http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog Words to ponder the wonder of life in the moment. Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:44:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Is to be thankful for the gift of the ones you love.  Love and life are always on borrowed time, yet love has the power to make a moment a lifetime. http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/32 Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. ... Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/31 Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/30 What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. Thoreau Always do what you are afraid to do. Emerson To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming is the only end of life. Stevenson How vain it is to sit ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/29 A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul. Goethe Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. Kafka http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/28 I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/27 What happens when something goes right in life?  If it's something big, the custom appears to be to have a celebration, a moment to stop and be happy and thank those who made it possible.  But what about personal victories?  I find I too often write them off and move ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/24 The following is a transcript of the inaugural poem recited by Elizabeth Alexander on January 20 as provided by CQ transcriptions. --- Praise song for the day. Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/23 This election was no different... standing at the poll with two imperfect (to put it politely) choices.  Sad to say, it was Palin vs. Biden that was more on my mind; but after having weighed the issues, and having read an unprecedented amount of available "facts" and views online, I ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/22 Well, I'm no cook to be speaking about what it takes to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner; but I do fancy myself (don't we all) as knowing when a meal has been prepared properly.  If everyone raises a glass to toast...if the flavors are admired and then fade into the backdrop ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/21 What happens when I find what it is I am looking for?  Is it found when I name it?  Or understand it?  Or is it in the touching - holding - grasping of it?  Is it only truly revealed in the grieving of its loss?  And how dare I say ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/20 Shall we revive this thread of reflections?  Yes!  It is a new year with endless possibility. I find myself, at my core, simply thankful for my life and love.  It is my peace to love a wonderful man who is my light.  ...to have good friends and a wise mentor whose ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/19 This weekend, a moment I very much desired passed me by.  It did not bypass me - I failed to reach out to grasp it.  They say we make our lives, so I am left asking myself, "what have I done?" Life is such a mix of needs and emotions, and ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/18 It is all nice and good to ponder life, to write about it, and to seek for what's deeper; but such thoughts seem like luxuries when faced with suffering.  I speak not of my own pain, for that merely requires coping - I speak of the pain of someone close.  ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/17 I have been pondering the fact that the theme of my last poem seems to have, perhaps subconsciously, crept up repeatedly in my latest writings.  Exstasis - the standing outside normal perception of reality - is on some level my goal in writing.  I use poetry as a portal to ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/16 I suppose the planets eventually will align, but this morning all the traffic lights were green on my way to work.  There wasn't the usual traffic, and it seemed like people were clearing the streets so I could get through.  Obviously, they were paying no mind to me, but it's ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/15 Ardent blades burn in sun's passion. Fired scarlet, succulent leaves gather to bear the bloom. Fervent petals waft in sultry air like excited flames, goaded by a mesmerized smithy. Enraptured I stare in stillness. In a sky of virescence, I float looking down in my mind to that crimson eye-flood. Stoke the heart-head inferno, Loosed in a bang of distractions consumed, and rest ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/14 A measurement of time we call a "second?"  A heart beat?  A blink of the eyelid? If it's just a time slice, how is it that one moment is more important than the next? Moments are phenomena of our perception.  It holds "import" to us and therefore stands out.  Imagine a field ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/9 In all my years of employment, I never came out to the whole office or volunteered my being a gay man.  Today, I proudly took my partner and love to the company picnic.  He is a wonderful man, and the time was right to share him with my co-workers.  I ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/8 There is a shore by the ocean bright where the sand lies softly warm waiting for your hard and weary feet. On that shore, lap crystal clear waves, that play and leap and laugh in the sun, waiting for your worn and heavy hands. In those waves, move currents deep, that can carry away the body's weight, waiting ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/7 Resplendent Yet veiled in the plainness of my finitude Glorious A web of more echoing wavelets than I can attend to Beauty You are both the song and each note inside each note One What is, simply is, in all its complexities Oh, Reality, you simple are before me I speak to you?  Because you speak to me. Though you ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/6 More words from Jenny: From where I am, what makes me happy is a flowing feeling of love and beauty, so I am attracted to pleasures and dread pains like all of us. Nothing can change that. ... My question is: Is there beauty and love in pain as well as ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/5 One of the most significant people in my life is my dear friend, Jenny Hoang.  Although our paths have parted over time, I remain deeply enriched by her friendship.  I took the time to read some of her blog stories (under Jenny's Writings in English), and would like to share ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/4 Here begins the adventure.  I've been a blogger through various stages of my life.  Here begins a new attempt at transparency - to share with anyone curious or interested in my thoughts and writings.  I hope to pique your sense of awe at the universe in all its dimensions, both ... http://www.danielmilbo.com/blog/archives/3