Withstanding the tension between opposites
until we know it is “enough” releases us from
the swing between one extreme and the other.
~Helen Luke~
Actress
1 Comment
The Beauty of Pride and Prejudice…
I I cannot begin to explain my infatuation with this movie… from the simplicity of reading a book out of doors while walking, to the misunderstandings of attraction, to the fashionable and less fashionable sides of love, the humor… the heartbreak and longing… it has possessed me body and soul…
Fashion Flashback…vintage 1955…
This gallery contains 6 photos.
let us live…and love…
Come…let us live and love,
nor give a damn what sour old men say.
The sun that sets may rise again
but when our light has sunk into the earth,
it is gone forever.
Give me a thousand kisses,
then a hundred, another thousand,
another hundred
and in one breath
still kiss another thousand,
another hundred.
O then with lips and bodies joined
many deep thousands;
confuse
their number,
so that poor fools and cuckolds (envious
even now) shall never
learn our wealth and curse us
with their
evil eyes.
from Catullus
click image for artist
Keira…
Love this pic…
Since the stars have fallen…
Since the stars have fallen from heaven and our highest symbols have pales, a secret life holds sway in the unconscious. That is why we have psychology today, and why we speak of the unconscious. All this would be quite superfluous in an age or culture that possessed symbols. Symbols are spirit from above, and under those conditions the spirit is above too. Therefore it would be a foolish and senseless undertaking for such people to wish to experience or investigate an unconscious that contains nothing but silent, undisturbed sway of nature. Our unconscious, on the other hand, hides living water, spirit that has become nature, and that is why it is disturbed. Heaven has become for us the cosmic space of the physicians, and the divine empyrean a fair memory of things that once were. But “the heart glows,” and a secret unrest gnaws at the roots of our being.
~from The Nature and Activity of the Psyche, by C.G. Jung
click image for artist link
Pondering life as it is, marriage, and aging ever so slowly…
We are love
and conversation
and truth.
We find those little ways to speak to each other
to say even with subtle gestures
what the other already knows.
A spark, even after twenty years, that, too,
makes life anew, sensual,
sexual in strange ways
the light in the morning
on pale skin…
a laugh and low talking.
Then coffee.
I many times find it hard to believe
the wedding day wasn’t yesterday.
Yet I feel the sting of so many washed up years…
many good but washed with bleach
pale…
soft and gentle and there
full of wishes and dreams that are yet to come.
Is it too late to feel renewed, rejuvenated?
Feeling this makes a mid-aged life fresh and livable.
Full of desire and bright light and fresh green trees
like the ones trying to spark in spring
in the yard
beyond the mulch and parked cars
where the lawn keepers parked their lawn mowers.
_______________
4/22/13
This Wit has been down for a bit, literally, in more ways than one…but my esteem is coming back, and hopefully some “witicisms” along with it. Business with life sometimes
squashes inspiration, or, when one is more inclined, it actually does the opposite, and, so
I am trying.
The Sky You Painted.
Upon rotten ledges and woods, your thirsty words became
doubted.
Yet still -- we watched and waved, we blamed and waited.
The sky you’d painted fell,
tainted,
ruined by the night.
And as it attacked in blues and blacks, we listened and heard our breathing be clean and our smoking out –
The skin-soft breeze filled the air and lured the boats in.
Deep beautiful words...
Danse…
Catherine Verneuil, 1963
Liane Dayde dans la rotonde de l’Opera, Paris, 1950
Cours d’adage a l’Opera, Paris, 1950
All image via Atelier Robert Doisneau
Rayographs…
A flower is only as pretty as its petals…
Nobody sees a flower–really–it is so small it takes time–we haven’t time–and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. ~ Georgia O’Keeffe
Clocks…
Even a clock that does not work is right twice a day. ~ Polish Proverb
Clocks slay time…time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life. ~ ~William Faulkner
Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.
~John Archibald
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. ~Henry David Thoreau
Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them. ~Dion Boucicault
Time wastes our bodies and our wits, but we waste time, so we are quits.
~unknown
Time is the fire in which we burn. ~ Delmore Schwartz
Dolls…
2/21
The pusses from Tumblr and Photogenic Felines, my fave cat Tumblr blog!
