An exerpt from Les Miserables

I thought this was a beautiful little passage and I thought I'd share. It makes me wish I had known Victor Hugo. It's about a blind man being cared for by his sister but it really has a lot that I think could apply to anyone. It's really just a passage about love.

"Let us say in passing, to be blind and to be loved, is in fact- on this earth where nothing is complete-one of the most strangely exquisite forms of happiness. To have continually at your side a woman, a girl, a sister, a charming being, who is there because you need her, and because she cannot do without you, to know you are indispensible to someone necessary to you, to be able at all times to measure her affection by the degree of her presence that she gives you, and to say to yourself: She dedicates all her time to me, because I possess her whole love; to see the thought if not the face; to be sure of the fidelity of one being in a total eclipse of the world; to imagine the rustling of her dress as the rustling of wings; tp hear her moving to and fr,. going out, coming in, talking, singing, and to think that you are the cause of those steps, those words, that song, to show your personal attraction at every moment; to feel even more powerful as your infirmity increases; to become in darkness, and by reason of darkness, the star around which this angel gravitates; few joys can equal that. The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves-say rather, loved in spite of ourselves; this conviction the blind have. In their calamity. to be served is to be caressed. Are they deprived of anything? No. light is not lost where love enters. And what a love! A love wholly founded in purity. There is no blindness where there is certainty. The soul gropes in search of a soul, and finds it. And that soul, found and proven, is a woman. A hand sustains you, it is hers; lips lightly touch your forehead, they are her lips; you hear breathing near you, it is she. To have her wholly, from her devotion to her pity, never to be left alone, to have that sweet shyness as your aid, to lean on that unbending reed, to touch Providence with your hands and be able to grasp it in your arms; God made palpable, what a transport! The heart, that dark celestial flower, bursts into a mysterious bloom. You would not give up that shade for all the light in the world! The angel soul is there, forever there; if she goes away, it is only to return; she fades away in dream and reappears in reality. You feel an approaching warmth, she is there. You overflow with serenity, gaiety, and ecstasy; you are radiant in your darkness. And the thousand little cares! The trifles that are enormous in this void. The most ineffable accents of the womanly voice used to comfort you, and replacing for you the vanished universe! You are caressed through the soul. You see nothing, but you feel yourself adored. It is a paridise of darkness."

Victor Hugo in Les Miserables pages 166-167

This Summer...

there are several things that I would like to do.


One of them is to blog again which is why we're starting here. Hopefully, the other things I want to do will 1.) actually happen and 2.) be material to blog about!
Some of them have already begun to take place merely because I have more time and want to do them. Some of them though, I'll have to actually put a little more effort forth in order to do them. One way of putting forth effort, is to tell people about it. That's what I'm doing. So it kind of makes a big circle... wanting to do things, doing them, blogging about them so that I'll actually do them and because I've done them and now have something to blog about! :) Get it?
So here we go:

• READ.........fiction, non fiction, just lots of it. This has suffered considerably from lack of time the past semester but is making a much needed come back.
• COOK........I already do a lot of this but I want to do more. I want to spend more time on cooking new things, trying new techniques, planning out meals etc.
• BIBLE STUDY......... I can't believe this is actually something that I'm having to commit to doing more of but it is. I have definitely let this one slide as well and that's not acceptable. So, more of it and in a more focused way, will be happening!
• Blogging...we've been over this one already.
• OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES..... canoeing, biking etc. I love that kind of thing but almost never take the time to go out and do it. This will be easier to do now that Joe is living here and loves this stuff even more than me.
• WORKING OUT....... I love working out. I really do. I just have to do it on a schedule and stick to it. If I really stick to a schedule it's a lot easier on my blood sugar.
• FUN, INTENTIONAL TIME WITH PEOPLE I LOVE....... playing games, watching movies, getting coffee, talking, whatever. I just don't want it to be neglected because these relationships are important to me.
• And more to come... :)