Moments ...

“There are moments in your life when you really miss someone that you want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real. ”

It just looks different ...

“Life lives, life dies. Life laughs, life cries. Life gives up and life tries. But life looks different through everyone's eyes.”

It is not supposed to be easy ...

It's unfortunate we can't make everyone happy. It is also unfortunate we cannot make ourselves happy because that.

Something is wrong ...

“It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful.”

Accepting the curse ...

“The curse of the romantic is a greed for dreams, an intensity of expectation that, in the end, diminishes the reality.”

Here comes the flood by Peter Gabriel

"Here Comes The Flood"

When the night shows
the signals grow on radios
All the strange things
they come and go, as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
still waiting for the swollen Easter tide
There's no point in direction we cannot
even choose a side.

I took the old track
the hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
they were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
and as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain
was warm and soaked the crowd.

Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
in any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.

When the flood calls
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You're a thousand minds, within a flash
Don't be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there's only you and me
And if we break before the dawn, they'll
use up what we used to be.

Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
in any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.

Cosimo I de' Medici in Armour by Agnolo Bronzino

The Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici is a painting by the Italian artist Agnolo di Cosimo, known as Bronzino, finished in 1545. It is housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy.

In his positions of court painter of the Medici, Bronzino was author of several portraits of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. In this one Cosimo is represented in his young years and, in the words of Giorgio Vasari, "clad with white armor and a hand over the helmet". The portrait has been identified as the one executed in the Villa of Poggio a Caiano in 1545 and mentioned in some letters.

The portrait is devised to show the dominant and proud temperament of the Grand Duke, with a side light shining on his face and on the metallic armor.

Unshakable love ...

Friendship is the expression of unshakable love, love that is noble, pure, free from desire or egoism.”

Gabriel by Lamb

I can fly

But I want his wings
I can shine even in the darkness
But I crave the light that he brings
Revel in the songs that he sings
My angel Gabriel

I can love
But I need his heart
I am strong even on my own
But from him I never want to part
He's been there since the very start
My angel Gabriel
My angel Gabriel

Bless the day he came to be
Angel's wings carried him to me
Heavenly
I can fly
But I want his wings
I can shine even in the darkness
But I crave the light that he brings
Revel in the songs that he sings
My angel Gabriel
My angel Gabriel
My angel Gabriel

Mean flower by Joe Henry

How beautiful you’ve made yourself
How cruel you’ve become,
How so much like another
That it’s no surprise
That I don’t recognize you now so
Beautiful and cruel

You’re the meanest flower…

You raise me off the ground
To see how far there is to fall,
As if I don’t remember
How we passed the time,
As if I don’t remember how
Your face fell into mine

Oh, you’re the meanest flower…

Notice how I vanish
And your world remains,
You show your head above it
For spite, nothing more,
Like you thought just living
Was somehow its own reward

You’re the meanest flower…

The wing ...

"We are, each of us angels with only one wing; and we can only fly by embracing one another."

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer

The painting Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of the masterpieces of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's and as the name implies, uses a pearl earring for a focal point. It is sometimes referred to as "the Mona Lisa of the North" or "the Dutch Mona Lisa".

Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, using bright colours and sometimes expensive pigments, with a preference for cornflower blue and yellow. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work

The girl with a Pearl earring was painted around 1665. 

Love and etc ...

“Love is what makes two people sit in the middle of a bench when there is plenty of room at both ends.”

Timing ...

“Life is all about timing... the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable become available, the unattainable... attainable. Have the patience, wait it out It's all about timing.”

The Musicians by Caravaggio

"The Musicians" (c. 1595). 

Caravaggio entered the household of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte sometime in 1595. His biographer, the painter Baglione, says he "painted for the Cardinal youths playing music very well drawn from nature and also a youth playing a lute," the latter presumably being "The Lute Player", which seems to form a companion-piece to "The Musicians". The picture shows four boys in quasi-Classical costume, three playing various musical instruments or singing, the fourth dressed as Cupid and reaching towards a bunch of grapes.The central figure with the lute has been identified as Caravaggio's companion Mario Minniti, and the individual next to him and facing the viewer has been recognised as a self-portrait of the artist. The cupid bears a strong resemblance to the boy in "Boy Peeling Fruit", done a few years before, and also to the angel in "Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy".

