the wild and wicked ways of life she will endure."
SYLVIA - Bryce Courtenay
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The third cardinal virtue: Love
The third cardinal virtue:Love According to the dictionary: from the Latin amor: strong affection that drives us towards the object of our desires; inclination of the soul and heart; affection; passion; exclusive inclination; theological grace. In the New Testament: So faith, hope and love endure. These are the great three, and the greatest of them is love. (Corinthians 13:13) According to etymology: the Greeks had three words to designate love: Eros, Philos and Agape. Eros is the healthy love between two persons that justifies life and perpetuates the human race. Philos is the sentiment that we dedicate to our friends. Finally, Agape, which contains both Eros and Philos, goes far beyond "liking" someone. Agape is total love, the love that devours those who feel it. For Catholics, this was the love that Jesus felt for humanity, and it was so great that it shook the stars and changed the course of the history of men. Those who know and feel Agape realize that nothing else in this world has any importance, only loving. For Oscar Wilde: Yet each man kills the thing he loves In a late 19th century sermon: Pour your love generously on the poor, which is easy; and on the rich, who distrust everybody and cannot see the love that they so need. And on your neighbor – which is very difficult, because it is towards him that we are most selfish. Love. Never lose a chance to give joy to your neighbor, because you will be the first to benefit from this – even if nobody knows what you are doing. The world around you will become happier, and things will become easier for you. I am in this world living the present. Any good thing that I can do, or any happiness that I can bring to others, please tell me. Don't let me put things off or forget, because I shall never live this moment again. (Henry Drummond The Supreme Gift, [1851-1897]) In an e-mail received by the author: "While I kept my heart to myself, I never had a single morning of anguish or a single night of insomnia. Since I fell in love, my life has been a sequence of anguish, losses, confusion. I think that God, by using love, managed to hide hell in the middle of Paradise" (C.A., 23/11/2006) For science: In the year 2000, researchers Andreas Bartels and Semir Zeki, of University College in London, located the areas of the brain activated by romantic love by using a series of students who claimed to be madly in love. In the first place, they concluded that the zones affected by the sentiment are far smaller than they had imagined, and are the same as those activated by stimuli of euphoria, such as in using cocaine, for example. Which led the authors to conclude that love is similar to the manifestation of physical dependence provoked by drugs. Also using the same system of scanning the brain, scientist Helen Fisher, of Rutgers University, concludes that three characteristics of love (sex, romanticism and mutual dependence) stimulate different areas of the cortex, and further conclude that we can be in love with one person, want to make love to another, and live with a third. For a poet: Love possesses nothing and does not want to be possessed, because it is enough in itself. It will make you grow, and then throw you on the ground. It will whip you so that you feel your impotence, it will shake you to rid you of all your impurities. It will crush you to leave you flexible. And then it will toss you in the fire so that you can become the blessed bread to be served at God's sacred feast (The Prophet, by Khalil Gibran [1883-1931]) (next Warrior of Light Online Wisdom)
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
(Ballad of Reading Jail, 1898)
Monday, September 1, 2008
Warrior of your Own Heart (poem)
Are you a warrior of your heart,
of your spirit?
Have you been to the desolate depths
of your own abyss,
where the truth of your darkness lies?
Have you faced your weakness of heart
with such honesty,
that it left you spent from exhaustion and despair?
And when you thought you couldn't go on,
did the deepest part of you nudge you forward,
and coax you to go on?
Are you a warrior of the true sense?
From your burdens, humbly enlightened?
Do you feel
despite your muscled strength?
It is you I wish to know,
for it is this I wish to be.
of your spirit?
Have you been to the desolate depths
of your own abyss,
where the truth of your darkness lies?
Have you faced your weakness of heart
with such honesty,
that it left you spent from exhaustion and despair?
And when you thought you couldn't go on,
did the deepest part of you nudge you forward,
and coax you to go on?
Are you a warrior of the true sense?
From your burdens, humbly enlightened?
Do you feel
despite your muscled strength?
It is you I wish to know,
for it is this I wish to be.
