Friday, July 30, 2010

Tempest

This is the only entry I wrote concerning our cruise trip earlier this month. It was late at night and in the midst of drowsiness, so it may not quite be coherent.

The ship rolled and rocked above the frothy night waves--I never experience such a turbulent movement aboard these cruise liners before. Tonight even walking inside the ship was a feat, swaying to and fro to the ocean's mighty, fickle whims.

We went on the decks tonight-- a high one where the wind was blowing furiously. Whipping around our bodies and moving us as though we were paper dolls. As strange as this may sound, I found it glorious. And rather unsettling too. One false move, one slip in balance near the railings, and one would be lost to the crashing waves. I was surprised the crew hadn't roped the area off; it was far too precarious for the common passenger.

My sundress kept blowing up around me, and I fought vainly to keep my modesty, heh. Finally I had to tie the flowing waves of fabric around my knees with it's decorative ties. Next time, I know to dress in shorts. Oh, but how the wind was exhilarating. I have always loved the feeling of the wind.

I imagined I was a lone traveler on an olden-day steam-liner. Venturing to far away and exotic lands. Or perhaps I was a marine biologist, intent on studying the mysteries and complexities of the sea-- all along entangled in an uknown conspiracy. Or, more fanciful, I was the Sea God Poseidon's long-lost daughter that had been stolen at birth by pirates-- and now Poseidon had enlisted his loyal waves and gales to bring his daugter back home. I thought of mermaids, of sea nymphs, of Krackens, of Sea Gods. It was a lovely night for the imagination.






Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Castles in the sky...

She was building a castle in air -- a wondrous mansion whose sunlit courts and stately halls were steeped in Araby's perfume, and where she reigned queen and chatelaine."


Oh, how castles made of clouds soon crumble and fall...

GILBERT: You'll marry, alright. Some fool who will sit and read Tennyson by firelight, no doubt. Build you your castles in the sky. I know you.


ANNE: Please, Gil, I don't mean to hurt you. But you'll see I'm right by and by when you fall for someone else.


GILBERT: You haven't hurt me, really. It's just that I fool myself into thinking that you loved me, that's all.


ANNE: Gil, please.


GILBERT: I hope he breaks your heart, whoever he is.


ANNE: You don't under--


GILBERT: Then maybe you'll come to your senses.


And will there be a Prince Charming left to pick up the tattered remains...or did he also dissipate in a brilliant sunburst of folly and foolishness?

Amidst the fairie queens, damsels in white veils, and princes with charming smiles, don't forget to look right under your nose... Often reality, given the chance, can be just as beautiful as fantasy.


ANNE: No. It's just that I went looking for my ideals outside of myself. I discovered it's not what the world holds for you, it's what you bring to it. The dreams dearest to my heart are right here.


GILBERT: Well, I hope you keep on dreaming. It will be three years before I finish medical school, and even then, there won't be any diamond sunbursts or marble halls.


ANNE: I don't want any sunbursts or marble halls. I just want you.


Yes, just as beautiful. Perhaps even more so.













*Quotes in italics courtesy of the book Anne of the Island and the script of Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel

Monday, May 31, 2010

I must learn to breathe again

I am a dreamer. You dream also. We string the sky with our pearly spools of wishes, sewing a spiderweb pulsing with our hopes and fancies. Yet I only dream, a spiderweb spinner. You are a doer, a concrete-pourer that transforms cobwebby dreams into steel skyscrappers. I am afraid. You are brave. I cling to the edges of your feathered wings. You glance toward me in a gentle, yet reproachful manner. You believe that I can fly on my own. I doubt myself, but I cannot doubt you. I cannot doubt myself. Dearest... I let go and I fall.

I must learn to breath again.


Sunday, May 16, 2010

Swan Princess


The Swan Princess was one of my favorite non-Disney movies when I was a child. I remember how utterly excited I would be going to the movie store and renting it. I would be so sad when it was unavailable. ^^  I finally bought the movie and its sequels a few years ago. Watching it now is still just as magical as when I was younger. I'm ever so glad time hasn't erased that precious quality.

The Swan Princess is a 1994 animated movie loosely based off the ballet "Swan Lake". It revolves around the fated and at first reluctant love story of Princess Odette and Prince Derek and their battle against the wicked enchanter Rothbart who kidnaps Odette and changes her into a swan, all in hopes of conquering her kingdom.

It's amusing how Odette's appearance changes drastically over the years while Derek stays more or less the same.




 

Such a lovely song...


