Monday in Roses

Hello God!

Thank You for Monday! As usual my new life begins from Monday and Labor Day is the first Monday of September.

Most of Mondays I habitually promise to myself to wake up earlier, to do my morning exercises every day, to be calmer with my daughter when we do her homework and other self-improvement stuff demanding self-discipline.

Today is my magical Monday and I am going to begin it in roses.

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When I think about roses I see Grace Kelly and her rose garden in Monaco. Roses were Grace Kelly’s favorite flower and in 1984, to honor her, Prince Ranier inaugurated a public rose garden dedicated to her memory. Located in Fontvielle, in the principality of Monaco, the Princess Grace Rose Garden is situated on a gentle slope next to Fontvielle Park on the French Riviera. The fragrant garden is home to more than 4,000 roses. I was blessed walking around there.

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Rose is a wonderful flower and we all know it does not grow by itself. Even in Monaco.

With Kipling’s words: “Gardens are not made by singing: “Oh, how beautiful,” and sitting in the shade”, I open “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” and read “How to plant, grow and care for roses”. In my Monday’s case I am the rose-me and I am going to grow myself. You know why – I dream to look like Grace Kelly.

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To plant a rose I need preparing the Soil. I have a body – Soil which is the temple of my soul and the source of my development. Ok, I promise cut sugar-carbohydrates and do Tibetan “Fountain of Youth” every morning. I like this complex and it takes about 20 minutes.

Roses.jpg “Plant roses where they will receive a minimum of 5 to 6 hours of full sun per day. Roses grown in weak sun may not die at once, but they weaken gradually. Give them plenty of organic matter when planting and don’t crowd them” – what’s a wonderful tip for self -growing.

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I do not exactly, I suppose – you see a gorgeous Hybrid Tea rose which is named after Grace. Anyway watering my own rose-person means inspiring other soul to create. At this very moment I’am helping you to create your own happy hybrid, I hope.

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“When you transplant your roses, be sure to dig a much bigger hole than you think you need”. Self-growing the rose-me is fulfilled but sometimes transformations are painful and fearful. “Wear sturdy gloves to protect your hands from prickly thorns” – I have an extra pair for you.

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“Prune roses every spring and destroy all old or diseased plant material. Wear elbow-length gloves that are thick enough to protect your hands from thorns but flexible enough to allow you to hold your tools.” I hold my tools tightly and I am with your support. Thank you very much for your smiling eyes I am feeling now.

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We overcome the thorns of temptations and meet ourselves as beautiful buds of roses. “Les Roses d’hispahan” by Gabriel Fauré is our award for hardworking self-growing process:

“Your lips are of coral and your light
filled laugh more lovely than swift water, your voice more soft;
more joyful than the wind that shivers the orange blossoms,
than the bird that sings beside its nest of moss.”

 

The melody is as harmonious as we all are created. The Rose-me is growing hard but flowering is worth it.

Happy Labor Day! Have all Mondays in Roses!

Knowledge Day

Hello God!

Thank You for the Knowledge Day!

We are celebrating the 1st of September, our first day in school!

Knowledge.jpgWe are happy today. My daughter with hand in my hand goes to the school. I know, my darling, home works are compulsory and sometimes its are difficult and boring. Teachers are different and perhaps you will meet misunderstanding. But I am with you and I help you to open numerous doors to knowledges. I learn with you.

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With the Danish doors you see, for today I have discovered “The Chaos” written by Dutch writer, traveller, and teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité.

This is a classic English poem containing about 800 of the worst irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation!!!

Dearest creature in Creation,
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
Tear in eye, your dress you’ll tear;
So shall I!

Oh, hear my prayer.

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Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word.
Sword and sward, retain and Britain
(Mind the latter, how it’s written!)
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say-said, pay-paid, laid, but plaid.

Please enjoy and learn! We all are always have something to learn. Thank you for your smile and my hope that I open something new and fascinating for your mind!

Happy Knowledges!

Adiós, Summer!

Hello God!

Thank You for the violin melody I am listening now. It is “Adiós a la Alhambra” by Jesús de Monasterio. I was lucky to meet the composer in the centre of nice mountain village Potes, Cantabria, Spain.

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This funny illustration by Daniel Pérez embodies the violinist and exactly mirrors my own idea about Jésus. Yes, the Crown – Violin is on his head and in his mind. The bows radiate the music we feel in his blue eyes.

