No my friend, darkness is not everywhere, for here and there I find faces illuminated from within; paper lanterns among the dark trees.

- Carole Borges

we are all human

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Freedom

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

Ronald Reagan

Are you a politician who says to himself: "I will use my country for my own benefit"?...Or are you a devoted patriot, who whispers in the ear of his inner self: "I love to serve my country as a faithful servant."?

- Kahlil Gibran

The Shadow of the Wind

" Once, in my father's bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a place in our memory to which, sooner or later - no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget - we will return. For me those enchanted pages will always be the ones I found among the passageways of the Cemetary of Forgotten Books." (Chapter 1)

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (La Sombra del Viento )

I loved this book. Michael Dirda called it "Scary, erotic, touching, tragic, and thrilling" and that really about sums it up. It isn't a historical fiction, which is my typical reading choice, but it was an interesting and compelling novel... one of the best I have read in a while! It wins even more points from me because the main character grows up to help run his father's bookstore, which is a storyline the book-lover in me loves. It was originally written in Spanish, but was translated to English brilliantly. I found it to be an easy read, and in the end I had figured out the outcome before the storyline was tied up, but it was still a great read for the sake of reading. Click here for a synopsis of the storyline.

Be happy in the moment

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope and fear;
But grateful take the good I find,
The best of now and here.

John G. Whittier

Sweet Kisses

Oh, that a joy so soon should waste,
Or so sweet a bliss as a kiss
Might not forever last!
So sugared, so melting, so delicious.
The dew that lies on roses,
When the morn herself discloses,
Is not so precious.
Oh, rather than I would it smother
Were I to taste such another.
It should be my wishing
That I might die kissing.

Ben Jonson
(Poetry of the English Renaissance 1509-1660)