Pablo Neruda, poet of love for the good of my soul

Pablo Neruda
(1904-1973)























Your Laughter

Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.

Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.

Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.




XVII (I do not love you...)

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way than this:

where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

will try to figure this one out LATER when I have something they call TIME

Okay, let's see how it's done...

First, the HTML I used for my cheap trick -- you should be able to copy and paste this to your blog:

width="75"
height="100"
border="0"
src="http://nonaknits.typepad.com/image1.jpg"
onmouseover="this.src='http://nonaknits.typepad.com/image2.jpg' "
onmouseout="this.src='http://nonaknits.typepad.com/image1.jpg' " />

Want to give it a try? Here's how:

1. Write your blog entry. At the spot where you want to add your photo trick, simply type "Photo Trick Here".
2.

Decide what 2 photos you want to use, crop them to the same size, and upload them to your blog.
3.

Edit the HTML for your blog entry. In TypePad this is very easy to do, simply click the "Edit HTML" tab. Hopefully your blog authoring tool also has an easy way to edit your HTML.
4.

Find the "Photo Trick Here" text that you added in Step 1 and replace it with the HTML I've given you above -- good old copy and paste should do just fine.
5.

Tweak this copied HTML based on your photos. You'll need to change:

* width - replace my width, 75, with the width of your photos
*

height - replace my height, 100, with the height of your photos
*

src - replace my URL, http://nonaknits.typepad.com/image1.jpg, with the URL for your first photo. This is the photo you'll see when your entry is initially displayed.
*

onmouseover - replace my URL, http://nonaknits.typepad.com/image2.jpg, with the URL for your second photo. When your mouse moves over the image, the image will change to this photo. Important: be sure to keep the "this.src=' before the URL and ' " after the URL.
*

onmouseout - replace my URL, http://nonaknits.typepad.com/image1.jpg, with the URL for your original, first photo. When your mouse moves out of the image, the image will change back to this photo. Important: be sure to keep the "this.src=' before the URL and ' " after the URL.

That should do it! I look forward to seeing your photo tricks...

best photo ever found on the web on a random July evening

If this doesn't make you laugh, well, you need to laugh more.

This is why I smile so much

These are the people that I love more than anything!
Even at 8:00am on a Sunday morning, these fantastic, handsome, beautiful humans
have the ability to make my eyes fill with love at the very sight of them.

SIGH

39

I am now 39. Nine years ago, as I turned 30, my world turned upside down. Ass over teakettle upside down. That birthday, my ex-husband forgot my birthday, took the kids to BiLo and got a carrot cake for me, and a large bristled toothbrush with a plastic hook hanger to hang on my mirror on my side of the double sink. He got one for him, too. Then, a few weeks later, I learned that he needed freedom. And wanted me to stay down here so he could be near the kids.... meaning that I would be all alone 1000 miles away from my family. That was my welcome to the thirty-something club.

Funny thing was, it was like a pineapple upside down cake, that life changing summer, because it set me free. Free from a marriage that was sad and unhappy, free for me to find the Jana I had lost, and free to find true love.

I used to think that you needed to find ONE TRUE LOVE, end of story, happily ever after, The End. But, you know what? That may happen, but rarely. More often that not, you find a few people that you fall in love with, and you learn from them, and when you part you can leave as friends and be thankful for the wisdom they gave you. Since Shawn, I have dated a few fellas. And, I loved them all. Not just a little bit, either. Truly, madly, deeply loved them all. I didn't want to marry all of them, but I loved them just the same. Some taught me how to cry, some taught me how to laugh. Some taught me how to fix stuff, and some how to cook better. Three sang to me. One wrote me a song. Two gave me watches. Three gave me necklaces. One wanted me to have a baby with him, well, technically two but one of them was a joke. A few wanted to marry me. Two of them broke my heart again, but that time I recovered better than with Shawn. Three were good kissers. One took me to watch meteors. Two took me on moonlit swims. My kids loved one of them. All cared for me and helped me regain my confidence, and helped me to be as strong as I was before the marriage.

