Summertime Musings

I value your opinion so much that I forgot yours is not the only opinion that matters

You also need your ego to provide you with the fundamental outlines of selfhood - to help you proclaim your individuality, define your desires, understand your preferences, and defend your borders. Without one, you're nothing but an amorphous blob.

What's a poem, after all, if not a safe space for a difficult truth.

Language in its highest expression is musical.

To sit in idleness over a good fire in a well-proportioned room is a luxurious sensation

One of the most memorable accounts of a long, successful marriage comes from Dostoevsky’s wife, Anna. She and Fyodor were, she said, of... contrasting character. Different temperaments. Entirely opposing views, yet they never tried to change one another. Nor interfere with the other’s soul. This, she believed, enabled her and her husband to live in harmony.

Sometimes I wonder, how I spend The lonely night dreaming of a song The melody haunts my reverie And I am once again with you When our love was new And each kiss an inspiration But, but that was long ago Now my consolation is in the stardust of a song Beside the garden wall When stars are bright, you are in my arms The nightingale, tells his fairytale Of paradise, where roses grew Though I dream in vain In my heart it will remain My stardust melody The memory of love's refrain Though I dream in vain In my heart it will remain My stardust melody The memory of love's refrain

“I’m curious. What made you write to me after all that time?” “No life goes on forever. Around the same time, I heard a radio interview with you, and I suppose I wanted to know if our love, in the context of a whole life, had been a fleeting one... or a lasting one.”

“We spent a whole afternoon in the Crimson Room, locked in conversation. Whatever were we talking about. Everything and nothing, I suppose.” “Not nothing. As I remember, we were excitedly making plans for our future.” “With such certainty and conviction.”

“Is music your first love?” “One has many first loves. When one reaches a certain age, one cannot help embarking on an audit of the heart. A review. And one considers all those... loves, those dreams, and youthful passions, in the context of a whole life. And it’s interesting to note what endures. There are some that remain and become lasting loves... and some that fade, and one realises were probably never true loves at all.”

Vulnerability's not about winning. It's not about losing. It's having the courage to show up when you can't control the outcome.

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.

We are for a small fraction of the organisms on Earth - dogs, cats, and cows, for example - because they are useful or because they flatter us. But spiders and salamanders, salmon and sunflowers are equally are brothers and sisters.

The thirst for knowledge was a form of love of nature and thus of life: "Love of anything is the offspring of knowledge; the more certain the knowledge, the more fervent the love." What we really understand we come to value.