The Amazing Woman

Beautiful Yearning

So I wait for you like a lonely house / till you will see me again and live in me.  Till then my windows ache. 
- Pablo Neruda, Sonnet LXV

Beautiful Language

I just came across this list of the ten most beautiful words in the English language, as proposed by the writer, Wilfred J. Funk, in 1932.

Melody
Golden
Chimes
Luminous
Mist
Tranquil
Murmuring
Lullaby
Hush
Dawn

Just reading them out loud brings such a feeling of calm and peace.  One that I think is missing from the list though is "Grace".

What would be on your list?

My Mirror

Sister. She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. She is your teacher, your defense attorney, your personal press agent, even your shrink. Some days, she's the reason you wish you were an only child.
- Barbara Alpert

Friday Pearls

For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life-and-death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity. I hope therefore … to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love.
- Liu Xiaobo, a literature professor, essayist, human rights activist and Chinese political prisoner, awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. (Source: Los Angeles Times)

Friday Pearls

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

To Be Loved That Way

I'm watching Four Weddings and a Funeral for what must be the seventh or eighth time and I'm still in love with it, for so many reasons.

1. Hugh Grant in the early 90's was the ultimate leading man.  What was there not to like?  Cute British guy, slightly bumbling like we all (American girls) imagined cute British boys to be.  And that accent!  This was before the "incident" of course.
2. Romance, romance, romance.
3. With English accents!
4. Even though I can't stand her now (she's the worst part of the movie for me), Andie McDowell was one of my first role models for the whole American girl living abroad idea.
5. I love the idea of such a disparate but fun group of friends.  
6. Gorgeous wedding locations - village churches, Scottish castles... loved them all.
7. Weddings.  Like so many other girls, I still wish it would happen for me.
8. It's actually been awhile since I last watched it and doing it for the first time while living in Ireland gives it a whole other resonance.  There's actually a sense of familiarity now for the landscapes, the city locations, the characterizations.  And, yes, the accents!  Less exotic, but fun in a different way.
9. Great soundtrack.  I especially like Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet.  Mostly because of it's fantastic cover and co-starring role in another of my favorite movies, Love Actually.  Again with the Hugh Grant!
10. Finally, what for me is one of the most poignant scenes of any movie I've seen.  Matthew's reading of W.H. Auden's poem, Funeral Blues, at Gareth's funeral.  Isn't that what we all want, to be loved like that?

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Friday Pearls

Nothing is so strong as gentleness
And nothing is so gentle as real strength
- Ralph W. Southland (Criminal Minds, Series 5: Exit Wounds)

Friday Pearls

This week's quotes are given in honour of Jamaica's Independence Day today.  Happy 48th Birthday Jamaica!

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.
- Moshe Dayan

Friday Pearls

Marriage hath in it less of beauty but more of safety than the single life.  It hath more care, but less danger.  It is more merry and more sad.  It is fuller of sorrows and fuller of joys.  It lies under more burdens, but it is supported by all the strengths of love and charity, and those burdens are delightful.
- Bishop Jeremy Taylor, 16th Century

Friday Pearls

Men do not differ much about what things they call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.
- G. K. Chesterton

I've been thinking a lot about repentance and forgiveness lately with the final report of the Bloody Sunday Commission, 28 years after the events of that horrible day, and David Cameron's unflinching apology on behalf of his government and country.  Remarkable.

The beginning of atonement is the sense of its necessity.
- Lord Byron

Friday Pearls

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday Pearls

You don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
- Desmond Tutu

Family is a haven in a heartless world.
- Christopher Lasch

Friday Pearls

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tunes without words
and never stops - at all.
- Emily Dickinson (via Criminal Minds, Series 5: Mosley Lane)

Friday Pearls

Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn.
- C.S. Lewis (via Criminal Minds, Series 5: Risky Business)

Friday Pearls

Anything you can not relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you.
- Mildred Lesett Norman

Friday Pearls

I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry. And I know you do the same things too. So we're really not that different, me and you.
- Colin Raye (country music singer)

Friday Pearls

I have 10 hearts and 100 arms. I feel too strong to battle mere mortals. Bring me giants!
- Cyrano de Bergerac

I love great quotes, don't you? My problem is that there are just so many of them, and I never seem to remember them for very long.

So, I thought I'd do something about my leaky memory and preserve some of my favorites for posterity. Since I'm such a TV addict, that's where I'll be getting most of these. And my best source? Weirdly enough, it's Criminal Minds. Great drama, even if it is about catching serial killers. Sorry if the source offends your sensibilities, but that's what makes me such an enigma - my eclectic interests :-)

I thought I'd try and make this a recurring series, so I'll be posting them on Fridays as pearls of wisdom to finish off each week. As a first outing bonus, you get two for the price of one.

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They are messengers of overwhelming grief and of unspeakable love.
- Washington Irving (by way of Criminal Minds, Series 5: Retaliation)