate his life, let us all imagine peace. After we imagine peace, the next dream is to love each other.  

   Visit his website created by Yoko Ono and leave a candle in his memory.

Heart and Home

When you think of home, it is not always a physical place or structure. It is a special place where you feel welcome, safe and at ease. It's also an idea - one where the heart is. Randy Newman realizes this when he sings:

A window breaks
Down a long dark street
And a siren wails in the night
But I'm alright 'cause I have you here with me
And I can almost see
Through the dark there's a light
 
   The worn trail of life can lead us to a home that changes us. The house we knew may even have broken windows. But love creates a new birthplace. There is a harmony in a good home and a deep affection for all who live there.
    I also like Neil Diamond's version of this song.  You can feel his emotion a little deeper.

Love at First Sight (Chagall and Bella)

What is clear when looking at the paintings of Marc Chagall is that he loved his wife, Bella. Even when her back is toward him, he will twist her head backwards in some of the paintings, as if to say, I never want to lose sight of you.
    The fusion of love and art reveals that true love is both an emotional and a physical contemplation. The spirit of their love floats in the air and has wings that take them higher than all buildings on the ground.  There is comfort and companionship with all creatures in nature and those that are fanciful.
   Chagall's paintings of his wife Bella reveal an endless love. Without hearing her voice or even knowing much about her, we see his love for her and feel their inseparable connection.

Marc Chagall rhapsodized, “Her silence is mine. Her eyes, mine. I feel she has known me always, my childhood, my present life, my future; as if she were watching over me, divining my innermost being, though this is the first time I have seen her. I knew this is she, my wife.”
  

"Wedding" - Marc Chagall (1918)

In this portrait of their wedding, we see some heart-winged figure above them (their little daughter, Ida, born in 1916) and on Bella's cheek, a reflection of a human figure, depicting perhaps or foretelling the great artist he would become. 

9/11 Tribute

   Love cannot be buried beneath rubble or destroyed by flames of fire. Love enters into our souls and stays with us beyond all years and lives with us in an eternal embrace. The Japanese writer Haruki Murakami put it this way:
   

              “What we call the present is given shape by an accumulation of the past.”

   Love accumulates inside us, growing stronger with every year of remembrance. 

A book to remember a beloved husband, killed in the Twin Towers, called Where You Left Me, is a beautiful tribute to love.

                                 

In a Certain Light, As After Rain
--Carolyn Forche

I can see you descending.
You step just on the toes
of your shoes like a faery,
like horses doing dressage,
touching the earth with only
the fine points of their hooves,
as I dabble with cleaning
solution, Tide for the laundry,
in the house where you left me,
after the rabid rain,
unable to let go of the single bird
singing or the rain-specked world.

Here Comes the Sun

      When you feel the warm sun in the morning, it is the same warmth you get when you are surrounded by love.  That morning sun makes birds sing. That morning sun is a special type of sunlight. It boosts the metabolism.
 According to a Chicago university study, the prime time to bask in the sun is between 8 AM and 12 noon. 

The study found that those who benefited most from the early morning sunlight were those exposed to more than 500 lux. (Lux is a unit of light measurement) To help you understand, the brightest indoor lighting only goes up to 500 lux, while dim indoor lighting can go as low as 150 lux. Sunlight STARTS at 1,000 lux, and increases as the day gets brighter.  

  There is generally a higher amount of blue light (shorter wavelength) in the morning. Blue light has been shown to have the strongest effect on the circadian system and metabolism.

    So look for love at night and in the bright morning sun. With every new day, we experience new light. If we are lucky, our love stays the same and has a brighter effect on us in the sunlight.

YOU RAISE ME UP

    The composer of this song, Rolf Lovland, from the Irish-Norwegian duo Savage Garden,  song said of this song "“there's something about the song people are embracing - which becomes emotionally strong".  What is clear is that if you see love in the lyrics, the words guide you to a deeper appreciation of how love transforms us.

           When I am down and, oh, my soul, so weary;
                When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
          Then I am still and wait here in the silence,
           Until you come and sit awhile with me.

