A Mellow Evening By The Fire

 

Song:  The Way Of Love

Artist:  Cher

Today...

it had lightly snowed off and on.

I had been in a very mellow mood all day long...

but especially as the skies began to darken.

And so...

I decided to make a very quick and easy...

but very healthful and delicious Japanese meal.

I had unagi (bbq fresh water eel)...

smoked and black peppered salmon...

miso soup, and rice.

I had the fireplace going for the whole meal...

as well as afterwards after I went up to the loft

(the whole upstairs in the loft got toasty warm just from the fireplace).

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I think the included song is one of the greatest love songs ever performed

(this and Barry Manilow's - Could It Be Magic).

The amount of emotion expressed by Cher...

and by the arranged instruments...

so deeply speak of the wringing of the heart when true love is felt.

The greater the depth of pain felt when love is lost...

the greater the depth of love one had.

To fear the ending of love in the beginning is to hamper fully loving...

as is with the case of fearing death hampering the full living of life.

To love with wild abandonment of the heart...

is the only way to love...

and to live life.

It is the inner child in each of us who loves purely and deeply...

for it is the inner child who feels without thought...

who leads with his heart.

A person touched by love can never be bitter in life...

never holds on to anger...

and is forever an optimist in life...

for with even the briefest experienced moments of a great love...

the world is transformed into a magical place where music and colors come alive...

and all of your senses are greatly heightened for the rest of your life...

regardless of what happens afterwards.

Your new threshold of inner happiness will never fade...

and even the gentlest of breezes upon your face becomes a loving caress.

With true love having been felt but once...

not even in the throes of the deepest of grief does the heart become irrevocably damaged.

Love of another...

and of life itself...

is simply too strong to ignore.

It is the perpetual siren song of the heart that gently guides a person

back to a state of grace and serenity.

For even with a great love lost...

the magical feeling...

the crystal clarity of the world...

never fades...

and so...

a positive outlook on life comes naturally...

as pessimism then becomes an impossibility.

And conversely...

it is sad to think of how many people had never experienced true love

(unjustifiably angry, bitter, and just plain rude people looking to get even with the cosmos...

as they have an inner nebulous hatred they can neither understand nor escape)...

for had they been touched by love but once in life...

they would not have any lingering hatred.

---------------

I have been so deeply happy all of my life...

only because my default mode is living life through my inner child.

It is he who loves looking at the clouds in the sky...

feeling the wind upon his face...

 of the reverberating musical masterpieces of the maestro of the mind...

and of the full spectrum of colors which come alive all around him.

He sees the world filled with hope and wonder...

and he cares not what others may think of him...

for in this...

he finds freedom.

It was this deep and serene happiness of my inner world

that was born in solitude as a very young child...

and so...

it was my dream since as far back as I can remember...

to always be as happy as I was as a young child...

to never lose my inner happiness as I matured...

for I saw in some of the adults...

especially some of the very elderly...

that they seemed to be unhappy...

with some being quite bitter.

I had decided then to never become unhappy in life...

and so...

my inner child had never left me since.

I wanted to forever remain a child inside...

to never lose my sense of wonder and excitement with the world around me

(although I had temporarily lost my way in my very early teens...

 I quickly found my way back when I realized that while the outer world was transitory...

my inner world was for life).

I am now...

most like my inner child of 3 - 8 years old.

I was happiest alone...

in my own thoughts and observing the world around me...

the great beauty of the billowy pure white clouds set against an almost impossibly blue sky...

hearing the uninhibited full belly laughter of children at parks...

sitting outside in my rain suit during storms 

as I waited for lightning to streak across the darkness...

 of watching snow drifting down in the serene silence of a windless snowfall

(watching snow fall from 3 - 6 years old while living in Northern Japan)...

and of taking all day walks along a nearby river bank while dreaming of my future.

And...

although I enjoy being around good people some of the time...

I still love solitude.

Life is what we make of it.

The meaning of life is that which we give it.

Too many people aren't true to themselves...

they simply don't know what truly makes them happy.

However...

your inner child does know.

It was in his utter simplicity that he experienced life to its fullest...

without inhibition or shame...

he just felt...

but he did so with a pure and unadulterated heart.

--------

I had just come back in from taking Bandi to her forest bathroom.

As it was dark outside...

I used my head mounted flashlight as I walked her out and stood by until she finished.

As I stood on the ridge...

I noticed how the tiny ice crystals wafting in the air and reflecting off

the bright beam of my flashlight looked like tiny falling pieces of silvery glitter.

It was so peaceful and magnificently beautiful at the same time.

My inner child just never tires of the simplest of joys in life.