February 16
Just because the puss is so cute… and white…
Emerald Green…
Street style Spring 2013, Harpers Bazaar.com photo credit: Diego Zuko
Well, my Wit friends, it is hard to believe it is nearly the end of January, 2013… with resolutions firmly toasting on the back-burner. We are in a bitter cold slump here…but I have to say, I kind of like it. When I was a kid, winters were like this every year…lakes to skate on, snow to pile up and watch melt until June, snow days home from school watching all the soaps that we’d normally miss…So I welcome the chic cold…and look forward to spring and the emerald green to come…
I love this emerald green skirt above. I had one similar years ago…in a haunting cerulean color which I fitfully ruined during a Christmas dinner when a Braciole (a stuffed meat roll covered in red sauce) took a tumble from my plate and landed in my lap. Note: silk organza does not clean easily. 2nd note: wear an apron when eating Braciole.
Emerald green lace pants I’d wear in a minute…
with…
and this…
…must have emerald green bag…
Butter nail lacquer in Emerald
Incredibly green is popular this season for nails…not my cup of tea unless it’s deep and dark and almost black…
Emerald green fashion and beauty…
Scarlett in emerald green. Could one be any more gorgeous?
Emerald green decor…
an earthy emerald for one’s hand…
an emerald green gorge…
and emerald green doors…
an emerald green chandelier…
Who could ask for more?
Black Dress XXI…XXII…XXIII
feeling breathless…
all images via Tumblr
Dance in the rain…
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass… it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.
~unknown~
Paris: Biking to the Arc de Triomphe
By Theadora Brack
Celebrating the new bike lanes on the right bank in Paris, let's take a sentimental journey! Pop open a Coke, crank up Claude Debussy’s “Petite Suite,” and prepare for some bumpy late 19th century time travel along avenue Foch. This centuries-old promenading stretch is my favorite spot for gazing up at the Arc de Triomphe…
A sentimental journey through Parisian bike history by my favorite French girl Theadora Brack...
Paths…
Trees…
I am looking at trees
they may be one of the things I will miss
most from the earth
though many of the ones that I have seen
already I cannot remember
and though I seldom embrace the ones I see
and have never been able to speak
with one
I listen to them tenderly
their names have never touched them
they have stood round my sleep
and when it was forbidden to climb them
they have carried me in their branches
~W. S. Merwin
Fashion Friday…
This gallery contains 7 photos.
Theme Thursdays – Couples
Rooms to dream in…
Hard to pick a favorite… have one?
All images via Pinterest
I could spend days here…
A dream is a little hidden door…
“The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night…”
“…in dreams we put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night.”
“The dream is often occupied with apparently very silly details, thus producing an impression of absurdity, or else it is on the surface so unintelligible as to leave us thoroughly bewildered.”
“Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will.”
“One would do well to treat every dream as though it were a totally unknown object. Look at it from all sides, take it in your hand, carry it about with you, let you imagination play round it, and talk about it with other people.”
Dream words source: Psychological Reflections, C.G. Jung
Click images for artist links
In the boudoir…
Click image for artist link
The Metaphysical Countrygirl
You, functional space
variants in voltage, the only light
Transitory effect of Love
several different lights
Sustain
sustain them
you sustain them.
~Omar Perez~
via The Poetry Foundation
Frozen…in time…
…January…a new year…a new beginning of things…
but already I’m frozen…in time…
Insane people…
“Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.”
~Nora Ephron~
Christmas…
Christmas…
keep is simple and enjoy…
Holiday Love from the Wit Continuum
Amazing Kate…
Fashion for Friday…
Just a few amazing shots of my fave model/icon…
…who said it was the end of the world?…
Rain…
It’s December…almost Christmas…and we are still getting a lot of rain…
Words…
Words…
They are hard to capture…
find…
define…
write…
see…
imagine…
shape into something…
speak with with ultimate clarity…
envision…
realize…
give to someone…
take from someone…
express…
….
or let alone.
You are the free-swimming fish…
TENDING TWO SHOPS
Don’t run around this world
looking for a hole to hide in.
