Be Drunk

You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it--it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.

But on what?

Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: "It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."

~© Charles Baudelaire~

Behind the Scenes

Is it your face
that adorns the garden?
Is it your fragrance
that intoxicates this garden?
Is it your spirit
that has made this brook
a river of wine?

Hundreds have looked for you
and died searching
in this garden
where you hide behind the scenes.

But this pain is not for those
who come as lovers.
You are easy to find here.
You are in the breeze
and in this river of wine.

~© Rumi~

I Learned About What I Love

I learned about what I love. Imagination, deep friendship, animals, family, the natural world, ideas and ideals...and silliness.

~© Bill Watterson-Creator Of Calvin & Hobbes~

Do It

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.

~© Michael Landon~

Our Thoughts

Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!

~© Alexander Pope~

You Taught Me How To Laugh Again

You taught me how to laugh again
And gave me back my smile,
Restored my faith in people when
Everyone seemed vile.

You were as if the sun came up
Upon my bitter night
And bade the blackness rustle up
Some joyful morning light.

And inexplicably my heart
Rose up and twirled me round,
So sudden in its expert art
I scarcely touched the ground.

With you, I am still filled with light
And all my feelings dance.
You are my song, my wings, my flight,
My truth and my romance.

~© Nicholas Gordon~

True Friends

Meaningful friendships, satisfying working relationships, and intimate romantic partnerships are what make life worth living. Studies show dying people consistently report the same thing as having been most important to them during their lives: Relationships.

All of us desire more closeness in our lives. All of us prefer acceptance and approval over rejection and disapproval. The more important the person is to us, the more important their approval and the more intense our fear of disapproval. This importance may be a result of either:

(a) Our respect for them, or, (b) Our dependence on them

All of us need true friends. But what is a true friend, and how do you know when you have found one? We can best answer that question in terms of our feelings.

With a true friend you feel:

Accepted
Acknowledged
Admired
Appreciated
Approved of
Encouraged
Free
Heard
Important
Liked
Listened to
Loved
Recognized
Respected
Safe
Significant
Supported
Trusted
Understood
Valued

A true friend is someone who helps you reach your highest potential, someone who helps you be the best you can be.

~© Steve Hein~

You Are Absent, Yet In Your Absence You Are Near To Me

In your absence
sorroes spin downward
like the little yellow leaves of the tree
while I wait in the night.
In your absence
the night becomes a dark forest
where my passion finds no path.
In your absence
you are far away
but your absence is as near to me as my soul.
Do you remember
the day I flowed into the rose-red river of your life
like a summer shower
and your clover-like eyes revived ?
My eyes longed
to meet the virgin sun.
My word thirsted like a forest
for your eyes refreshing as rain.
My arms pined
for your flowerlike form
and your daisy hair
looked at my fingers.
I said that the storm brought rain
and the waves gave the sand of secrecy
to the wide beaches.
Which of them- am I ?
your voice, a flock of wingless quails, answered,
" I know not!"
Why do you not know ?
oh, girl-river, why do you not know ?
If you are a rain-shower
you cannot avoid one day becoming
a friend of mountain, plain and valley.
If you are a winter night
you cannot escape
being kissed by the lips of lightning.

~© Farhad Shakely~

Listen

Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.

~© Shel Silverstein~

Happy Father's Day!!

There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.

~© John Gregory Brown~

What Is Uttered

What is uttered from the heart alone,
Will win the hearts of others to your own.

~© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe~

If Your Knees...

If your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.

~© Bill Watterson-The Creator of Calvin & Hobbes~

The Sacred

The sacred is discovered in what moves and touches us, in what makes us tremble.

~© Sam Keen~

Life

Life does not consist mainly-or even largely-of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one's head.

~© Mark Twain~

Clouds

Clouds may come, but clouds must go, and they all have a silver lining. For behind each cloud you know, the sun, or moon, is shining.

~© Author Unknown~

Sunshine Hideaway

Amidst the green leaves and the fruitful flowers,
Concealed in the thick of Mother Nature’s grandest creations,
She sits and ponders upon her deepest thoughts and desires,
Which are enshrouded in this secret cove.

In this safe haven where she hides
When the world is nipping at her heels,
Only the golden rays of Sunshine
Truly know how to reach her.

Hours upon hours she spends,
Anticipating the Sun’s arrival-
For he is her most valued confidant.
He is her light…her hope.

He never fails to return to their shared refuge.
Even though he has a prior obligation to irradiate
All of creation with his aura,
Time and time again, he returns.

Descending from his home among the clouds,
The Sun extends his warm radiance,
Illuminating her spirit
And encompassing her with his presence.

The cherished moments rapidly pass.
Too soon he must make his exit
And return to his celestial lair
On the empyrean horizon.

Silently basking in the afterglow
Left by the parting, reverent Sun,
She revels in the tranquility
Of her sequestered Sunshine Hideaway.

~© Lady Treemont~

A Perfect Summer Day

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.

~© James Dent~

Love

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.

~© Roy Croft~

Let Me...

Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.

~© Kahlil Gibran~

Each Friend...

Each friend represents a world in us; a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only in meeting them that a new world is born.

~© Anais Nin~

In Memory Of "Ab" Pritt...

The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive - perhaps for some purpose which we ought to re-examine.

~© Mignon McLaughlin~

Such A Morning It Is

Such a morning it is when love
leans through geranium windows
and calls with a cockerel's tongue.

When red-haired girls scamper like roses
over the rain-green grass,
and the sun drips honey.

~© Laurie Lee~