Scenes showing musicians were a popular theme at the time - the Church was supporting a revival of music and new styles and forms were being tried, especially by educated and progressive prelates such as Del Monte. This scene, however, is clearly secular rather than religious. The manuscripts show that the boys are practicing madrigals celebrating love, and the eyes of the lutanist, the principal figure, are moist with tears - presumably the songs are of the sorrow of love rather than its pleasures. The violin in the foreground suggests a fifth participant, implicitly including the viewer in the tableau.

 

Courage to succeed ...

“Dream anything that you want to dream. That's the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.”

That is the way it works ...

“I have had dreams, and I have had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams.”

Nostalgia ...

“Nostalgia is a seductive liar.”

Paradise - Tease

Taking of Christ by Caravaggio

There are seven figures in the painting, from left to right: St John, Jesus, Judas, two soldiers, a man (a self-portrait of Caravaggio), and a soldier. They are standing, and only the upper three-quarters of their bodies are depicted. The figures are arrayed before a very dark background, in which the setting is disguised. The main light source is not evident in the painting but comes from the upper left. There is a lantern being held by the man at the right (Caravaggio). At the far left, a man (St John) is fleeing; his arms are raised, his mouth is open in a gasp, his cloak is flying and being snatched back by a soldier.

This masterpiece is currently located in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. The painting was lost for 200 years and its rediscovery was published in 1993.

Studiolo of Francesco de' Medici

The Studiolo was a small painting-encrusted barrel-vaulted room in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, commissioned by Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was completed for the duke from 1570-1572, by teams of artists under the supervision of Giorgio Vasari and the scholars Giovanni Batista Adrianiand Vincenzo Borghini. This small room was part-office, part-laboratory, part-hiding place, and part-cabinet of curiosities. Here the prince tinkered with alchemy and fingered his collection of small, precious, unusual or rare objects, under the organizing vista of thematic canvases, which are rather larger than most cabinet paintings.

The late-Mannerist decorative program of paintings and sculpture was based on items encompassed by the collection. The object collection itself was stored in 20 cabinets. In the center is a fresco of Prometheus receiving jewels from nature, commenting on the interplay of divine, nature, and humanity, that is the goal of both artistic and scientific interests.

The walls were also covered with 34 paintings that were emblematic, some distantly, of the objects in the cabinets below. The themes of the paintings were mythologic, religious, or representing trades. For example, Mirabello Cavalori's Wool Factory would have abutted the wall under the fresco of fire. A number of the pictures related to sea and ocean activities. Ultimately, the exact wall arrangement of the extant paintings and the contents of the collection are partially speculative. The painting by Giovanni Battista Naldini of the House of the Dreams emphasized the relationship with the adjacent bedroom of the Prince. The Studiolo is arrayed and visible through an arched opening and lacks cabinets, which fails to accurately recreate the claustrophobic feel of the original. In addition, originally a portrait of Francesco's mother, Eleonora of Toledo by Bronzino.

While the Studiolo employed many of the best of contemporary Florentine painters; for most, this likely does not represent their individual best efforts. The paintings and the room itself are now more interesting as an example of monarchic eccentricity. The pseudo-allegiance to the sciences couple with the sense that they illuminated the educated monarch, suggest a prescient hint of the encyclopedic philosophy of Enlightenment. However, Francesco ultimately was a poor representative of the inquisitive mind; at best this room served as a place for this personally awkward monarch to remain secluded from his wife and family. Not long after the death of the Grand Duke, it was neglected and dismantled by 1590, only to be partially reconstructed in the twentieth century as an Renaissance oddity within the medieval palace.

One more time

Of course the sun will come back tomorrow
One more time ... I know
Darkness ... I have seen worse ...
That makes sane people go crazy ....
Wait, because the sun is coming
There are people that are the same side as you ...
But they should be on the other side
There are people that hurt others ...
There are people that don't know how to love
There are people deceiving us
See how our life is
But I know that one day we will learn
If you want someone to trust
Trust on yourself, the ones who believe always get there
Don't let anyone tell you it is not worth to believe in your dream
Or that your plans will never work out
Or that you will never be somebody

There are people that hurt others ... 

There are people that don't know how to love 

Same old story ...

