I Got Off the Train by Fernando Pessoa

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

I got off the train And said goodbye to the man I’d met. We’d been together for eighteen hours And had a pleasant conversation, Fellowship in the journey, And I was sorry to get off, sorry to leave This chance friend whose name I never learned. I felt my eyes water with tears . . . Every farewell is a death. Yes, every farewell is a death. In the train we call life We are all chance events in one another’s lives And we all feel sorry when it is time to get off. All that is human moves me, because I am a man. All that is human moves me, not because I have an affinity With human ideas or human doctrines But because of my infinite fellowship with humanity itself. The maid who hated to go, Crying with nostalgia For the house where she’d been mistreated . . . All of this, inside my heart, is death and the world’s sadness. All of this lives, because it dies, inside my heart. And my heart is a little larger than the entire universe.

Advertisement

Dive for Dreams

Location: Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York

Dear One,

As summer comes in full swing, I greet you happy birthday today. It adds more significance this year since you’re celebrating it for the first time in America.

It takes a lot of risks to leave the country of your birth where you succeeded first as a professional and then as a young business owner. Once again, you’ll be starting all over. But if there’s somebody going to make it, I know it will be you.

As a new immigrant, it won’t be easy. There’ll be many challenges to face. There’ll be lots of adjustments to make in every aspect of your life. But like those who had come before you, I’m confident you’ll be able to handle them with confidence and grace. Like they say, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. But enough of me giving the unsolicited advice. Let’s hear it from e.e cummings instead:

dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you
(trees are their roots
and wind is wind)
trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)
honour the past
but welcome the future…

It’s not hard to imagine the positive effects you have on people. The world is a better place because of you.

Again, please accept my best wishes on this special day.
May you have more birthdays to come in the company of your family and loved ones.

Yours truly,
P.

Go Red for Women Today

Go Red (Photo: Photo Special to Bella)

 

The National Go Red Day occurs annually on the first Friday of February to bring awareness to heart disease that has become the number one killer of women. It’s only fitting and proper that we join the efforts to fight this deadly disease that kills half a million women every year.

By wearing red not only on the day designated, we will continue to honor those who inspite of having the disease continue to live productive lives. To all these exemplary women, I dedicate this poem by e.e. cummings.

 
i carry your heart with me by e.e. cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile

Location: Budapest, Hungary

 

I Came to buy a smile—today— But just a single smile— The smallest one upon your face Will suit me just as well— The one that no one else would miss It shone so very small— I’m pleading at the “counter”—sir— Could you afford to sell— I’ve Diamonds—on my fingers— You know what Diamonds are? I’ve Rubies—live the Evening Blood— And Topaz—like the star! ‘Twould be “a Bargain” for a Jew! Say—may I have it—Sir? – Emily Dickinson

 

 

Related articles

• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (dailypost.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (wanderlustpy.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (ruthblogshere.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (chateauxdesfleurs.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (southernseamuse.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (stenoodie.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (wishingmylifeaway.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (dailygrindofastayathomemom.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (macquiebleushiraz.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Smile (wishingmylifeaway.com)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence

Location: Regensburg, Germany
 
When you need to get away, you don’t have to go far. A visit to the local park can provide the break you deserve. Surrounded by trees silently standing guard, it will be a sanctuary. Freed from the noise of city life, it will rejuvenate you and give you peace and let you face the world with a new sense of purpose.

The above picture was taken last November in Regensburg, a college town located about 80 miles from Munich. It was late afternoon and eerie quiet. There was no wind nor chirping of birds. The only sound I could hear were my footsteps on the ground. Did it make me worry of being mugged or robbed especially when I found myself all alone? Nah, not by much. Regensburg is rated as one of the safest places in the world.

GREAT streets of silence led away To neighborhoods of pause; Here was no notice, no dissent, No universe, no laws. By clocks ’t was morning, and for night The bells at distance called; But epoch had no basis here, For period exhaled. – Emily Dickinson

 

Related articles

• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (dailypost.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (insellos.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (umgebucht.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (onetrackmuse.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (pierrmorgan.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (stenoodie.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (iscriblr.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (inotherwordsandpictures.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (mypaisleyheart.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence (figliodelgiaguaro.wordpress.com)