Words and Pictures.

 

“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

~ E.B. White

 

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
~Anais Nin

 

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.”
~Jonathan Safran Foer

 

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all.”
~ Walt Disney Company, Mulan

 

“I could die for you. But I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, live for you.”

~ Ayn Rand

 

Photos:

♥AB

Saturday Revelry

I had a gorgeous Saturday.

Working too many hours during the weekdays is wreaking havoc on my holiday spirits. Thank heavens for delightful friends, scrumptious foods, riveting books, feel-good-movies, decadent Peppermint Dark Chocolate Latte (what a mouthful!), and everything red. Life is absolutely beautiful, my lovelies!

How’s your weekend so far?

 

Photos:

AB ♥

‘Tis Halloween

” The witches fly

Across the sky

The owls go, “Who? Who? Who?”

The black cats yowl

And green ghosts howl,

“Scary Halloween to you!”

~ Nina Willis Walter

“May Jack-o-lanterns burning

bright

Of soft and golden hue

Pierce through the future’s veil and show

What fate now holds for you.”

~ Unknown

“Just like a ghost,

you’ve been a-hauntin’ my dreams,

So I’ll propose on Halloween,

Love is crazy with a spooky

little girl like you.”

~ Classics IV

Happy Halloween!

Art:

Halloween

September’s Last Hurrah

“I don’t wanna say goodbye for the summer
Knowing the love we’ll miss
Oh let us make a pledge to meet in September
And seal it with a kiss
Guess it’s gonna be a cold lonely summer
But I’ll fill the emptiness
I’ll send you all my love every day in a letter
Sealed with a kiss.”
~ Bobby Vinton

***

“‘Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.”
~ Thomas Moore, The Last Rose of Summer, 1830

***

“Under the harvest moon, 
When the soft silver 
Drips shimmering 
Over the garden nights, 
Death, the gray mocker, 
Comes and whispers to you 
As a beautiful friend 
Who remembers.”
~ Carl Sandburg, Under the Harvest Moon

***

“Have a good time, but remember,
There is dander in the summer moon above.
Will I see you in September
Or loose you to a summer love.”
 ~ S. Wayne and S. Edwards, 1959 song lyrics

Art: September

‘Tis the Night of Witches and Goblins

“The harvest moon hangs round and high
It dodges clouds high in the sky,
The stars wink down their love and mirth
The Autumn season is giving birth.
Oh, it must be October
The leaves of red bright gold and brown,
To Mother Earth come tumbling down,
The breezy nights the ghostly sights,
The eerie spooky far off sounds
Are signs that it’s October.
The pumpkins yellow,. big and round
Are carried by costumed clumsy clowns
It’s Halloween – let’s celebrate.”
-   Pearl N. Sorrels, It Must be October  

******

‘Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
~William Shakespeare

******

Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,
Voices whisper in the trees, “Tonight is Halloween!”
~Dexter Kozen

******

On Halloween, witches come true;
Wild ghosts escape from dreams.
Each monster dances in the park….
~Nicholas Gordon

******

When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam,
May luck be yours on Halloween.
~Author Unknown

 

Happy Halloween!

 

Art: Moonlight Rider

Love’s Philosophy

What is love?

The word alone is enough to evoke ineffable thoughts and emotions. It has been immortalized by poets and mythological gods. It possesses protean magnitude, enough to conquer someone’s soul. It is simple. It is complex. It can be tumultuous to rival the raging storm. It can be hypnotizing as the glowing embers of a dying fire.

I always think of love as a silent ghost that creeps on you — catching you unaware of its presence. By the time you realize you are magically captivated by its power, you have no choice but to surrender to the madness.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major contributors to English Romantic poetry, wrote a poem about love. He used nature to express the depth of a lover’s adoration for his beloved. It is a transcendent love that goes beyond the natural. Like nature, love works in mysterious ways. It captures your attention and holds you entranced. It is the breath of life that sustains a body to never lose hope and keep that loyal faith.

I can enumerate more analogies and comparisons to define love, but I believe Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy does an excellent job. Enjoy.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle -
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea -
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?

Art: The Essence of a Woman’s Scent

A Salute to August

“The English winter, ending in July

To recommence in August.”

~ Lord Byron

*****

“When the blackberries hang
swollen in the woods, in the brambles
nobody owns, I spend

all day among the high
branches, reaching
my ripped arms, thinking

of nothing, cramming
the black honey of summer
into my mouth; all day my body

accepts what it is. In the dark
creeks that run by there is
this thick paw of my life darting among

the black bells, the leaves; there is
this happy tongue.”
~ Mary Oliver, August

*****

“Whilst August yet wears her golden crown,
    Ripening fields lush- bright with promise;
Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing
    Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn.”
~ Michelle L. Thieme, August’s Crown 

*****

“In August, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees,
gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down
and broke their tender limbs.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

*****

Art:

August Burns Red

Words of Oscar Wilde

The late Victorian society suffered no humdrum days because of the intriguing presence of Oscar Fingall O’Flahertie Wills Wilde.

Oscar Wilde was notorious for his sharp wit, sarcastic intelligence, humor, and lingustic skills. His flamboyant outlook in life was vividly expressed through his brilliant plays and writings.

Every one should allow herself a close glimpse of this fascinating man’s works.

He was such a droll.

• “I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”

•”When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.”

•”To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

•”I have the simplest of tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”

•”I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a word of what I am saying.”

•”Women are meant to be loved, not understood.”

•”A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.”

•”The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

Shakespeare In Love

*Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

*She’s beautiful, and therefore to be wooed; She is woman, and therefore to be won.

*Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs,
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes,
Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet.

 

 *The course of true love never did run smooth.

 

 *I’ll follow you and make a heaven out of hell, and I’ll die by your hand which I love so well.

 

*Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.

 

*You have witchcraft in your lips.

 

*When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.

 

*Love is the most beautiful of dreams and the worst of nightmares.

 

*Sweets to the sweet! Farewell. 

According to Voltaire

 

“A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but always I loved life more. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts. Is there anything sillier than to desire to bear continually a burden one always wishes to throw on the ground; to look upon oneself with horror and yet to cling to oneself; in short to caress the serpent which desires us until he has eaten our heart?”

“As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities.”

“If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others?”