I have seen this movie before ... life is a sequence of repeated acts ...
I am tired of trying. Tired of making the same mistakes. Tired of believing in words.
I walk and walk .... and I go don't go anywhere.
Always back to zero ...
I will not push, not this time.
I will always carry you inside of me ... like the ones that carry a dead child in their arms.
We are free to be whoever we want to be.

Moving on ...

Letting go doesn't mean giving up... it means moving on. It is one of the hardest things a person can do. Starting at birth, we grasp on to anything we can get our hands on, and hold on as if we will cease to exist when we let go. We feel that letting go is giving up, quitting, and that as we all know is cowardly. But as we grow older we are forced to change our way of thinking. We are forced to realize that letting go means accepting things that cannot be. It means maturing and moving on, no matter how hard you have to fight yourself to do so."

It is an illusion of life ...

“Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.”

THE CARDINAL SIN by DEAD CAN DANCE 

Sail to the stars on your shining desires
Reasons there are none
Try the whisky made of grain
When all is said and done
It all amounts to just the same
There in your starry eyes lie hopes that have
been betrayed
The cause of your desire
Can also lead to your demise
When all is said and done
It will be you who pays the price
As countless fools are often loathe to testify
It's an illusion of life
The whole cause of our demise
Sail to the stars on your shining desires
Lucretia waits in vain
For the child of her dreams
Within her aching womb
There burns a funeral pyre
There in your starry eyes lie hopes that have
been betrayed
The prize that you claim
Can never be yours to take
Like castles in Spain
Hope is all that will remain
Abstain from the fools paradise
It's an illusion of life
The whole cause of our desires
Fools are often loathe to testify
It's an illusion of life
The whole cause of our demise
Contemplate the world
And its traitors to the soul
The forces of derision
And its legions manifold
Usurpers of the crown
All pretenders to the throne
Your world has lived in chains
All in one, one in all


Fools are often loathe to testify
It's an illusion of life
The whole cause of our demise
It's an illusion of life 

Emptiness ...

“Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.”


Eric Hoffer  (American Writer, 1902-1983)

Goodbye ...

“True goodbyes are the ones never said or explained.”

Jose Padilla - Adios Ayer

Sick Bacchus by Caravaggio

The Young Sick Bacchus, dated between 1593-1594, is an early self-portrait by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It is also called Self-portrait as Bacchus and Bacchino Malato. According to Caravaggio's first biographer, Giovanni Baglione, it was a cabinet piece painted by using a mirror with grapes and some peaches.

The painting dates from Caravaggio's first years in Rome following his arrival from his native Milan in mid-1592. Sources for this period are confused and probably inaccurate, but they agree that at one point the artist fell extremely ill and spent six months in the hospital of Santa Maria della Consolazione. He is said to have done several paintings in thanks to the prior of the hospital for saving his life, but none survived. This work, however, unquestionably dates from the same time. 

Apart from its autobiographical content, this early painting was likely used by Caravaggio to market himself, demonstrating his virtuosity in painting genres such as still-life and portraits and hinting at the ability to paint the classical figures of antiquity. The three-quarters angle of the face was among those preferred for late renaissance portraiture, but what is striking is the grimace and tilt of the head, and the very real sense of suffering.

Some people ....

“Be kind to unkind people - they need it the most.”

Another day ...

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vince

Lady with an Ermine is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, from around 1489–1490. The subject of the portrait is identified as Cecilia Gallerani, and was probably painted at a time when she was the mistress of Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan and Leonardo was in the service of the Duke.

The painting is one of only four female portraits painted by Leonardo, the others being the Mona Lisa, the portrait of Ginevra de' Benci and La Belle Ferronière. It is displayed by the Czartoryski Museum, Kraków, Poland and is cited in the museum's guide as the first truly modern portrait. When exhibited in The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, it was described as "signal[ling] a breakthrough in the art of psychological portraiture.

Living my life ...

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”

Rebuilding myself ...

“Grief is perhaps an unknown territory for you. You might feel both helpless and hopeless without a sense of a "map" for the journey. Confusion is the hallmark of a transition. To rebuild both your inner and outer world is a major project.”

 Anne Grant 

People we meet ...

“In your life, you meet people. Some you never think about again. Some, you wonder what happened to them. There are some that you wonder if they ever think about you. And then there are some you wish you never had to think about again. But you do.”

