You are beautiful

I just loved the "You are beautiful" graffiti when it appeared. Turned out to be a great story: link. It was a little bit as if Christo had been in town, and this time I was actually able to see it. Very cool! link

Coming back home

Finally, after 18 hours of travel I am almost done - only a short 25 min flight to Birmingham, Alabama. We are heading West towards the sinking sun, and I am dozing the last minutes behind closed blinds. But I wake up when the plane makes a right turn. Then I know we have just passed Red Mountain and I can now see the silhouette of the city at night time. There is downtown, Southside, WBHM and Mr Vulcan is greeting me. How's it going, y'all? All these yellow lights over the city, flickering like stars. It almost looks like Christmas lights. I get this warm and cozy feeling as if there is a present waiting for me - I am looking forward to the warmth of the Deep South. The plane has already landed smoothly, everyone waits till it is his or her turn to get off the plane. Southerners are friendly and polite (just don't come by car) and life is good - that's how I know I am back home.

Definitions

Southerner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Southerner or The Southerner can refer to:

• Southern (country subdivision), someone from a southern subnational entity

Deep South

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today, the Deep South is usually delineated as being those states and areas where things most often thought of as "Southern" exist in their most concentrated form.

Happiness is

Happiness is when you are running on a beach with the breeze in your face
Happiness is on a motorcycle on a twisty road
Happiness is strolling in the streets during a subtropical rain fall
Happiness is looking forward to a message which you are expecting
Happiness is in the arms of a loved one
Happiness is watching your kids play
Happiness is sitting on your front porch watching the world go by
Happiness is the sense of achievement after a hard and long day at work
Happiness is smelling the trees on the morning on the way to work
Happiness is sitting in a coffee shop watching people
Happiness is enjoying a good meal
Happiness is anticipating the evening chat with a loved one
Happiness is feeling the morning sun on your skin when you step out the door
Happiness is finding joy in the small things in life

The world is full of happiness. Just look around. You find it enjoying all these little gifts surrounding you and realizing how blessed we are to live here and now. You know it is there, when you suddenly have this bubbly giggly feeling which almost makes your chest explode. If you think it is not there anymore, try to remember the things which made you happy as a child, do some of the little things you have done in your childhood, then you can bring it back. Trust me, it works. Not always, but often enough to get by.

To EE Cummings (and a friend)

Your heart is broken, and so is mine.

May be it was always like that,

was like that when we watched the stars the first time,

was like that when we first met, and this is why we feel our souls side by side.

I am now getting old and

I am not sure if the stars are still apart

I still feel your pain, too far away to carry.

Your heart, I have always carried it, and I always will.

I will think of you, when I watch the stars softly falling in my cloudy skies.

Sometimes, far away is close, and sometimes close is far away,

and sometimes you have to let go the pain, for your heart to survive.

 Self-Portrait, Oil Painting. 

Cummings in the 1950s.