A lover asked his beloved,
Do you love yourself more
than you love me?
The Beloved replied,
I have died to myself
and I live for you.
I’ve disappeared from myself
and my attributes.
I am present only for you.
I have forgotten all my learning,
but from knowing you
I have become a scholar.
I have lost all my strength,
but from your power
I am able.
If I love myself
I love you.
If I love you
I love myself.
Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi
A White Rose
by John Boyle O’Reilly
The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.
But I send you a cream-white rosebud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.
Miracle of Life
By Maureen Hawkins
Before you were conceived,
I wanted you.
Before you were born,
I loved you.
Before you were here an hour,
I would give my life for you.
This is the miracle of life.
🎈
“By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it.
The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.” — Franz Kafka
Human behavior flows from three main sources:
desire, emotion, and knowledge. — Plato
A flower’s fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile, available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar. Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force, all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth. We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages, we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire.
Diane Ackerman — A Natural History of the Senses.
Maverick Mist 