Always The Love, Always The Hours

"Dear Leonard:

To look life in the face, always, to look life in the face and to know it for what it is.

At last to know it, to love it for what it is, and then, to put it away.

Leonard, always the years between us, always the years.

Always the love.

Always the hours"

... The Hours, adapted from Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Your Soul Is In Your Keeping Alone

King Baldwin IV: A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that.

Godfrey of Ibelin: Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.

Balian of Ibelin: It has fallen to us, to defend Jerusalem, and we have made our preparations as well as they can be made. None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost. We fight over an offence we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended. What is Jerusalem? Your holy places lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy? The wall? The Mosque? The Sepulchre? Who has claim? No one has claim. All have claim! We defend this city, not to protect these stones, but the people living within these walls. (Audio)

... Kingdom Of Heaven

Laila And Majnun

"The Beloved is all; the lover just a veil.

The Beloved is living; the lover a dead thing"

... Mathnawi, Mevlana Rumi

"To see the beauty of Laila, one requires the eyes of Majnun"

"I pass by these walls: the walls of Layla

And I kiss this wall and that wall

It’s not Love of the houses that has taken my heart

But of the One who dwells in those houses"

... Laila And Majnun, Nezami Ganjavi

"Whoever would find a place in that world must tread on the lusts of this world. This world is dust and is perishable. That world is pure and eternal... Commit yourself to love's sanctuary and at once find freedom from your ego. Fly in love as an arrow towards its target. Love loosens the knots of being, love is liberation from the vortex of egotism. In love, every cup of sorrow which bites into the soul gives it new life. Many a draft bitter as poison has become in love delicious... However agonizing the experience, if it is for love it is well"

... Follow Your Heart, JT Coker

Secrets Of Success

When I woke up this morning I asked myself: 

What are some of the secrets of success in life? 

I found the answer right there in my very room:

The fan said : Be cool

The roof said : Aim high

The window said : See the world

The clock said : Every minute is precious

The mirror said : Reflect before you act

The door said : Push hard for your goals

And finally, the carpet said : Kneel down and pray.

... Author Unknown

I Am A Pause

Between going and staying the day wavers,

in love with its own transparency.

The circular afternoon is now a bay

where the world in stillness rocks.

All is visible and all elusive,

all is near and can't be touched.

Paper, book, pencil, glass,

rest in the shade of their names.

Time throbbing in my temples repeats

the same unchanging syllable of blood.

The light turns the indifferent wall

into a ghostly theater of reflections.

I find myself in the middle of an eye,

watching myself in its blank stare.

The moment scatters. Motionless,

I stay and go: I am a pause.

... Octavio Paz

Feast On Your Life

The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

... Derek Walcott

Falling Star

Peter Parker: Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice. My friend Harry taught me that. He chose to be the best of himself. It's the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what's right.

Don't wish upon a falling star,

Love will remind us who we are.

I dreamed a dream, so much has changed.

Ooooo.

You fell so far,

You should have been a star.

And the light that you've been keeping inside,

Will guide you on your way.

... Falling Star, Jet