that sacred passion, that divine swoon

Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to Joy, and makes royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.

Love. [excerpt from Orthodoxy]
Robert Ingersoll

telling the truth?

Do you think not getting caught in a lie is the same things as telling the truth?

Three Days of the Condor

its existence undisputed

Boys, Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly.

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini

it is about family.

As Romeo and Juliet found to their cost, marriage is never just about two people falling in love, it is about family.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian
Marina Lewycka

If Not For You

If not for you, babe, I couldn't find the door
Couldn't even see the floor
I'd be sad and blue if not for you.

If not for you, baby, I'd lay awake all night
Wait for the morning light
To shine in through
But it will not be new if not for you.

If not for you, my sky would fall, rain would gather too
Without your love I'd be nowhere at all
I'd be lost if not for you
And you know it's true.

If not for you, my sky would fall, rain would gather too
Without your love I'd be nowhere at all
Oh what would I do if not for you?

If not for you, winter would have no spring
I couldn't hear the robins sing
I just wouldn't have a clue

Anyway it wouldn't ring true if not for you
If not for you, if not for you.

If Not For You
Bob Dylan

the pair cast a single shadow

borrowed from/for Liz:



Love and Pain [also called Vampire]
Edvard Munch

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Wild Geese
Mary Oliver

maxim

It's only temporary.

borrowed from the desk of KG

And miles to go

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.

Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost

the life I've led...

In my motorcycle mirror I think about the life I've led...

Borrowed from Nimrod's Son
The Pixies

Lifedance

the area dividing the brain and the soul
is affected in many ways by
experience –
some lose all mind and become soul:
insane.
some lose all soul and become mind:
intellectual.
some lose both and become:
accepted.

Lifedance
Charles Bukowski

DG's Tattoo

"Amor Fati" - Love Your Fate