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Jesús de Monasterio was born in Potes in 1836. “One afternoon, little Jésus 4 y.o. listen a melody his father playing the violin, a melody as simple as melancholy. When father saw his son sitting in a corner of the room he was in abundant tears. “Why are you crying, child?” he asked. “I cry”, answered the boy, “because that music makes me cry”. With such an answer, Jacinto Monasterio decided to teach his son to play the violin.

He learned to play the violin at age five and became a child prodigy. At the age of seven, Jesus de Monasterio as Mozart astonished the audience by his first performance. “He caused an inexplicable admiration with the prodigies that he made playing the violin: this little angel, smaller than the instrument he had in hand,” – the review of that concert said.

Monasterio.JPGMonasterio devoted most of his life to teaching and promoting music in Spain. Outside of teaching, Monasterio founded in 1863 the Society of Quartets, which became the gateway to Spain of the best chamber music of European Romanticism.

He directed the Orchestra of the Concert Society and brought greater technical complexity to the orchestra, especially in the string section. As a composer, he left half a hundred works. He composed orchestral music and chamber music, religious works and didactic works.

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In Proust Questionnaire for the magazine Black and White published in 1893 he affirmed that his favorite occupation was to study; that his favorite color was white; that among all the animals he preferred the dog; that his favorite writers were Cervantes, Fray Luis de Leon and Concepcion Arenal, and that he had no favorite politician. To the question To what faults do you feel most indulgent?”,  Jesus of Monastery replied: “Those committed its who are blindly in love”.

The Violin.jpg “Adiós a la Alhambra” is the piece for violin and piano, I am saying “Good bye, Summer!” with. This beautiful melody declaims Violin poem by Hafiz:

“When the violin can forgive the past

it starts singing

When the violin can stop worrying

About the future

You will become such a drunk laughing nuisance.

That God will then lean down

And start combing you into His hair.

When the viloin can forgive

Every wound caused by others

The heart starts singing”

It seems the violinist, A. Detisov, embodies the genius of Jésus de Monasterio. I am so grateful to share this pleasure to listen such a beautiful violin melody today, in the last summer day!

Adiós, Summer!

 

 

El Capricho

Hello God!

Thank You for Antonio Gaudi. He has imagined and created Barcelona by his life and love and today when Barcelona is crying, Antonio Gaudi helps us to keep our hand in hand together and gives the strength to hope for life will continue…

“A white Fiat van was deliberately driven into pedestrians on one of Barcelona’s most popular boulevards late on Thursday afternoon, killing 13 people in what Spanish police called a “terrorist attack” –  Catalan heart of Antonio Gaudi is crying by our tears.

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Before Barcelona had inspired Antonio Gaudi, his first work was El Capricho in a small town Comillas, Canrabria. I have recently visited this gem and I hope sharing El Capricho will be helpful to dry a little our tears. “Gaudi” in Catalan means “enjoy”.

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Antonio Gaudi was just 31 y.o. when he began to create the building. Cristòfor Cascante i Colom, Gaudí’s fellow student, directed the construction. Friends had the same dreams they saw the Sun in their creation.

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In an oriental style, the building has an elongated shape, on three levels and a cylindrical tower in the shape of a Muslim minaret, faced completely in ceramics.

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The building was commissioned by Máximo Díaz de Quijano and constructed between 1883 and 1885. Maximo was an amateur musician, and for this reason the name of El Capricho responds, translated to architecture, as it is used in music to designate pieces that do not follow the rules and with variations of rhythm according to a personal whim.

Was it the personal whim to drive above peacefully walking people? Who is conductor of horror capriccio in Barcelona?Gaudi Sun Flower.jpg

I am reading in “The Architectural Capriccio”, by Lucien Steil: “In fact what characterizes the capriccio is: truth, reality and realism. It enhances a formidable potential of life and livability in beautifully composed, complex and memorable environments, places, landscapes and buildings which only exist in the realm of desire”.

The realm of desire is the realm of life? Who had a desire to create today’s blood haos in Barcelona? The Sun is different for him?

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Antonio is sitting on the bench in a happy thoughts of creating Barcelona as we know the city today. His beautiful dreams of this city supports us in our trust in humanity – “Please do not hate Muslims and Arabs. Sun is for everyone” – he is asking for.

6 guitars sing sad melody of Capricho árabe (Arab Capriccio) by Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega with beautiful hands of musician. I am listening it now and my soul feels a hope – Barcelona is strong. Antonio Gaudi knows Barcelona inspires.