    The singer of this song, Martin Hurkens, from Holland, lost his job as a baker and decided to go to the streets to sing for money. He had mouths to feed. The different couples who stopped to listen to him are sharing something beautiful together.
  When love reaches into your heart and you are changed by it, you feel no violence, you feel only joy.  That joy bursts forth despite our circumstance.
 Perhaps another , Dutchman said it best.
    "What is done in love, is done well. " - Vincent van Gogh

A Pair of Lovers - Vincent van Gogh

 

Monsters of the Sky

"A great flame follows a little spark."   

  ~Dante Alighieri (from the book "The Divine Comedy" )

  Some people call the piercing storms with thunder and lightning "The Monsters of the Sky".
That sudden spark of light lights up the sky. It can be terrifying or beautiful depending on your perspective, age and understanding. We are more vulnerable during a thunderstorm and we must take cover for protection and safety.
    But from a little spark, the lightning of love can brighten our paths. We take shelter in each other. The sounds of thunder are intense heartbeats and the lightning is a wave of energy that brighten the sky like a haunting flame.

Love is a great power and illuminates our lives in the same way that lightning does. It is a majestic or divine source of energy. When it is the right kind of love, "there exists no other truth".  Like the thunder, we are tossed about by our passions.
via Save a Quote <http://www.saveaquote.com/poems/authors-poems/poem-237098>

You and I Have Learned

   The actor Leonard Nimoy was also a poet. In this poem, read beautifully and with  great compassion, by Seth Hunter Perkins, Nimoy is also a teacher. He wants to share the miracle of his love with us.
   He says simply, "If you want to love, learn the love song."
   This love song he describes is "ageless" and his lesson on loving is composed of sharing and giving.
     We are here on this earth to experience many thing and share many things. Love is a strong part of  our experience.
     Find your love song, learn to sing it, and be grateful. If you learn to "sing it well", tell others about it. Pass that feeling on to others. Our learning, like our love, never ends.
 

Losing My Mind

How do you know when you love somebody? It certainly seems composer Stephen Sondheim has answered that question when he wrote the song Losing My Mind for his Broadway musical Follies.

  "The sun comes up,

   I think about you.

  The coffee cup, 

  I think about you..."

  

    When  you are in  love, you think of that other person constantly. You feel their presence everywhere. You find them in the dazzling starlight, in the shape of the shadows at twilight, and in the early morning sunlight.

   I like when Barbara Cook says "I think I sing it better now, then I did in 1985."

When love comes to your mind, does it bring sleepless nights?

  

                                                                   Stephen Sondheim Interview

Bird Songs

Never Again Would Birds' Song Be The Same 

 by Robert Frost

He would declare and could himself believe
That the birds there in all the garden round
From having heard the daylong voice of Eve
Had added to their own an oversound,
Her tone of meaning but without the words.
Admittedly an eloquence so soft
Could only have had an influence on birds
When call or laughter carried it aloft.
Be that as may be, she was in their song.
Moreover her voice upon their voices crossed
Had now persisted in the woods so long
That probably it never would be lost.
Never again would birds' song be the same.
And to do that to birds was why she came.

                     *       *        *

The songbirds bring us music, as they sit upon the trees or telephone wires.  To the poet Robert Frost, the birds provide  "an eloquence so soft",  perhaps his indirect reference to the Love for his first wife, who died young. To Emily Dickinson the birds feathers brought "Hope".

    When we spend the time in the garden to listen to birds'  songs, we are carried aloft with the birds to something great or divine. When love is great it creates an everlasting music that will never be lost. Humankind needs "hope" to believe that love will last and this poem shows us both Frost's "faith" in Love and a belief that that humans and birds are connected in a sacred splendor. Perhaps in the music  birds bring us, we can here a lovers's laughter or a cherished voice speak "without the words". Certainly when you step out your front door one morning, you will find the songs make us remember the wordless beauty of love.

