Beautiful Love

The singer is Meghan Tonjes and the song "Beautiful Love" by The Afters. It's simply amazing. And hey, I managed to embed a You Tube link onto my page, and it was easy!

Thanks to kerkevik for turning me onto her.

Watch on YouTube

Poem: Not the intense moment by T. S. Eliot

Not the intense moment (from The Four Quartets) by T. S. Eliot

Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.

fandom snowflake challenge - day 5

Day 5

In your own space, share something non-fannish you are passionate about with your fannish friends. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Even though I'm not Christian, I'm a huge fan of Advent Calendars. I have a set of them that I keep from year to year so I can reuse them. This year I had out four:

My oldest has a picture of Fra Angelico's Adoration of the Magi at the center with the boxes to open surrounding it. Under each tab is a description of something from the painting. For example, opening up the 19th shows a closeup of the magi with this text: "The Magi symbolize the three ages of man: youth with a golden vase, middle-age with a pig-tail, and old age, fittingly closest to Christ."

Another is a Winnie-the-Pooh scene. The characters are all together before a fireplace with Pooh wearing a santa hat and Tigger (my favorite!) playing with an ornament. Opening up the tabs adds to the picture: opening the 24th shows Santa's feet in the fireplace.

Another has a scene by Grandma Moses of reindeer on the roof and Santa going down a chimney. Pulling up the tabs reveals other Christmasy images by Grandma Moses.

The fourth is a nativity scene. My friend Doreen brought it back when she visited Germany because she knows I love advent calendars. Pulling up the tabs adds images to the scene with text which are Biblical quotes.