Thank you for letting me to support you in really sad today.

 

Dancing Ocean

Hello God!

Thank You for Monday. A working week begins and I suggest to warm up our brain by a kids riddle.

Who swims in the water, but isn’t a fish?

Who whistles and chirps, but isn’t a bird?

Who loves to jump, but isn’t a frog?

Who makes the Ocean dance, but isn’t God?

Happiness of Spirit

It is not difficult, is it? Meganne Forbes, the painter, creates unique portraits of our friends – dolphins.

Did you know that India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests has officially recognized dolphins as non-human persons, whose rights to life and liberty must be respected. Dolphinariums are banned in India!

Dr Thomas White, an ethics expert, said: “The similarities between cetaceans (marine mammals) and humans are such that they, as we, have an individual sense of self. The science has shown that individuality, consciousness, self awareness is no longer a unique human property.”

So if dolphins are persons we should use “he” or “she” instead of “it” in our describing.

Child of Happiness

Dolphins dance in two elements.

They must live in both – water and air.

They must dance by pair

Expressing their feelings,

Catching the moment

To begin a new life!

We live in the same Ocean

Making the Ocean dance.

Kindness, Openness, Warmness,

The music of our hearts

We are all dancing by.

I highly recommend to watch the animation you see below. I love “Girl and Dolphin” from my early childhood. You will touch my heart and newly born emotion makes our Ocean dance!

We watch in awe, every time, never tiring of the spectacle.

Dolphins dance and we learn how to live in the Dancing Ocean.

 

Vera Stracciatella!

Hello God!

Thank You for my cone of stracciatella I am licking now! As for me and it has deep roots from my childhood true Spring begins from a cone of ice-cream without a threat of laryngitis.

Vanilla ice cream with small, delicious shreds of dark chocolate – mmmm, it is mouthwatering. With this epitome of perfect taste I am happy to invite you in Bergamo, Northern Italy, where the door to the single place where you can try original taste of Stracciatella Gelato opens!

Stracciatella

Gelato is the Italian word for ice cream, derived from the Latin word “gelātus” (meaning frozen). What differentiates gelato from ice cream is its dense, yet super creamy texture. This is mainly the result of two things: gelato is churned so that very little air is incorporated, so it’s less fluffy than ice cream; two, gelato at the gelaterias is stored at a higher temperature than most ice cream, so even though its dense it doesn’t freeze solid – like many ice creams left too long in the freezer.

La Marianna

The story of Stracciatella Gelato begins here on Largo Colle aperto 2/4, Bergamo, in cafe “La Marianna”. Please, come in and seat at the table you like.

“La Marianna” is a strong family-run business, and in Italy it means that father has unlimited power to involve his children to help than to live by the business. Enrico Panattoni, the youngest son, was responsible for stirring eggs in the soup-like dish called “Stracciatella”. “Stracciare” means “to shred” or “to tear up” in Italian and, indeed, that is how the soup looks after stirring some beaten eggs with some cheese in a good chicken broth.

Gelateria

The soup was the main dish in the menu of “La Marianna” in 60’s. The cafe was mecca for “Stracciatella” soup. But Enrico Panattoni was sad – every customer wanted to eat only the soup.

“It seems I have to stir eggs for the end of my life” he thinks even not asking a new client what he or she would like to order. Enrico was sure all clients want to eat this damn soup!

Ice Cream House

It happened in April in 1961. A girl had changed everything! This girl in a silk vanilla color blouse and dark chocolate-brown skirt in soft cream suede ballerina shoes opened “La Marianna”s door and Miracle had smiled to Enrico! He floated in her eyes and he knew she would not order the soup. She would order something different. “I would like, mmm, I want, I will, ge-la-to. Yeas, I would like a cone of gelato” the girl made her choice.

“Tuk, tuk, tuk – I hear every beat of my heart” Enrico happily noticed. “My dream, my old dream is on the way to its realization. Today I am going to present my creation. This girl will try my Stracciatella Gelato!”

Spring Cream

After various and repeated experiments in tight secret from father, Enrico Panattoni created a particular gelato. His method of “drizzling in” melted chocolate creates the characteristic shreds – when melted chocolate hits the cold vanilla ice cream base it immediately hardens and breaks into small, brittle shreds – which are dispersed throughout the ice cream during the churning. The melted chocolate just remember the egg congeals into the boiling broth of the soup “Stracciatella”.

