On Children by Khalil Gibran

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said "Speak to us of children" Your children are not your children They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself They come through you but not from you And though they are with you yet they belong not to you You may give them your love but not your thoughts For they have their own thoughts You may house their bodies but not their souls For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams You may strive to be like them But seek not to make them like you For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday You are the bows from which your children As living arrows are sent forth The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite And he bends you with his might That his arrows may go swift and far Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness For even as he loves the arrow that flies So he loves also the bow that is stable..

The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram

Magic… in its perhaps most primordial sense, is the experience of existing in a world made up of multiple intelligences, the intuition that every form one perceives — from the swallow swooping overhead to the fly on a blade of grass, and indeed the blade of grass itself — is an experiencing form, an entity with its own predilections and sensations, albeit sensations that are very different from our own.

by (https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/07/07/the-spell-of-the-sensuous-david-abram/)

Song: “Blue Moon” by Snowblink

Mad Girl’s Love Song

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you’d return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

by Sylvia Plath in The Bell Jar

by (https://literaryjukebox.brainpickings.org/post/30583159689)
by (https://www.brainpickings.org/2021/01/31/elizabeth-bishop-one-art/)

Cold Solace by Anna Belle Kaufman

Leave something of sweetness and substance in the mouth of the world.

by (https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/02/03/emily-levine-cold-solace-anna-belle-kaufman/)

Radiating from the pages is also the welcome disorientation of time travel, deconditioning our habit of mistaking today’s culturally constructed commonplaces for ahistorical givens: Blackwell’s bright-red tomato blazes the reminder that this plant — so common today as to be commonplace the world over — was then an exotic native of the New World, known in the Old World as love-apple.

by https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/01/29/elizabeth-blackwell-curious-herbal/?mc_cid=8f54bc6cad&mc_eid=d361d399e1

Unable to perceive the shape of you, I find you all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with your love. It humbles my heart, for you are everywhere.

I watched the Shape Of Water over Christmas and although it was visually pleasing I did not find it that interesting. Except for the poem at the end.

Hemenway’s translation appears on page 41 of her book The Book of Everything: Journey of the Heart’s Desire : Hakim Sanai’s Walled Garden of Truth

https://books.google.ca/books?id=_ERX2xRllz8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.ca/books?id=C9MNlTCgi8cC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

ps

https://www.ted.com/talks/bj_miller_what_really_matters_at_the_end_of_life#t-723640 :

...Let death be what takes us, not lack of imagination.

Relationship Lessons from Trees

In this, too, I see a poignant lesson in love, evocative of Rilke and what may be the greatest relationship advice ever committed to words: “I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.”

by (https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/11/13/robert-macfarlane-underland-tree-love/?mc_cid=e315e9cc24&mc_eid=d361d399e1)

An ABZ of Love: Kurt Vonnegut’s Favorite Vintage Danish Illustrated Guide to Sexuality

The other way is to admit to our emotions, accept our feelings and let them come out into the daylight. By being suspicious of all the judgements we pass on the basis of what we feel (and not until then) we shall taken a step towards becoming practitioners of common sense.

by (https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/12/05/an-abz-of-love/)

All You Need Is Love

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The African Bricks

A series of artworks inspired by the Mandela House in Soweto and other similar matchbox houses in the African townships. Artworks: Charis Tsevis

by (http://www.tsevis.com/african-bricks-for-sasis)

Loongkoonan

Изкуството е вечно, казва една мъдра поговорка. Навярно любовта към изкуството е и билет за дълъг и щастлив живот. Така се подреждат нещата в живота на една 105-годишна жена.

by (http://webstage.bg/art/2771-izkustvoto-na-105-godishnata-aborigenska-hudozhnichka.html)

Urban Love Stories By Natalia Mindru

This is my ode to stolen kisses, kept secrets, and unspoken words shared between lovers in a metropolis that rarely stands still enough to notice.

by (http://www.boredpanda.com/urban-love-stories/)

Чёрно-белые художественные фотографии Алекса Хоуита

Алекс Хоуит (Alex Howit) – британский художник и фотограф, проживающий в Лондоне. Он автор классических чёрно-белых, размытых художественных, уличных и ню фотографий, с которыми мы вас сегодня знакомим.

by (http://cameralabs.org/7932-chjorno-belye-khudozhestvennye-fotografii-aleksa-khouita)

Честная советская фотография Ромуальдаса Пожерскиса

by (http://vakin.livejournal.com/962054.html)

Surma & Mursi

Тези две племена обитават териториите на южна Етиопия и северната част на Кения. И имат много общо помежду си – сходни условия на живот, еднакви бичаи и любов към творчеството. Дълго време тяхната култура била недокосната заради отдалечеността си от шумната цивилизация. Племената Surma и Mursi населяват пустинни планини, които дълго време останали неизследвани. Тези редки кадри са дело на немския фотограф Ханс Силвестър /Hans Silvester/. Публикувани са в две изключително любопитни издания – „Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa" и „Ethiopia: Peoples of the Omo Valley". Силвестър дълго време бил свидетел на живота на хората от двете племена и се опитал да съхрани в детайли колкото може повече от тяхното живо изкуство. Фотографът се страхува, че в близко бъдеще, всичката екзотичност от бита на племената ще бъде забравена и изгубена за света. Ето част от фотографиите, които представят особеностите на естетиката и красотата на племенните хора. Те с благодарност използват всички средства на природата, за да творят върху себе си – с треви, цветя, клонки, плодове, рогове, минерални пигменти, вулканична пепел. Живот в ярки и наситени цветове.

(http://webstage.bg/pateshestviya/2010-estestvena-moda-plemenata-surma-i-mursi.html)

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