Francis, we share the true relationship. Many couples live together under one roof and never share what we know together. Sure I miss sometimes not having more time with you in the small moments of life. Then I think of most couples living with one another day after day, but so separate from each other in their thoughts and feelings. Francis, we have fallen in love again and again landing in the great heart, the garden that extends forever. The eternity we know is the true poetry of life. The canticle you share is music for the heart inside every heart.

Just randomly surfing through my old posts..and I found this letter from St Clare. 
The eternity we know is the true poetry of life... WOW.... such a beautifully written correspondence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEkyWhvS1mA

I thought this was beautifully covered.
One of the best love songs of all time I guess.

Burnt my fingers reaching for that forbidden bloom
Took that first step which should never have been taken
Trapped in this room of doom,
forlorn and forsaken.

You took away what was mine
And now it would never see the light of day.
I sought solace in Time
But alas, the wound would never heal they say.

It is with someone else
that you build your dreams with
It is with someone else
that you share your songs with.

I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss
it is a song we will never sing.

3. If I received $10,000 that I had to spend on myself, I would:
Travel.. to where I'm not so sure. Greece, Turkey, Morroco, Maldives, Patagonia, Cuba, Peru, or Eastern Europe maybe. Or a camper van trip in some national park. I regret not trekking/camping in Yosemite or Yellowstone while I was living in Az.

Depression

I very much wanted to believe all the conspiracy theories surrounding Anthony Bourdain's death but I guess, we will never really know, would we? Just found it hard to believe that he of all people could have been suicidal. I wonder what's it like to be so trapped in the darkness of our minds to the point where we no longer have any desire to live, and to take that horrifying step towards self-inflicted death.
We can keep on having things but true peace, joy, and love, sometimes they could be beyond reach.

Feeling a little defeated these days to the point where I am self-sabotaging my work. I know the deadline is looming yet I have no desire to complete the final piece of assignment - the dreaded THESIS.

I am already reaching the finishing point yet I can no longer find the focus and the strength to carry on. Times like this, I wish there's someone who could just push me to where I need to be.
I'm tired and sick of everything.

Mr Penumbra's 24-hr bookstore - Robin Sloan

Saw this on a books about books list and thought it seemed interesting enough. Alas, i was a tad disappointed. The writing felt a little amateurish and I just skipped parts of the book, as they just werent that engaging. Overall though, the plot was not beyond redemption, and made for an entertainingly enough read.
Clay Jannon was hired as a clerk at an obscure little bookstore in San Francisco owned by an eccentric Mr Penumbra. The store sees few patrons and the few that came in, Jannon was tasked to record every little detail about them in a logbook. The patrons were like the owner, eccentric, and were part of a book club. Books were checked out and no money was transacted.
Jannon was told never to look at the books borrowed by the patrons but he could not resist one day and peeked. The books were filled with gibberish. Jannon decided one day to model the bookstore in his computer and sequenced the borrowing patterns of the patrons. He found to his surprise that the sequence of the book borrowing, actually led to a portrait of the Founder of obscure bookstores around the world. Penumbra and him then embarked on an adventure to an underground library in New York city to decode the codex vitae, which was believed to resurrect the dead members of the book club.
At the end of the adventure, involving google programmers, the truth was finally revealed. The real message was not found in books but on a letter punch for a popular font Gorritz-whatsitsname.

Ok actually now that I think of it, it's quite a silly read.

Everyone is so focused on acting savage, busy, and heartless these days. Meanwhile, I’m searching for the humans that believe in compassion, love, and human connection.
I am a human 
Sylvester McNutt III

So true. We live in a world where people magnify their own problems that there’s no more space left to let any light in. 

It chills me a little how insensitive people can get, eg “I think my cat is dying.” Silence and then “oh right, can I have your DVD player?” 

The Wine-Lover's Daughter- Anne Fadiman

What do I do to de-stress... write book reviews....

I basically gobbled down the book in hours... I felt drawn by Cliff Fadiman's (the wine-lover) love of wine and am fascinated by how anyone can be so knowledgeable and passionate over a fermented beverage. Cliff Fadiman was a famous host on a radio talkshow (Information Please), critic (of books), judge (book of the month club), editor, writer (Joys of Wine, etc), etc., a multi-hyphenated somebody.

Guess the book was sort of a tribute to him by his daughter. Born to a lower middle class Jewish family, Fadiman was ashamed of his family background and did his utmost best to crawl up the social ladder and denouncing any association with his faith. He was successful in doing so and was educated at Columbia and forged a lifelong career in the world of books (after failing to get a job as an academic), proving his parents wrong (they thought he would never make a single cent with his relentless reading). Although Fadiman was successful and wealthy enough,  he felt inadequate in the social grace department and felt as if he was beneath those who were born into money.

Perhaps as part of his effort to feel and look "cultivated", he threw himself deeply into the world of wines and literature, spending a fortune on his wine collection, journaling down all the wines he had tasted. The wines he loved were mainly the premier crus from the bordeaux region and cost a bomb now.

I admire his zest for life- he never stopped learning and working even when he turned blind in his late 80s but hated the fact that he was a misogynist. It must have been fun though being with an intellect and hearing what he had to offer.

A pity both his son and daughter did not turn out to be wine-lovers. Anne Fadiman at one point thought she might be genetically flawed when she could not for the life of her appreciate the taste of wine like her father. turned out she has a tongue full of papillae, more so than the average "taster", in other words, she was a super-taster and could not tolerate the strong astringent taste of alcohol. One would expect a super-taster to be able to discern and enjoy the complexities in wine more so than the average person, e.g. for me, I never could find >2-3 notes in a wine. I guess it's not so bad to be an average taster afterall.

The ending made me tear a bit, when Fadiman died. Guess I just cant deal with death very well.
Anyway the book made me wanna buy The Joys of Wine