“You have to give a name to this delight and then … why not call it as one of the most popular dish of the restaurant “La Marianna”, “Stracciatella”?” happy Enrico had just prepared the cone of his creation to the girl.

Happy Cream

The girl was beautiful. April tender breeze was playing in her hairs and her lips had touched the cone of gelato – Enrico’s creation! Do you know what happened with the girl and Enrico? For romantic Italian boy the lips which tried his creation at the first time became the single lips he kissed every day in their happy marriage.

Enrico Panattoni held tightly the original recipe, which is still a family secret – no patent, no copyright, people arrive to “La Marianna” to try “Vera Stracciatella”!

Stracciatella Gelato prepared according to the original recipe here. That Stracciatella which is still produced with vertical machines (the famous Carpigiani L40 with tinned copper bell and wet brine) with simple ingredients such as fresh milk, egg yolks, sugar, cream, gelatin and alginate sodium as a stabilizer. Chocolate coverage today is the Lindt dark chocolate with 58% cocoa.

I strongly recommend to buy a cone of Stracciatella Gelato in the nearest gelateria. You will understand what I am telling here about. Thank You for your pleasure!

Happy gelato weekend!

Mathieu’s Lamp

Hello God!

Thank You for Inspiration to create and build lighthouses. I am incredibly happy to have a beautiful possibility to touch Your Inspiration, You had granted a young sailor Mathieu.

We are walking around a very beautiful and romantic place in the town Plougonvelin. This is the westernmost point of mainland France.

The lighthouse Saint-Mathieu has fascinated us and captured our imagination…

Saint Mathieu

Lighthouses are not just stone, brick, metal, and glass. There’s a human story at every lighthouse. A Human Fate speaks by lighthouse’s rays.

Born at the sea

with big brave heart,

I am a happy young sailor,

My name is Mathieu.

This story is simple

It is about the Light.

My Destiny is

To keep It in my lamp.

Lighthouse Abbey

It is all very romantic – a lighthouse standing by the sea to guide home the weary sailor, and the lighthouse keeper with the lantern, trimming the wicks and keeping a solitary watch for a ship in trouble. Fog, storms, shipwrecks, rescues – what an adventure lighthouse keeping!

The boat was small

But our hearts were big!

The ship began to move slowly along

The wing blew it…

Abbey

In 1250, the Benedictine monks in Saint Mathieu hung a lantern on the top of a tower to guide ships on the Iroise Sea. The abbey was built in several stages from the Romanesque period (11th and 12th century) to the Gothic (from the 13th to the 15th century).

It was the worst storm ever,

Father of all storms.

But in the very midst of it,

When the wind was highest ,

The waves were strongest,

When the foam and the spray

Completely covered ship windows

I had seen the Light!

Megalith

Being lost at sea in the dark is a matter of life and death. Near this megalith old Benedictine monk Mathieu had been praying for protection of every ship on the Atlantic for whole his life.

The sea as black as ink

Roaring and thundering on the rocky shores,

I could feel much too clearly,

The grasp of the swirling darkness below.

I had seen the Light –

We would survive!

Abbey of Hope

Kneeling I prayed for protection –

“The light of God surrounds us,

The love of God enfolds us,

The power of God protects us!”

I closed my eyes…

And opened its on the shore.

We all were saved by the Light!

La Phare

Mathieu’s lamp is very big now. It helps sailors in their navigation: by lining up with white rays, they know they are headed in the right direction.

– white: route to follow

– red: danger

– green: isolated danger.

Lighthouse

Night by night as soon as it begin to grow dark Mathieu’s lamps are lighted. And as the ships go by, they always keep a look-out for friendly lights and avoid the rocks of which they are warned.

You know I am feeling a clumsiness of my words, Chopin helps me describe my thoughts more precisely about the Light Mathieu saw in his Etude “Ocean”. This is miraculous, exquisite and phenomenal. You will feel the roaring waves in a series of rising and falling arpeggios and you will see the Light. You will be eyes of Mathieu.

We all are keeping the Light in our lamps. We are a lighthouses.

Thank you for sharing your light. I know the way because of you!

Red Fortress

Hello God!

Thank You for this morning. I am so happy to celebrate my first today’s hours with bird’s singing and happy writing.

This morning was going to be happy for inhabitants of Brest Fortress 73 years ago… Ordinary people, cooks, musicians, soldiers, doctors, civilians become suddenly, on this fateful morning, heroes, they want it or not, they like it or not.