So, now that I am in the magical last year of this decade of my life, what does life hold in store for me? Will I continue to be single? Will I meet the man that I shall marry? There is a part of me that wants to belong to someone, to close my eyes and just let down my guard and allow love to find me. I fully admit that I have put up a block to prevent true love to find me.... in fact, I have subconciously (or perhaps consciously?) even chosen to date unavailable men. I choose the men that sought me out for my empathy, and my ability to help "fix" them. All had sad stories of alcohol addiction, or failed relationships or marriages. I clearly remember the conversation I had with my dearest male friend when I had that epiphany... just like the twangy country song, I had become a "Sucker for a Fixer Upper Man"

This birthday was different. I had a yummy cake delivered by a trio of children at my church for a surprise birthday party for the Wednesday Morning Play Day, and on my real birthday all the members of the week-long Full Church Bible School serenaded me.. then, the teenagers and the little children and I had our finale outside with green slime, chocolate pudding, chocolate syrup, whipped cream and more. It was fun, it was messy, the heat went away with the cool garden hose, and failed marriages and broken hearts were the last things on my mind. A mom asked, "Is that how you wanted to spend your birthday?"

and of course, I said, "YES!"

Later that night, after the goop was washed out of my hair and a storm raged outside, I met some friends uptown for a drink, then over to Tina's house for a glass of my birthday wine from Andy. Life is good. Life is very good. Man, no man, husband, single, all I know is that I have great kids, great family, great friends, great jobs, great house, and a happy future ahead of me.

39 will be a very good year.

Song the day you were born....

What song was at the top of the charts on your birthday? Go here to find out:

http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/member/birthdayno1.php

I did this, and for the US charts, the number 1 song in the land was"Windy"-by the Association.

In England, the song was: "All You Need is Love"-by the Beatles

Wow, that is pretty weird... both of these songs are pretty much my philosophy of life. These are the lyrics:

THE ASSOCIATION lyrics - "Windy"


(Ruthann Friedman)

Who's peekin' out from under a stairway
Calling a name that's lighter than air
Who's bending down to give me a rainbow
Everyone knows it's Windy

Who's tripping down the streets of the city
Smilin' at everybody she sees
Who's reachin' out to capture a moment
Everyone knows it's Windy

And Windy has stor-my eyes
That flash at the sound of lies
And Windy has wings to fly
Above the clouds (above the clouds)
Above the clouds (above the clouds)

[Flute]

And Windy has stor-my eyes
That flash at the sound of lies
And Windy has wings to fly
Above the clouds (above the clouds)
Above the clouds (above the clouds)

Who's tripping down the streets of the city
Smilin' at everybody she sees
Who's reachin' out to capture a moment
Everyone knows it's Windy
[Repeat And fade]


((even a flute to boot!))

The other song the day I was born:

All You Need Is Love
The Beatles (Lennon/McCartney)


Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be in time
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

Be Creative

"I believe that artists are healers. Everytime an artist finishes
a work they care for, evil loses a small piece of its power. We
live in a lost time, so it is every artists responsibility to
contribute their own piece to the light, that will hopefully
someday dawn upon the human race."

::: Gabriel Shaffer :::


Ah, I love this quote! It was in my e-mail box this morning, I subscribe to www.artquotes.net

doesn't it make you THINK? Be it music, visual art, theater, literature, gardening, cooking...when you create something that means something, something you are proud of = good, positive energy.

More of it, the negative, bad, sad, etc. stuff gets pushed back some. Think of when you pass a pretty sight, how it makes you feel.

so, get out there today and make some positive energy for us all!

1000 miles from home.....

I will spend the 4th here in SC, not Maine. Not Bath. No Heritage Days for us this year. My heart is heavy with the thought of it. Finances just won't support it right now, and although I know this is the right thing to do, it doesn't make it any less painful.

We have been here for the 4th before, and have been okay. There is even a chance we can still go this summer, maybe later this month. But, in all probability, we will not go to Maine until Christmas, and then we are at the whim of the weather. My mom is so disappointed, it's breaking my heart. It's so hard being so far away.