I love The Love.
Even though I do not have a "lovey-dovey" Valentine today (I do have John Boy who is my forever-please-never-let-me-go-to-Vegas-with-him-because-we-would-end-up-hitched-Valentine).
I am full to the brim with The Love.
I just love it.
The Love.
I lerve The Love.
So I thought I would share some of my all-time favorite quotes and poems about The Love.
HAPPY
VALENTINES
DAY
“It was the love of love,
the love that swallows up all else,
a grateful love,
a love of nature, of people,
of animals,a love engendering
gentleness and goodness
that moved me
and that I saw in you.”
-William Carlos Williams
"You were made perfectly to be loved
-and surely I have loved you,
in the idea of you,
my whole life long"
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of theroot and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
-E.E. Cummings
I've lived in my litte house since August 2009.
(By "little house" I mean my apartment with all of it's leaks and creaks and my noisy refrigerator.)
Since coming back from Cali after my lovely Christmas vacation a new noise has invaded the sanctity of my little nest.
This noise is what classy people refer to as "the sex."
(By "classy people" I mean me.)
Whether it's the squeaks of bed springs from the apartment above or even worse, MY CHILEAN NEIGHBOR'S STUPID LOUD GIRLFRIEND (!!!!) it's getting on my nerves.
Therefore, you should all know that these people are on my list.
That's right.
MY LIST.
This is not a good place to be (duh) and I suggest that they all work to be removed from said list.
Here is the way things work, folks:
The spectrum runs from MY LIST to the RECEIPT OF GOLD STAR STICKERS.
To give a good example of how one might receive gold star stickers I present to you a scene:
(I accidentally wrote first "gold star sticks" which might actually be funnier.)
________________________________________________________________________
Scene: On the verge of leaving Patrick Sullivan's after seeing the most awesome nameless band.
Strong Daniel: Do you guys want me to go get the car and bring it around. It's pretty cold.
Mary & Meg Jones Ace Reporter: Oh, yeah . . . that's so nice . . . you don't have to . . . etc.
Me: Yeah, it's hecka cold.
Less than 10 minutes later
Me: Seriously, Daniel - I would give you 20,000 gold star stickers right now if I had them.
Strong Daniel: I thought you were going to say dollars.
Me: Yeah, right. Stickers are better.
_______________________________________________________________________
So to recap:
Who is on my list?
Noisy people who do "the sex"
Who gets gold star stickers?
(Hypothetically because I don't actually have any)
Strong Daniel, Mary, and
Meg Jones Ace Report
"I can't help thinking that this would be a better world if everyone would listen to me."
Seriously.
I have to admit that I can't seem to shake this most recent bout of the crankies and I apologize to anyone who has had the misfortune to cross my path.
But I'm not kidding - the world would be better if everyone would listen to me.
Here is a list of reasons why:
1) I only want what is best for you
2) I dislike unhappiness and gloom
3) I am generally very perceptive
4) I am well-read but also love pop-culture
5) I like celery and dinosaurs
Oh, yeah and here is the most important one:
BECAUSE I AM QUEEN OF THE UNIVERSE!!!
If you are good I will give you a piece of gum . . .
"Don't be afraid to dream; just temper your expectations with critical thinking so you don't confuse what you want with what you have."
Hmmmm. Interesting horoscope.
I'm going to split this into two parts.
Part One: Don't be afraid to dream; just temper your expectations with critical thinking.
Yeah, this is good advise for me. I'm something of a pipe-dreamer due in part to my wild imagination (
otherwise known as delusions) and I get somewhat hyper-sensitive when people (
otherwise known as my mother) have the good sense to point out that I might be getting carried away.
This frustrates me for many reasons - the biggest is probably that I know that I am guilty of this behavior. The thing is - I'm okay with it, it's part of what keeps my disposition so sunny. I have to look for the good or, more often than not, talk about the good.
I don't need any help from outside sources seeing the dark side or portents of doom - I've got that all inside my own head. I just work to keep that between me and me, to work it out on my own. Unfortunately, this also makes me somewhat defensive and/or put out when my grand plans or whatever get brought back down to earth.
Now, I know that when this happens it is because I am loved and that the people in my life who tend to be more realistic than not care about what happens to me.
It may seem like my head is in the clouds but it isn't. As surprising (
or delusional) as this may sound, I am a realist when it comes right down to it.
Part Two: Don't confuse what you want with what you have.
At first glance
(or actually fifth) this seems like it's telling me not to settle.
I can get behind that.
I spent the better part of my twenties convincing myself that what I wanted more than anything in the world is what I had right then and there and it wasn't until this most recent chapter of my life that I've stopped doing that.
(
For the most part)
.
I love this adventure that my life has become, but there is a part of me that
does want to settle and let my roots dig in deep to the earth. (
Goodness knows I'm not getting any younger).
