Amor y Mujeres

Sometimes I read in Spanish. I came across this recently, it is a poem by Ruben Dario.


Juventud, divino tesoro
Ya te vas para no volver
Cuando quiero llorar, no lloro
y a veces lloro sin querer.

I can you feel the depth and passion of this man.

My friend Jola called me the other day. Seems that she misses me and all of her friends who have moved away. Some would cynically say that she should nor miss her friends especially her male ones since she is happily married and has a small child. Very often single people take our married friends for granted. I have been very guilty of that charge. Speaking to Jola brings me back to earth, because she, "wears her feelings on her sleeves", (she is both honest with her feelings and she shares them openly with me). What is sometimes lost to me is that we are all human and thus capable of a full range of emotions....marriage does not change that fact. Love can take many different forms and levels. I see Jola as a sister..I have a brotherly love for her. She has kept in contact with me after three years. Prior to that time I taught her English for about one year. I was always at ease with her and she with me. In fact, all of my best female friends are married. I think that they have none of the hang ups of single women..their emotional lives are much more settled and predictable. Brenda is a good example of this. She was a widow who became like an Aunt to me at work. She has a small dog as her home companion and she was content to give me advice and to call me, "Artful". She missed her husband dearly and she missed me when I left Trinidad to go study in the US. She would often say that she loved me. Her love for me was motherly. Brenda and Jola couldn't be more different in age, looks, upbringing and culture. However, I love them as my friends and perhaps I will love them like that till the day I die. The same is true for Sweetie, (where ever she is).

Many of my male friends equate love with sex...how simple is that! They feel that you have to have sex with a women to love her or she couldn't possibly love you if she did not sleep with you. Some thought I was a fool not to have made a pass at Jola. I think that they are wrong. My feeling is that the strongest form of love is hardly sexual...older couples can tell you that if you listen. Sex is one of the manifestations of love, but love can be manifested in many other different ways. For example, love for me can be the mist in the mountains, a red rose recently wet by spring rain, a smile, a hug, a show of kindness or a new born lamb bleating.

Patches the Magical Dog

My dog "Patches" is an animal without malice.  He plays and eats with total abandon.  I get up late at night just to watch him sleep.  He sleeps next to a small clump of sugar canes.  I have caught him chewing on the cane roots and stumps.  I wonder if he tastes the sweetness of its sugar.  His eyes are filled with wonder, love and kindness.  I do think that his former owners ill treated him.  He still has vestiges of that ill treatment in his heart for sometimes he fears that I will strike him.  I have never stuck him, but his memory of some humans is as such.  In time, I think that he will forget, his ill treatment I hope.  I will do all in my power to erase those memories.  He is black and white and brown..brindled.  I love this dog very much even though we are new to each other.  He is so gentle and sweet, but I  know he would defend my life with his life.  I can feel it. 

I play with him in the days, but it is at night that I watch him.  Sometimes he disappears with the inky blackness of the night like a ghost.  In the days he can melt into the vegetation then suddenly pop up and surprise me.  When he sees me he smells my feet, then he licks them.  He cries if I don't play with him.  He actually cries.  He does not complain to be fed or to get water, but he cries when I do not play with him.  I never had a dog like this before or perhaps I was not aware of it.  He is so happy when he plays, he could never hurt a child or baby.  I suppose there is much I can learn from "Patches".  There is so much we humans can learn from nature.  One day I truly expect him to revel a great mystery to me. 

Ian INC (C) copyright 2012

Book of Dreams

This night I cried out to Heaven.  Yes, I cried out to Heaven and  I thought of a book in the Bible.  Yes, I thought of Chapter 13 of Daniel.  And I thought of the story of Susanna and Joakim.  And I cried to the Heavens to send me a Susanna.  I pleaded with the Heaven to send me a Susanna.  I implored Heaven to send me a Susanna.  If you read Daniel Chapter 13, you will learn that Susanna was a beautiful and God fearing woman.  If you read Daniel Chapter 13 you will see that she cried to heaven when she was wronged by persons filled with wrong doing, but in the end she prevailed. 

I then heard a song that said, when  praises of God go up, blessings come down.  Yes the blessings of God come down to you.  So I cried to Heaven to send me a Susanna.  Then I thought of another book because I love to write and I thought of a series of children's books that would give children joy.   I thought of a wonderful photographer who would take pictures for this book.  And I thought of myself and this photographer working together to make this book of dreams.  I making the the tapestry of words, and she capturing the soul of the book through pictures.

Yes I cried to Heaven to send me a Susanna of photography.

And I wondered if Heaven would answer my cry.

And Heaven sent me a Gamaliel of photography or three Susanna's in one.

Heaven gave me a Gamaliel, a Rabbi, a teacher of pictures. I peered at the leaves she had photoed. I really looked deeply into the leaves. I saw roads and edifices with arches, colours so brilliant that they dazzled my eyes. The colours were like a hypnotic kaleidoscope. I saw the dendritic systems of rivers, the venal and arterial systems of insects, reptiles and mammals. I saw the ribs of wooden boats, planes and mammals. I saw snakes, ocelots, jaguars, birds, and lizards. Yes fingers...Like slips of land that jut into the seas caressing the blue of the ocean. It was as if the leaves were talking to me, they were singing. I got a flickering glimpse of the way, the truth and the life. I am almost embarrassed to to say this , but I saw a tiny glimpse of God. And that tiny glimpse made me drunk with astonishment and delight by viewing those leaves.  My sight and thought got lost in the the leaves, it was as if they were from another civilisation or world. Oh Gamaliel of photos please send more of these pictures for they drive me insane to write. For you are a child of God, only someone with this spirit, could do what you do.

Selah.


Ian INC (C) copyright 2012