What is Love? (baby don't hurt me)

The best things in life are not things. What are the best "things" in life? A rainy day, the sky painted pink with the sunrise or deep blue with the sunset, laughter, family, friends, love. So many "things" make life beautiful what makes them beautiful is a deep love. Love has many forms, in a world where romantic love is exploited the other types of love get overlooked. There are so many ways to show love. Love for nature in the appreciation and conservation of it, love for family by being supportive, love for friends in being inclusive and always listening. These are not the erotic, romantic love that we so often see in movies, but a love all its own. A love that is constant and unwavering unlike the fleeting feelings of romance. This is not to say that romantic love is wrong, not at all, this is to say that other types of love are more often than not overlooked and under appreciated.

Love is such a complicated and multifaceted idea that I can't cover it all or even simplify it to a blog post. Instead I'll stick to what little I know of love.   So a list maybe, to simplify the very little I know or think I know about such an enigmatic topic.

1. Love is in all things
2. Love is beautiful
3. Love is hard
4. Love is a double edged sword
5. Love is not simply romantic
6. Love can be blinding
7. Love can be eye-opening
8. Love is easy
9. Love is simple
10. Love can't be broken down and simplified into a 10 point list

Allons-y!

The Magic of Books

The other day I went to hear Connie Willis speak. She is a wonderful Science Fiction author with many Hugo and Nebula awards. The Hugo award is one of the most prestigious science fiction awards while the Nebula award is given for the science fiction or fantasy works published in the United States. She is clearly a fantastic writer. I have only read one of her books called "To Say Nothing of the Dog" and I really enjoyed it. It was well written and just so lovely. Anyway, in her speech she talked about the magic of reading. After so many semesters of having to read for classes I had lost the sense of magic. What she made me realize is that I want to read, I need to read. All those characters I had befriended over the years that I still keep close by are not to be forgotten and the fact that I am reading for school does not mean that I can't enjoy it at least a little bit. I love to read. There are so many books out there and too often I put up a wall and never get to experience that world. For instance John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" was a book I told myself I would never pick up, I had read "An Abundance of Katherines" and "Looking for Alaska" and found them less than great. Luckily I did read "The Fault in Our Stars" because it is fantastic.
Nothing compares to the numerous worlds that I have traveled to and the people I have me thanks to the magic of reading. I hope to never lose that magic. Allons-y!

Listening Closely

So recently I have watched the movie witch is the inspiration for the title of this blog, Whisper of the Heart. It's a great movie about coming of age and self discovery and courage. It is so beautifully made too. It's a Studio Ghibli film and so it just has to be wonderful.

Anyway, one of the themes that occurs in this movie is listening to your heart. There are so many people on this planet that we call Earth with there own struggles and their own ideas and we get set on the idea that we all must follow the same path in order to reach success. Of course there are ways that are pretty much guaranteed successful and that many take, but there are so many paths that are worth taking that aren't the norm. In one scene Shizuku's (our lovely protagonist) father is discussing with Shizuku her choice to pursue writing and not continue her schooling. he say's something to the affect of, "if you choose a different path than everyone else it will be harder". There is a set way that is so much easier than any other way because it has become the social norm and not many dare to stray. But if you dare to stray wonderful things can happen, you just have to work a little harder and really believe in yourself. There are definitely paths that are dark and dangerous and twisting and you don't want to go down those paths because they will bring about your own destruction, but there are paths that are intimidating and difficult, but those paths can be rewarding if we are willing to put the effort required even if it is more than the "normal" path.

So let's keep going on this adventure we call life, despite all the scary paths we may end up on, and enjoy every moment of it. Allons-y!