“You think because you understand ‘one’ you must also understand ‘two’,
because one and one make two. But you must also understand ‘and’.”
― Rumi
love
All posts tagged love
There is a sweet story from the eighteenth century concerning love and dahlias.
Sir Godfrey Webster was living in Florence with his wife when young Lord Holland came to town. Lady Webster took off with Lord Holland and in 1796 their first son was born. A year later old Sir Godfrey divorced her and she and Lord Holland were able to marry. The love affair between the lad of twenty and the girl of twenty-three blossomed into a long and happy marriage. And after they had been together some twenty years he wrote for her a little poem.
Between 1800 and 1805 the Hollands lived in France and in Spain where Lady Holland first saw dahlias that had reached Spain about 15 years before. She sent some home and it is on the strength of that shipment that she is given credit for the introduction of the dahlia into England.
Here is the poem he wrote for her:
The Dahlia you brought to our isle
Your praises for ever shall speak:
Mid gardens as sweet as your smile,
And colour as bright as your cheek.
The Dahlia
“Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing—the reason they can fly.”
― Mary Oliver
‘Healing,’ Papa would tell me, ‘is not a science,
but the intuitive art of wooing nature.’
— W. H. Auden
“We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship
can we create the illusion for a moment that we’re not alone.” ― Orson Welles
“My dear,
In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that…
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me,
within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.
Truly yours,
Albert Camus”
“Love is the bridge between you and everything.” ― Rumi
“Perhaps not to be is to be without your being,
without your going, that cuts noon light
like a blue flower, without your passing
later through fog and stones,
without the torch you lift in your hand
that others may not see as golden,
that perhaps no one believed blossomed
the glowing origin of the rose,
without, in the end, your being, your coming
suddenly, inspiringly, to know my life,
blaze of the rose-tree, wheat of the breeze:
and it follows that I am, because you are:
it follows from ‘you are’, that I am, and we:
and, because of love, you will, I will,
We will, come to be.”
― Pablo Neruda
You Are Tired (I Think)
By E.E. Cummings
You are tired,
(I think)
Of the always puzzle of living and doing;
And so am I.
Come with me, then,
And we’ll leave it far and far away—
(Only you and I, understand!)
You have played,
(I think)
And broke the toys you were fondest of,
And are a little tired now;
Tired of things that break, and—
Just tired.
So am I.
But I come with a dream in my eyes tonight,
And knock with a rose at the hopeless gate of your heart—
Open to me!
For I will show you the places Nobody knows,
And, if you like,
The perfect places of Sleep.
Ah, come with me!
I’ll blow you that wonderful bubble, the moon,
That floats forever and a day;
I’ll sing you the jacinth song
Of the probable stars;
I will attempt the unstartled steppes of dream,
Until I find the Only Flower,
Which shall keep (I think) your little heart
While the moon comes out of the sea.
“When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”
Maverick Mist 