On 22 June 1941, soon after 3am, the first German shells smashed into the Soviet frontier fortress of Brest – Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa had begun. Today is the first day of the Second World War on the territory of my country.

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Persistent rumors that the Germans were cranking up preparations for a breakthrough on the border were considered as sabotage and eventually suppressed. The initial artillery fire took the absolutely unprepared fortress by surprise.

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“- This fortress, fortress here, we keep the defense, – This fortress, fortress here, we keep the defense…”

The Germans had allowed twelve hours to secure the area, but it took them nine days! The Brest Fortress became the place where the invaders lost 5% of their East Front deadcount within the first week of war.

Thirst

One of the dramatic pages of defence of the Brest fortress was an acute water shortage. The approaches to the water were fired – a lot of fighters and commanders died trying to obtain precious drops.

Courage

The walls of the red citadel keeps the last good bye from unnamed hero: “We’ll die but we’ll not leave the fortress”. “I’m dying but I won’t surrender. Farewell, Motherland. 20.VII.41.

The heroic defence of Brest is the legend of the Second World War on the Eastern Front. The film “Brestskaya Krepost” (“Fortress of War”) tells much more. Strongly recommended.

Thank You for this possibility to share with you something really important. We live and we have to remember the price for our today’s happy and peaceful morning.

 

The Memory Bells

Hello God!

Thank You for today! The 9th of May is the Victory Day!

What if I was a child of war…

KhatynBell

I live in the village Khatyn

You will not find on the Google maps

As Neverland, but we were real

We were alive. We are alive!

Bells toll every thirty seconds

To remind about us.

HomeBell

This is our house, where

Every morning I meet

My mother’s smiling eyes,

My father’s loving hands.

Family

I have one brother and three sisters,

Five bellflowers of mother’s Love:

Slavik is the youngest, he is 6 month,

Manya is 15 y.o, Anya is 10 y.o., Yuzya is 5 y.o.

I am the oldest, I am 12 y.o.!

Unconquered Man

My father Ivan

He is a forester.

He brings a warmness,

We eat a bread tonight,

Because of his loving hands.

Telling in advance

I met my death on his loving hands…

186villages

One spring morning of 1943

I remember in details.

I have not met a mother’s smile,

Her pale face and trembling voice:

“We have to go! We have to go to barn!”

I knew about war and Hitler

But in the grey uniforms they were people,

No Hitler by himself:

A man, a husband and a dad.

Cemetry of Villages

There was a horrid silence,

Even little brother did not cry,

We were dying in the barn

A man in the grey uniform set fire.

(149 people, including 75 children, died.)

Grateful Memory

Why? What for?

My mother’s destiny was

To pray for easy death

For us?!

They were a men in the grey uniforms.

No Hitler by himself…

The Khatyn memorial desk says: “You all are our family, we bows our heads in a great sorrow, standing before you. You were not conquered by Nazi murderers. In the dark days you took the death but the flame of your love to our Motherland never extinguishes. The memory of you is immortal as eternal Earth and eternal bright Sun above us.”

Thank You for sharing with this moment of the memory bells have reminded and Your Precious Being in my life.

Diva Maria

Hello God!

Thank You for our Universe. Diva Maria, this name of the Universe was opened in my dream. Spanish artist Ingrid Tusell Domingo had seen the same dream. Her paintings exactly reflect this vision, Diva Maria is the Universe.

Maria

“Diva” from Latin means “Goddess”.

Goddess always promises Perfection.

Diva Maria, the Universe Goddess,

In love with God, by doubled Inspiration

Has a child, Milky Way, their Perfect Creation.

We all are children in Her Hands.

Hugged the Earth so beautifully and softly,

Mother’s lullaby She sings.

Divine pulsation of Her Heart

We feel. We love. We live.

AveMaria

On Her Hands we travel around

On rainbow rings of Saturn,

Fly through Jupiter’s core,

And drink sweet Venus nectar.

She loves every creations and

Lovely hugs Mars. Perhaps

We’ll live on this planet,

Her warmness is the saver for us.

We live in a tranquil Diva Maria’s hugs

She asks only trust.

We don’t have to worry.

Everything will be alright.

“Ave Maria!” angel voices are singing in gratitude, here, on the Earth. Thank You for sharing this beautiful moment, we have just created a new galaxy of love.

Happy and divine weekend!