About accomplishments ...

“It is important not to forget, that a noble accomplishment demands three fundamental requirements: first, to desire; second, know how to desire; and third, to deserve, or, in another words, ACTIVE WILL, PERSISTENT WORK and JUSTIFIABLE MERIT.”

Lísias

Post suggested by ROS 

Perseus with the head of Medusa by Antonio Canova

Perseus, the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the Twelve Olympians. Perseus was the Greek hero who killed the Gorgon Medusa, and claimed Andromeda, having rescued her from a sea monster sent by Poseidon in retribution for Queen Cassiopeia declaring herself more beautiful than the sea nymphs.

Antonio Canova (1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was a Venetian sculptor who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nudeflesh. The epitome of the neoclassical style, his work marked a return to classical refinement after the theatrical excesses of Baroque sculpture.

I took this picture in 2008 when I visited the Vatican Museum. This sculpture was  completed in 1801.  

Way to eternity ...

“Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.”

Enigma - Way to Eternity

My time starts tomorrow ...

“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.”

I don't care about what they think ....

“Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.”

Keep the dreams alive ...

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”

I'm a stranger in this town ...

“Sometimes when you're really lonely, you really feel alive and you feel like you know who you are.”

Letting the cables sleep by Bush

You in the dark
You in the pain
You on the run
Living a hell
Living your ghost
Living your end
Never seem to get in the place that I belong
Don't wanna lose the time
Lose the time to come

Whatever you say it's alright
Whatever you do it's all good
Whatever you say it's alright
Silence is not the way
We need to talk about it
If heaven is on the way
If heaven is on the way

You in the sea
On a decline
Breaking the waves
Watching the lights go down
Letting the cables sleep

Whatever you say it's alright
Whatever you do it's all good
Whatever you say it's alright
Silence is not the way
We need to talk about it
If heaven is on the way
We'll wrap the world around it
If heaven is on the way
If heaven is on the way


I'm a stranger in this town
I'm a stranger in this town
I'm a stranger in this town

If heaven is on the way
If heaven is on the way
I'm a stranger in this town
I'm a stranger in this town

It is your choice ...

“When I had nothing more to lose, I was given everything. When I ceased to be someone who I am I found myself. When I was humilated and yet I kept on walking, I realised I was free to choose my own destiny”

 Paulo Coelho

Breaking free ...

“You do not need to be loved, not at the cost of yourself. The single relationship that is truly central and crucial in a life is the relationship to the self. Of all the people you will know in a lifetime, you are the only one you will never lose.”

The friends we lose were never friends ...

"I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken -- and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived."



The Doors - The End

Some poems don't rhyme ...

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.

Trapped ...

“What we don't let out traps us. We think, No one else feels this way, I must be crazy. So we don't say anything. And we become enveloped by a deep loneliness, not knowing where our feelings come from or what to do with them. ”

 Sabrina Ward Harrison 

Sometimes we don't know the answer ...

"Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day."

Art of Renewal ...

“We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly. . . spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.”

 Susan Taylor 

The Phoenix Myth 

A phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self.

People change and forget to tell each other ...

 “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”

 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

That's the way it is ...

"Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated. "

Lamartine

Tomb of Giuliano de'Medici by Michelangelo

The Medici dynasty is a fascinating subject, I have been studying the Medici family for the last few weeks and I just can't get enough of it. 

The Medici Chapel, Tomb of Giuliano de'Medici (1519 - 1534)

Michelangelo was commissioned to created these tombs at the age of 45. This was a dark period in his life. The political turmoil in Florence, which eventually forced him to leave the city, was painful for Michelangelo. 

The death of his mentor, his father and his brother during this time add to the melancholy expressed in the work produced for these tombs.

Two figures, the statues of Night and Day, are seated on top of the sarcophagus of Giuliano de' Medici.

Day is a powerful man in his prime. His reclining muscular body is twisted into a pose that shows tension and energy. Compared to the male figure of Twilight on the tomb of Lorenzo, he seems full of energy and ready to overcome any enemy, even death. Yet his unfinished face shows sockets that suggest blindness. The debate among art historians concerning this issue fills volumes.