These feelings always seem to crop up again when I'm feeling the most blue or vulnerable and I need to quell them. I know that they are just my fears trying to get the better of me. And you can bet your butt that that sure as hell is not going to happen.
I'm not going to settle - but I'm also going to try to not keep myself apart from life out of some misguided fear of getting stuck in one place.
My entire horoscope reads:
Relationships are complicated today because it's not easy for you to see things as they truly are. Instead, you perceive others through rose-colored glasses now, tinting reality with your unfulfilled desires. Don't be afraid to dream; just temper your expectations with critical thinking so you don't confuse what you want with what you have.
Like I said, I'm not settling anymore.
Not on people, places, or things.
Not on actions, adjectives, or adverbs.
Not for any part of a sentence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll find my way
I'll find it far away
I'll find it in the unexpected and unknown
I'll find my life in my own way
Today
Here I go
And there's no turning back
My great adventure has begun
I may be small
But I've got giant plans
To shine as greatly as the sun
I will blaze
Until I find my time and place
I will be fearless,
Surrendering modesty and grace
I will not disapear without a trace
I'll shout and start a riot
Be anything but quiet
Christopher Columbus
I'll be Astonishing
Astonishing
Astonishing
At Last
Astonishing from Little Women with book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland.
or
Cultural Exchange
Scene 1: Driving Mary in Fred to her car.
Me: Ummm, I'm having a static problem with . . . my hair
Mary: It's called winter.
Me: So what do I do about it . . .
Scene 2: Ground floor of HSS trying to get my umbrella ready to open, looking out at the rain.
Guy: Woo-ee! It's like pourin' piss from a boot!
Me: I know, right?
From Oakland to Sacktown
The Bay Area and back down
Cali is where they put they mack down
Give me love!
Moving on has never been high on my list of abilities.
Tying cherry stems in knots with my tongue - yes
Baby Bear voice - yes
Storing seemingly useless information in my brain - also yes
Letting go, moving on - no, not so much
However, I do think that it is very important to "get over" things. I also think that completely getting over anything that has had a profound impact on us is unrealistic.
You just have to find balance. This is the lesson we learn from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we learn that our minds should not be spotless. Everything we go through and everyone we encounter help to shape us.
I love who I am today.
Why would I want to eliminate from myself something that has made this self what it is?
But the thing is, we have to try. The practical application of "getting over" is essential and like so many things in this world the process is more important than the product.
The things that hurt us, or stress us out, or cause us grief should not be hanging around our lives clouding our vision.
We do not need paintings of Guernica as a constant reminder.
Take the picture out of it's frame or off of the fridge, fold it up, and put it someplace safe.
It's still important.
It's still a part of you.
You don't need to keep your wounds open to remember.
You will always remember. It's good to remember. For all of the reasons, small and great.
But it's time to step into the sunshine and keep walking.
As I said, I'm not very good at this. I hold on and relive my pain and lift it up to the heavens regularly as reminders to the great wide world of what I've been through. But I'm also trying not to do that anymore.
Like I told you the other day, I don't like feeling bad so I'm actively trying not to.
Okay people - I just had a conversation with my neighbor (!) and found out where he's from!
That's right, folks.
You guessed it!
Chile?
Wait, what?
Fine, so I was wrong about him being a cultured European.
He's actually a sophisticated South American.
So today's special will be all about the things I know about the country of Chile.
Chile's flag has three colors: red, white, and blue.
My friend Nico's parents live there.
There are more than 2,000 volcanoes in Chile, of which 50 are actually active. (
I love volcanoes)
Chile's coastline stretches 2,700 miles long, running from the Atacama, the world's most arid desert in the north, through forests, valleys, mountains, lakes, glacier fields, the Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Circle in the south.
Chile is never more than 110 miles wide east to west.
Chile's area is slightly smaller than twice the size of Montana.
(People have accused me of having lungs the size of Montana).
Prior to the coming of the Spanish in the 16th century, northern Chile was under Inca rule while the indigenous Mapuche inhabited central and southern Chile.
They won independence from Spain on September 18, 1810
In 2009 the estimated fertility rate was 1.92 children born per woman.
Chile provides North America with almost 15 percent of all its fruit sales during the months of November through April.
Chile is the home of two Nobel Prize winning poets, Gabriela Mistral (1945), and Pablo Neruda (1971).
David Selkirk, immortalized as Robinson Crusoe, survived a shipwreck and lived for several years on a desert island off the coast of Chile, no doubt thriving on the nutritional benefits of fresh fruit.
I would like to thank
www.cffausa.org/dev/chile_tour/tour_chile/facts.php
and
I would like to thank
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world.../ci.html
I shall close with a quote from Pablo:
"I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests."
Pablo Neruda
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