The Man I Love

                                                              Xiayin Wang - The Man I Love


    A New Jersey man has written a love letter to his wife every day for nearly 40 years. Each letter is signed with his name, followed by an infinity sign. By now there are thousands of letters, stored in boxes in their attic. What an amazing love.  Listen to this man's story here. Listen to the woman's comments about "The Man I Love".  Some loves truly are inextinguishable.

Read the story behind the George and Ira Gershwin song here.

Don't Throw It Away

ON THE ADVICE HE GAVE HIS CHILDREN:

"One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away."

Stephen Hawking To Diane Sawyer/ABC News, June 2010. 

The love we have in this world is important, awesome and unique.  We should't forget that. This sentiment is wonderfully expressed by the scientist and engineer, Stephen Hawking, in his words of wisdom to his children. Love is also humorously and uniquely expressed by the writer, John Green (below). 

“There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.” 
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Where My Sweetheart Lives

ONCE a beloved asked her lover: "Friend,
You have seen many places in the world!
Now - which of all these cities was the best?
He said: "The city where my sweetheart lives!"

                  ~ Rumi

One of the security questions from Apple iTunes is "In what city did your parents meet?" That is their most romantic question. But the question Rumi asks, then answers, is even more romantic. "What city in all the world is the best?"

  

    Take no more need of travel destinations today, Valentine's Day. Answer the question,"What city is the best?" If you are lucky, then your answer cannot be found in any book. The answer is unique only to the two lovers on Valentine's Day. 

     Have a Sweet Valentine's Day!

                                                                                      "Give In To Me"

Sweets and Beauties

SONNET 12

When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
   And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence

   Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence. 

                 ~William Shakespeare


The chimes of time remind us that that beautiful flowers, animals taking shelter from the heat, and sweets and beauties must eventually pass away and die.  Shakespeare questions this unpleasant part of life. The group I Fagiolini uses the instruments of Shakespeare's time to sing Sonnet 12. Listen to them here:

  https://soundcloud.com/doublemono/when-i-do-count-the-clock

The sonnet is performed on early instruments from the Renaissance period including: Theorbo, Harpsichord, the Lirone (a 13 string cello as played by Leonardo da Vinci) and sung by I Fagiolini.

      

    
When I behold the violet I am happy that such fragrant, sweet smelling flowers exists, however short their appearance. And those who possess great beauty are remembered, not only in the eyes of poets, but survive much deeper in our souls.

     

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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.