There are wild beasts in every cave!
If you live with mice,
the cat claws will find you.
The only real rest comes
when you’re alone with God.
Live in the nowhere that you came from,
even though you have an address here.
That’s why you see things in two ways.
Sometimes you look at a person
and see a cynical snake.
someone else see a joyful lover,
and you’re both right!
Everyone is half and half,
like the black and white ox.
Joseph looked ugly to his brothers,
and most handsome to his father.
You have eye that see from that nowhere,
and eyes that judge distances,
how high and how low.
You own two shops,
and you run back and forth.
Try to close the one that’s a fearful trap,
getting always smaller. Checkmate,
this way. Checkmate that.
Keep open the shop
where you’re not selling fishhooks anymore.
You are the free-swimming fish.
~Rumi~
12/12/12
Fashionable Italian Greyhounds…
amazing Kate…
…and vintage photo of the week… Marie Claire, 1973…found on Pinterest
Night
From higher up we see things more clearly…we hear the subtle noises of experiences, love, and challenges…
…and night sparkles with the grit of life…
Image via Tumblr
Before I knew you.
Before I knew you, truly knew you
I knew you love
The unsubtle longing of my heart
Decidedly unquiet, the passionate leaning into the
Landscape of your soul
I could hear your heart beating
Against mine
Oh great impossibility made possible
Transcending all rational thought
Meant to govern such things
For the heart concerns itself little for the confines
Of propriety and reasoning…
Beautiful words...from my beautiful friend...
December 6
Nestled in the middle of nowhere are strange and mysterious and beautiful things…we must never give up finding them…
Atonement
Believing in impossible things…
“And you are looking for answers,” Mr. Barris says.
“I don’t know what I’m looking for,” Tara responds, and for the moment her face crumples as though she might burst into tears, but then she composes herself. “Ethan, do you sometimes feel like you are dreaming, all the time?”
“No, I can’t say that I do.”
“I’m finding it difficult to discern between asleep and awake,” Tara says, tugging at her lace cuffs again. “I do not like being left in the dark. I am not particularly fond of believing in impossible things.”
Mr. Barris takes off his spectacles, wiping the lenses with a handkerchief before he replies, holding them up to the light to check for rogue smudges.
“I have seen a great many things that I might once have considered impossible, or unbelievable. I find I no longer have clearly defined parameters for such matters. I choose to do my work to the best of my own abilities, and leave others to their own.”
-from The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
(a great book that I can’t put down…)
Birthday: Theresa Duncan
Birthdays come and go even when we are gone…but not forgotten.
Happy Birthday to the Wit of the Staircase
Visit my page Folie A Deux or my Theresa Duncan category for her fascinating and sad story…
Image:
©Wilbur King III
The Pumpkin patch…
A Bowl…
Imagine the time the particle you are
returns where it came from!
The family darling comes home. Wine,
without being contained in cups,
is handed around.
A red glint appears in ta granite outcrop,
and suddenly the whole cliff turns to ruby.
At dawn I walked along with a monk
on his way to the monastery.
“We do the same work,”
I told him. “We suffer the same.”
He gave me a bowl.
And I saw:
the soul has this shape.
Shams, you that teach us and actual sunlight,
help me now,
being in the middle of being partly in my self,
and partly outside.
Book…
“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I’ll waste no time reading it.”
-Moses Hadas
Waiting…
“If something anticipated arrives too late it finds us numb, wrung out from
waiting we feel – nothing at all. The best things arrive on time.”
~Dorothy Gilman~
Vintage Photo of the Week
Marilyn Monroe meeting Queen Elizabeth II.
London, 1956
Pandora’s box…
everyone’s got secrets…
What’s in yours?
My guilty pleasure tonight…
Yes, I’m guilty of being hooked on Revenge…
Don’t know what I’m going to do next Sunday when Walking Dead starts…hate that ABC changed this show’s time to Sundays…it was perfect on Wednesday… anyway, I’ll have to catch the dead a bit later that night on AMC…
So, just thought I’d post this picture of some of the cast looking so happy, since they never, ever smile like this on the show. What a shame. Eye candy all!
Any guilty comrades out there?
