Love, Love, Love!

This is one of my favorite vintage Valentines Day cards. I love the old cards, and spend time in antique stores sorting through things, looking at the colors and the intricate design. I know the day has come to mean so much more, particularly as part of the consumerist thrust of corporate America. For me, that is painful. But, then again, what can you expect from a country which drags a poor, innocent mammal from it's den, yanking it into the light, to foretell the length of the winter season? Maybe we are being asked to wear our hearts on our sleeves for the day, yanked from their warm, dark and quiet slumbers to see how long it will be before we open up again. I don't know.

So much myth wrapped up in the notion of romantic love! I have spent a lot of time unraveling that story, studying the bones, the sinew, the breath of it. And, if I am to be brutally honest (and this *is* the internet, so EVERYTHING is true, right?) I don't know if I will ever fall in love again. None of us does. I think we can have a handle on the desire to do so, but as for the actual *happening*, not so very much. I know that learning to be alone, and loving it, has been a vital and important part of the architecture of my own mental health and happiness. I wish everyone would have this opportunity to learn about attachment hunger and need, about desire and loss, about silence and deep appreciation of Self.

That said, I do have feelings of love for my friends and family. And because of this, because of them, I am more than I am in my solitude. As my Beloved Weepies sing: "You turn me into Somebody loved". And THAT is the power of multiplication. It is in being loved and loving that we find our human experience exponentially multiplied.

So have a loving day, everyone. Open up just a little bit. Smile a little bit. Feel a little bit.

Your Daily Dose of Cool Things:

F.A.A.Ballet

It may not look like much from this picture, but if you click on the link you will be pleasantly surprised at the beauty and magic over4 thousand planes can make!

Go ahead. Have some fun!

Your Daily Dose of Wonderful Design:

Avalisa Rugs

Simple, Elegant Floral Design

Your Daily Dose of Insipring Words:

Image by Nancy Lindsay

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars

Your Daily Dose of Wicked-Good Food:

Shrimp Ravioli with Butter and Garlic

Ingredients : (figure on 3-4 per person for a first course)

Won Ton wrappers
1 bag of 16-20 count peeled/de-veined cooked shrimp (count on 1 large shrimp per 2 raviloli)
1 brick of cream cheese
1/3 cup cocktail sauce
butter
garlic
sea salt
scallions

Thaw shrimp. Be sure to take the tail caps off. Place shrimp, cream cheese, and cocktail sauce in a blender or processor. Pulse until chopped medium-fine. Place a measuring teaspoon of filling on one wrapper, cover with another wrapper and press along the edge especially along the edge of the filling. I cut mine with a round cutter for presentation. It looks pretty that way. Fill a wok 1/3 full with water, place chopsticks in the base and lower an oven safe plate onto the sticks. Alternatively, use an oriental steamer. Ladle a little water on the plate so the pasta does not stick. Gently move the ravioli onto the plate, cover and steam for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, melt some butter with crushed garlic and cook slowly to avoid burning of the garlic, which would turn bitter. Plate in a decorative manner, placing droplets of the butter along the rim. Garnish with finely chopped scallions.