(A. Blake; July 2008)
Friday, June 13, 2008
The Warrior of Light Knows That .... (13 June 2008)
The Warrior of Light knows that....
no man is an island ...
the words of wisdom say,
and
at first I wonder at the significance
of this,
not finding them
anywhere
inside or out.....
and then, they appear
in feeling
and circumstance
and in looking back amongst my filings
of clever words
and electronic quotes
I find this one -
once premonition,
now manifestation
so here we are
you're a man who thinks
he's an island
and the closer I get
the more distance you create
I wonder why - I cannot comprehend
and the question
still drifts aimlessly
in this garden of my mind
my heart
I try to understand
your reasoning
and I don't
...and it hurts.....
.... instead you just push me away ....
no man is an island ...
the words of wisdom say,
and
at first I wonder at the significance
of this,
not finding them
anywhere
inside or out.....
and then, they appear
in feeling
and circumstance
and in looking back amongst my filings
of clever words
and electronic quotes
I find this one -
once premonition,
now manifestation
so here we are
you're a man who thinks
he's an island
and the closer I get
the more distance you create
I wonder why - I cannot comprehend
and the question
still drifts aimlessly
in this garden of my mind
my heart
I try to understand
your reasoning
and I don't
...and it hurts.....
.... instead you just push me away ....
Saturday, December 22, 2007
She ...... (poem)
God
She is everywhere
She is in the ridged texture
of the precious crystal stones
that the sumptuous flesh
of my fingertips
fill as they explore
touch and feel
the contours
the contrasts
of rough on flesh, warm on cold
of this other world
She’s in the softness
of the feather duvet
at the first opening of my eyes’ lids
the warmth and softness
enveloping me in gentleness
cocooning me in comfort
beckoning me to stay
She’s the smell of freshness
and earth and damp
at the time of the rains
permeating the bone-dry air
quenching its thirst
wetting our senses
revitalizing Life’s Spirits
She’s the gentle glow
of the day-spent sun
as it recedes into its
realm of sleepiness
but not so hastily as to
not give a meaningful farewell
the golden-pink-orange splashed
light shimmers across,
around and through
holding us all in its breathtaking
wake
for just a few, still, moments
a reminder
that the unseen is always near
She’s the moments
of quiet, stillness,
times of aloneness
Dwelling in the drop of each tear
She silently rolls Her way
vertically
out of the story-teller’s eye
across the cheeks terrain
kissing each part of the skin
on Her way down
She’s the air that wraps itself around
shapes and cushions the tear
on its journey
She’s the heart that cries
from within each drop
God…..She’s the bearer of Life
The Undertaker
And all the particles of moments
that dwell there in between
She’s the Guardian of my heart
the Keeper of my soul
She is the core of my nature
colours the hue of my essence
She is….
…..far too forgotten
She is …..
…… the She that embraces all of He
She is everywhere
She is in the ridged texture
of the precious crystal stones
that the sumptuous flesh
of my fingertips
fill as they explore
touch and feel
the contours
the contrasts
of rough on flesh, warm on cold
of this other world
She’s in the softness
of the feather duvet
at the first opening of my eyes’ lids
the warmth and softness
enveloping me in gentleness
cocooning me in comfort
beckoning me to stay
She’s the smell of freshness
and earth and damp
at the time of the rains
permeating the bone-dry air
quenching its thirst
wetting our senses
revitalizing Life’s Spirits
She’s the gentle glow
of the day-spent sun
as it recedes into its
realm of sleepiness
but not so hastily as to
not give a meaningful farewell
the golden-pink-orange splashed
light shimmers across,
around and through
holding us all in its breathtaking
wake
for just a few, still, moments
a reminder
that the unseen is always near
She’s the moments
of quiet, stillness,
times of aloneness
Dwelling in the drop of each tear
She silently rolls Her way
vertically
out of the story-teller’s eye
across the cheeks terrain
kissing each part of the skin
on Her way down
She’s the air that wraps itself around
shapes and cushions the tear
on its journey
She’s the heart that cries
from within each drop
God…..She’s the bearer of Life
The Undertaker
And all the particles of moments
that dwell there in between
She’s the Guardian of my heart
the Keeper of my soul
She is the core of my nature
colours the hue of my essence
She is….
…..far too forgotten
She is …..
…… the She that embraces all of He
(25 November 2007)
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Blog: A Quote from: Warrior of the Light
Source: Paulo Coelho's Blog
“Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle. Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone. … more
Blog: This Week’s Question
Source: Paulo Coelho's Blog
In my book, The Devil & Miss Prym a foreigner arrives in a village to tempt a woman. I wanted to explore the fight of good and evil and would like to … more
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