Perhaps one of the reasons I continue to love this movie is that the characters are simultaneously flawed and beautiful compared to other princess type movies. Their relationship, although originally based on their mutual dislike, is cultivated throughout years of knowing one another. Odette is a strong, intelligent woman who doesn't accept Derek's initial superficiality. He works to gain her love and forgiveness, and Odette, especially in the sequels, isn't afraid to come to his aid when he is in "distress". ^_~

Monday, April 5, 2010

Love-stained Fingertips...

My love-stained fingertips...smear crimson on your pale lips. Darling, send me love letters drenched in red kisses. I'll drown in your scorching pools of gossamer and thorns.

My new blog "Love-stained Fingertips" is up, although it is quite empty at the present. I love writing romantic (albeit at times dark)  nonsense, so I decided to create a blog to host love letters and romantic writings. Letters to admired authors (mostly deceased), letters to ghostly lovers in dreams (whose eyes I never glimpse), letters to strangers (walls of isolation I must penetrate), and letters to the story characters in my head (who are the essence of my contradictory soul). Love letters to the world. Check it out if you please.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day, my dears!

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."

-St. Augustine, from Captain Corelli's Mandolin


Happy Valentine's day! Of course, love needs no designated day to be cherished; it should be celebrated with every breath of life. However, why can't it be even more treasured on Valentine's? Do something out of the ordinary with your loved one(s). Let it be something that you couldn't or wouldn't do any other day. If you have no beloved or close ones, relish the lover of all humans: Mother Earth. Find a place to relax, rejuvinate, enjoy the beauty of nature. Take some time for yourself and try to find some peace in this chaotic world.  Smile at a stranger. Cheer up someone who appears sad.

Celebrate love in all its glorious forms.


























Saturday, January 23, 2010

To Sleeping Beauty, With Love, Insomniac

Oh, sweet slumber... such an aching delight after one has desperately scorned its seductive embraces night after night. Tender kisses ghost along drooping eyelids and gossamer caresses against weary bones. How could I have scorned your bountiful affections in exchange for insomnia's smoldering demands and cold grip! Limbs heavy with lethargy and mind numb with fretfulness...I now appreciate the sweetness of your loyal attendance and unwavering patience. How can one abuse such a necessity? 'Tis time to make amends. Dear faeries, I've found another piece of starlight.



I wonder if Sleeping Beauty ever felt grateful for the chance to rest her eyes.
Did she awake rejuvenated from her long sumber?

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Stardust and Starlight

I was nestled in my blankets yesterday, sleepily rereading Stardust by Neil Gaiman and thrilling in the lyrical prose and magical realms. I love stars and the fantasies spun around them. The beauty of a star-speckled sky can be sometimes so overwhemingly beautiful that my heart aches. And it is so rare that I can remember to gaze upward and rejoice in the splendor of the dark heavens. It reminds me of all the other things I take for granted...transient things that can slip through our fingers if we don't fix a careful eye on them. Stardust and stars (such tiny bursts of loveliness) were actually the inspiration behind the title of this blog. A pocketful of starlight...of beauty, of magic, of wonderment.



"Though my soul may set in darkness,
It will rise in perfect light,
I have loved the stars too fondly
To be fearful of the night."
--Sarah Williams

Don't waste those raindrops of stardust; taste them and relish in their richness.


Thursday, January 7, 2010

Saiunkoku Monogatari

I have a long standing love affair with the world of anime and manga (japanese animation and comics), so many of my lil' handfuls of starlight will undoubtly stem from this source. Such as today's dear find...which is the opening song of the anime Saiunkoku Monogatari. It draws dreamy sighs from my heart. ^^

Saiunkoku Monogatari revolves around a young noblewoman and her quest to turn the lackluster young Emperor of the fictional land of Saiunkoku into a good leader, while pursuing her dream of becoming a court official despite the barriers of her gender. This anime really resonated with me because of its themes of proactiveness, perseverance, and dreams. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it also boasts a cornucopia of bishounen. ^_~

The opening song, "Hajimari no Kaze:

Come what may...

"Come what may, I will strive to never let the starlight burn out." That single sentence embodies all of my new year's resolutions.

I've always wanted to capture some of the magic and beauty of the starlight of the sky. Keep it close to me like a talisman to ward off the demons in the darkness and monsters under the bed. Let it shine and sparkle and touch other people with its purity. Share those ethereal moments when I thought I saw the gossamer-like wings of a faerie fluttering by. And so, that is the point of this blog. To be that pocket that holds the starlight of ordinary and extraordinary nights alike. To treasure those things that make us love, laugh, cry, and smile. To discover some of that child-like wonderment and innocence that most of us abandon at childhood's end. To remind myself that life is made up of all those little moments as well as the grand ones.


Such beauty excites the soul.