lovely.

happiness is always a by-product. 
it is probably a matter of temperament, 
and for anything i know, it may be glandular.
but it is not something that can be demanded 
from life, and if you are not happy you had
better stop worrying about it
and see what treasures you can pluck
from your own brand of unhappiness. 


robertson davies woulaok

i've been thinking a lot about this lately...

all changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another

anatole frances

via

happy valentine's day lovers!

i don't want to live. i want to love first, and live incidentally. 

zelda fitzgerald

photo by ask_alaska

on flickr.

a good start to the week. a really good start, actually.

When you find a man
Who transforms
Every part of you
Into poetry,
Who makes each one of your hairs
Into a poem,
When you find a man,
Capable,
As I am
OF bathing and adorning you
With poetry,
I will beg you
To follow him without hesitation,
It is not important
That you belong to me or him
But that you belong to poetry.  


When You Find a Man
by Nizar Qabbani 


translation by Bassam K. Frangieh
and Clementina R. Brown









(this morning i awoke to this in my inbox. and i thought (1) georgette, you are a goddess, because indeed it was georgette who sent it to me and (2) can you imagine how sexy the poem must be in the original arabic? {it's always better in the original tongue}). 


{oh yes, and just so you know. today i'm up much too early, sneaking in a few minutes for myself before the day begins in ernest. i'm dancing around to david gray's  lately and offering up a silent prayer of thanks that for the time being i make more than enough poetry for myself. (and that i still get to look forward to meeting the man who will transform that poetry, because holly hell there is just so much to look forward to in this life.).}

thoughts for a friday.

whatever does not pretend at all has style enough. booth tarkington. 



the very first moment i beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone. jane austen.



you don't love people at their best, sweetheart. you just love them because you can't help it. amy lane.




we can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. it's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that your's is the only path. paulo coelho. 



i am only responsible for my own heart, you offered yours up for the smashing my darling. only a fool would give out such a vital organ. anais nin.



any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. albert einstein. 




photos.
(post in the style of una bella vita).


on monday: a giveaway--the first! prepare yourself...