                             

Summer Wind

"And close your eyes, child, and look at what I’ll show you; 
Let your mind go reeling out and let the breezes blow you, 
Then maybe, when we meet, suddenly I will know you."  ~ Jerry Merrick, Singer -Songwriter

    The summer brings us many pleasurable activities: swimming, waiting for the ice cream truck, paddling down  the river in a kayak, and the sounds outdoor concerts.  In the poem Summer Wind,  William Culllen Bryant calls the day "sultry". That word has two meanings. The first refers to the weather and means hot and humid. The second meaning describes a person, usually a woman who is attractive in a way that suggests a passionate nature.

     This second meaning describes the what is happening to this person in the poem on this summer day. For a person in love, the wind is fragrant, sparkling and musical. When love finds you it caresses your heart, soul and skin. The silence of 

life becomes voluble. The breezes blow you and you know love is around you.

Summer Wind by William Cullen Bryant

It is a sultry day; the sun has drank
The dew that lay upon the morning grass,
There is no rustling in the lofty elm
That canopies my dwelling, and its shade
Scarce cools me. All is silent, save the faint
And interrupted murmur of the bee,
Settling on the sick flowers, and then again
Instantly on the wing. The plants around
Feel the too potent fervors; the tall maize
Rolls up its long green leaves; the clover droops
Its tender foliage, and declines its blooms.
But far in the fierce sunshine tower the hills,
With all their growth of woods, silent and stern,
As if the scortching heat and dazzling light
Were but an element they loved. Bright clouds,
Motionless pillars of the brazen heaven;--
Their bases on the mountains--their white tops
Shining in the far ether--fire the air
With a reflected radiance, and make turn
The gazer's eye away. For me, I lie
Languidly in the shade, where the thick turf,
Yet virgin from the kisses of the sun,
Retains some freshness, and I woo the wind
That still delays its coming. Why so slow,
Gentle and voluble spirit of the air?
Oh, come and breathe upon the fainting earth
Coolness and life. Is it that in his caves
He hears me? See, on yonder woody ridge,
The pine is bending his proud top, and now,
Among the nearer groves, chesnut and oak
Are tossing their green boughs about. He comes!
Lo, where the grassy meadow runs in wives!
The deep distressful silence of the scene
Breaks up with mingling of unnumbered sounds
And universal motion. He is come,
Shaking a shower of blossoms from the shrubs,
And bearing on the fragrance; and he brings
Music of birds, and rustling of young boughs,
And soun of swaying branches, and the voice
Of distant waterfalls. All the green herbs
Are stirring in his breath; a thousand flowers,
By the road-side and the borders of the brook,
Nod gaily to each other; glossy leaves
Are twinkling in the sun, as if the dew
Were on them yet, and silver waters break
Into small waves and sparkle as he comes.

Gegenschein

The word "gegenschein" means

A faint glowing spot or region in the sky, occasionally visible exactly opposite the position of the sun, consisting of sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust particles. Also called counterglow.

Even beyond theses particles are the stars.

                                    Bridge Over the Stars by Keiko Matsui

  

The right person lights up our earthly path like stars light up the sky. Hopefully, that love will never die. When we leave this world, I hope we will all meet our true loves again and travel with them on a "bridge over the stars".

Just Right

On a day when everything is just right, the rose opens, love expresses its hidden beauty and we embrace the joy of life.
In his novel Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak writes:

     "He was so childishly simple that he did not conceal his joy at seeing her, as if she were some summer landscape of birch trees, grass, and clouds, and could freely express his enthusiasm about her without any risk of being laughed at."

   
The rose in this video above is part of the summer landscape. We watch something beautiful open slowly before us and it is a time to be grateful.

Again Pasternak reminds us:

    “When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.”  

  Love also opens slowly and softly. The sweetness of this rose is heard in the music of the Ahn Trio.     

“Dies Irie,” ironically references not the traditional Requiem Dies Irae but the Jamaican patois phrase meaning, “Day of Everything Being Just Right.” Even rage evaporates into sweetness and beguiling rhythms.