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.