Did Michelangelo simply leave this statue unfinished in a rush to escape from Florence? Is there hidden meaning in the dominant male figure, ready to face any physical attack, but blinded to the one attacker that no man can vanquish? No one will ever know if this a work in progress or a representation of the vanity and futility of life.

Night is a pensive woman. Her attitude seems to convey a mixture of grief and acceptance. The statue of Night folds upon itself with the right arm crossing the updrawn left leg. The right leg is extended downward and the left arm is pulled back. There is a conflict of protest and resignation here. Picture a young child fighting sleep with all every mental resource, while the tired body welcomes the rest.

There is also something protective in the circle formed by the arm-torso-leg position. The owl sitting in the shadow of the bent knee closes the space that would permit access. Michelangelo chose his symbols carefully. In the medieval world the owl was seen as a symbol of doom, magic and death. Throughout Europe, the owl was identified with Lilith and witchcraft. Why is this symbol placed in the position of protection offered by the leg? Is death being protected by Night or are they paired and protecting each other?

Another symbol which Night leans against is a mask. The Florentines were famed for the masks they produced even during Michelangelo's time. Used both in festivals and on ordinary days, the mask often hid the wearer's identity during immoral activities. In pagan roots of this symbol, Death and rebirth are frequently given visual form in the mask. In a primitive rite of passage, an earlier identity ceases to exist, and is symbolically replaced with a new and entirely different identity. A complex symbol, this can be interpreted as a hope for renewal or a casting off of youth and life.

The statue of Giuliano de' Medici is so highly idealized that it bears little resemblance to the person. This statue probably represents the life of activity - political and physical - in contrast to the contemplative life represented by the Lorenzo statue. Michelangelo saw these as two distinct characteristics of the human spirit. The perfect features and the muscular pose of the young man are a counterpoint to the limp hands laying across the scepter in his lap. The impossible angle of the neck turns the head to gaze with blank eyes at some distant point. These traits are representative of the young Giuliano whose weak grasp of power saw the end of the Medici dynasty in Florence. The only fierceness in the ensemble is in the decoration covering the heart of the young man. This wizened, bearded face may have been an attempt to connect the grandson with his illustrious grandfather.

When Michelangelo finally left Florence in 1534, many figures were unfinished. The work continued, but without the master's hand. Many of the carvings were haphazardly arranged in the work area and were not assembled in their present positions until Vasari's arrangement in 1563.

Games people play ...

“Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”

Some people just don't know how to love ...

“A sad thing in life is that sometimes you meet someone who means a lot to you only to find out in the end that it was never bound to be and you just have to let go.”

Moments ...

“Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.”

 Martin Luther King Jr.

The Nightwatch by Rembrandt

The Nightwatch is one of the most famous works by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It was painted in 1642. It is on prominent display in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Holland, being the most famous painting in their collection.

Painting's commission

The painting is said to have been commissioned by the Captain and 17 members of his Kloveniers (civic militia guards), and although 18 names appear on a shield in the centre right background, the drummer was hired, and so was allowed in the painting for free. A total of 34 characters appear in the painting. Rembrandt was paid 1,600 guilders for the painting (each person paid one hundred), a large sum at the time. 

This is the bronze representation of the Nightwatch, created 400 years after Rembrandt's masterpiece was completed. It was transported from Moscow to Holland. This project was conceived and realized by two friends; Mikhail Dronov and Alexander Taratynov.

Here I am ... Amsterdam 2008 ... joining the guards!

The carnival is over ...

The Carnival is Over by Dead Can Dance 

Outside
The storm clouds gathering,
Moved silently along the dusty boulevard.
Where flowers turning crane their fragile necks
So they can in turn
Reach up and kiss the sky.

They are driven by a strange desire
Unseen by the human eye
Someone is calling.

I remember when you held my hand
In the park we would play when the circus came to town.
Look! Over here.

Outside
The circus gathering
Moved silently along the rainswept boulevard.
The procession moved on the shouting is over
The fabulous freaks are leaving town.

They are driven by a strange desire
Unseen by the human eye.
The carinval is over.

We sat and watched
As the moon rose again
For the very first time.

Happiness is a butterfly ...

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you”

 Nathaniel Hawthorne

Meaning does not lie in things ...

“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.”

 Marianne Williamson