THE LOVERS

I

The grey sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half moon large & low;

And the startled little waves that leap

In fiery ringlets from their sleep,

As I gain the cove with pushing prow,

And quench it's speed I' the slushy sand.

II

Then a mile of warm sea scented beach;

Three fields to cross till a farm appears;

A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch

And blue spurt of a lighted match,

And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears

Than the two hearts beating each to each!

- Robert Browning

Inspirational women - Lily Cole 1988

About time we paid tribute to a younger woman - Lily Cole the young English model with the flaming red hair and baby doll face who can look like a pre-raphaelite godess. In a sea of beautiful women gracing high fashion magazines she stands out - her face being emblazoned upon the mind long after the magazine is closed. You can sense there is "something more" - that Lily is not just a pretty face. She has remained committed to her ongoing education and is a student of Cambridge University, she is also a fierce defender of environmental causes. And then there is the budding film career - next to be seen in the much anticipated Terry Gilliam film "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus." Currently enjoying seeing her in the new Rimmel adds (nice change from Kate Moss).

Observations of Love...

roses by Ngoc minh Ngo

"That deepest thing, that recognition, that knowledge, that sense of kinship began the first time I saw you, and it is the same now - only a thousand times deeper and tenderer. I shall love you to eternity. I loved you long before we met in this flesh. I knew that when I first saw you. It was destiny. We are together like this and nothing can shake us apart"

~Kahlil Gibran from Mary Haskell’s Journal
March 12, 1922

Tending the Garden

photograph by Yvette Inufio

I will tend to this garden, I made a promise to you. Sorry it has been so long since I visited. Will you not bloom in the spring because I was not here? I think not. But perhaps there will not be the same strength in your boughs and the abundance of blossoms as there was, perhaps the weeds will have grown up a little too much across the passage and the vines stretched so far that the sun cannot reach you as it did, perhaps you will look a little wild and because of this have turned your face away from me?

I am here now and I will do what I can to make up for lost time. First, let me clear the passage so that I can reach you, let me gently pull down the vines that are blocking the sun to your gates, let me find that little garden chair of mine and let me sit with you, ponder your beauty and find your face again.

Oh dear garden, I hope I have not left you alone too long, please send your flowers - please let me know you will be alright. I have a feeling you will be, nature has a funny way of working things out.

~

PERCEPTION

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are"

- Anais Nin -

Inspirational women - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis 1929-1994

If anyone was ever born with style, elegance & taste it was Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. It is said that Jackie was incapable of looking messy, whether she was wearing a designer ball gown or was dressed in jeans & a sweater - she always looked "infuriatingly perfect." She was famous for her simplicity which was & is unbelievably difficult to duplicate despite desperate efforts to do so. Her eye for style told her what most of us know but find it so hard to demonstrate: that "less is more."

In the 50's it was said that women either wanted to be Jackie Onassis or Marilyn Monroe - two women who were worlds apart. Jackie with her priveliged upbringing & elite education which included study at the Sorbonne & a Bachelor of Arts in French Literature, & Marilyn with a checkered past that she tried so hard to forget. Personally I can identify with them both & lie somewhere between the two.

Who could forget though the bravery & strength that Jackie showed after her husband was assasinated right by her side - how poised she remained in her pink Chanel suit splattered with her husbands blood. Anyone else, especially Marilyn, would have crumbled to pieces.

MAKING SENSE OF SUFFERING

Good people everywhere are working hard to build a better world & to free it of suffering. Link arms with them & share their goals. Embrace suffering as a natural part of life. Just as shadow & light define each other and one cannot exist without the other, so it is with suffering & joy.

You can't know real joy if you've never known real suffering.

- Jack Wintz (Franciscan priest) -