"For his wife’s 40th birthday, he paid for 40 shelter dog adoptions"
The couple volunteer every weekend at Chesapeake Animal Services in Chesapeake, Virginia, and it was during one of those visits about a month ago that Andrew suddenly hit on the perfect idea: The animal shelter had 40 dog kennels that were always full. What if he were to pay the $110 adoption fee for each of the 40 dogs?
Although it would cost a total of $4,400 to cover the costs of spaying, neutering, microchipping and vaccines for 40 dogs, Andrew said he knew the gift would mean more to his wife than anything he could buy in a store.
They'd recently lost one of their three dogs, Sierra, and he thought sponsoring the adoptions to help dogs find forever homes would help Jennifer cheer up.
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27 years since Carl Sagan died
"When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me ― it still sometimes happens ― and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife.
They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl.
But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting.
Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance.
That pure chance could be so generous and so kind. That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful.
The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful."
― Ann Druyan
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There are many spiritual practices centered on choosing love, like lovingkindness meditation. But I think on the day-to-day level, choosing love is about resisting the spirit of panic and fear. -- Kai Cheng Thom
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We Have Not Long to Love
By Tennessee Williams
We have not long to love.
Light does not stay.
The tender things are those
we fold away.
Coarse fabrics are the ones
for common wear.
In silence I have watched you
comb your hair.
Intimate the silence,
dim and warm.
I could but did not, reach
to touch your arm.
I could, but do not, break
that which is still.
(Almost the faintest whisper
would be shrill.)
So moments pass as though
they wished to stay.
We have not long to love.
A night. A day....
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Aşık
I found this word and posted it to Facebook two years ago:
This Turkish word is used to describe the love that is between two people. "If a Turk says that he is in love (Aşık) with somebody, it is not a love that a person can feel for his or her parents; it is just for one person, and it indicates a huge infatuation."
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