Internet is Enjoyable for Anything

4 Steps to a Successful Website

2006-05-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

Creating a successful website that will make money and receive traffic is simple if you follow the right steps. However, many potential webmasters don't know where to start or how to put all the site building pieces together. In this article we have outlined the four basic steps for getting a website online, listed, and ready to make money- along with recommendations for our favorite web services to help you do so. Anyone can make money with a website and we'll tell you how to get started.

1- Register a Domain Name
The very first step to take is to register a domain name. This name is how your website will be known and listed on the World Wide Web. It will be your URL, or web address. An example of a domain name is www.mysite.com. Dot com is the most common domain extension, but there are many others to choose from. Using hyphens and alternate spellings in a domain name can help if the .com is already taken. We like to register our domains through GoDaddy. They offer the cheapest prices for domain names and are always having a good sale.

Where domain names are concerned cheaper is better. Owning a domain name doesn't mean you have a website, it is just the name. To have a website you also need a web host.

2- Find a Host

Once you have a domain you can find a host for your domain. In order to have your website visible to the world, you pay someone else, a web host, to store your site files on a fast server that makes them available 24/7 to website visitors. There are millions of web hosts to choose from with varied pricing and features. We recommend iPowerWeb as a reliable web host to start with. They are competitively priced ($7.95 per month) and offer all the tools webmasters need to get a website up and running smoothly. iPowerWeb will register a domain name for free when you sign up for hosting.

3- Join Affiliate Networks

Now that you have your website up and running you are ready to sign up for affiliate programs so you can make money with your website. The best place to start is to sign up with an affiliate network, like Commission Junction, that can give you access to many affiliate programs. Commission Junction will track which merchants you are an affiliate for, the traffic you send merchants, the sales you make, and how much you will be paid.

They send out one monthly check for all the revenue you have received from your affiliated merchants. Using an affiliate network is much easier than signing up, tracking sales, and receiving payment from multiple different sources.

4- Increase Your Website Traffic

Unfortunately, your website will never make money or be a success if no one sees it. Once you've registered a domain name, signed up free a web host, and added some affiliates to your website, you need to begin soliciting traffic, or visitors, to your website. Traffic to your website can come in many forms: word of mouth, printed advertisement, email campaigns, other web sites, and search engines are the main sources. Search engines offer the highest possibilities of traffic if your website places well for a desired key word. We suggest reading the Search Engine Bible to help you figure out the complex game of search engine optimization or PayPerClickList.com to learn more about submitting to pay per click engines.

It is no secret that these four steps can take time and a lot of hard work. But if you take advantage of the resources available and proceed in the prescribed order your website can be a success.

To find web providers in your area to help with web design, marketing, hosting, or graphics, visit BestWebProviders.com

Love Letter Etiquette

2006-03-26T08:22:00.000-08:00

Love Letters can be used to move your love for a special person to the next level of intimacy.

Mark Dovel

It has been said that Love Letters contain words that are the most often kept and the most often burnt.

The Love Letter is an expression of feelings for another person which contain your most inner feelings. It may be a forum to move your love for that special person to the next level of intimacy.

When you decide the time is right to express your feelings for that special woman or man, there are several creative ideas you may want to incorporate into your letter for added impact.

The letter you write should come from the heart. Do not worry if you are not a professional writer, what is important in the letter is that you are sincere, honest, and caring. Some basic rules should be followed in writing the love letter.

Consider hand writing the letter in your own handwriting on specialty paper.

The authors of 18th century love letters were masters at this form of letter writing. They would use special parchment paper, hand written with a quill; the envelope was sealed with wax and bundled with special ribbon. They were concerned with presentation as well as content.

Companies such as Office Depot, Kinko's and Staples sell specialty paper which adds major impact to your letter.

If your handwriting is considered to be of physician quality and might actually distract from the letter, may I suggest you seek out a person who is skilled at the art of Calligraphy. I have found individuals who perform this task of transcribing a letter at a very reasonable price.

It is difficult to describe the impact this type of presentation makes to your loved one. It is not uncommon for the recipient of such a letter to have the letter framed and displayed in a special place in their home.

Another suggestion for the presentation aspect of the letter, is the addition of a small photograph glued to the top of the letter. This allows the recipient to view the photograph and reflect on you with fondness as they admire your letter content.

Single??
Please click here.

Love and Being in Love

Buy this book
Review book

080661711X.gif (3836 bytes)
Buy this book
Review book

Buy this book
Review book

Spelling accuracy is an absolute must when writing any letter. Misspelled words are symbols of carelessness, which can distract from your message. Consider the message you may be sending to your loved one, when you do not take the time to look up a questionable word in the dictionary.

With regards to content, you should write from the heart with layman terms. Avoid large complicated words when a simple one will do.

The opening and closing of the love letter are very important as they set the tone for the entire letter.

Determine the stage of your love. For example, you would not want to start a letter with "My Darling Love, Traci" if you have only dated her for two weeks.

A more appropriate opening may be "To Traci, with warmest affection."

The opposite rule would apply if your love has moved into a more intimate area. You would not want to write a lesser opening and risk sending the wrong signal to your lover that may suggest you are only friends.

When closing the love letter, it should add impact that sums up your feelings in a few words.

For example, Yours unconditionally, ... Your beloved Husband, ... My love, ... With heartfelt love, ... I long for your touch, love, ...

Closings of lesser impact may include, With warmest regards, ... With affection, ... With fondest memories, ... Until our next meeting, ... Yours truly, ...

Above all, have fun with writing to the person of your dreams. Think of the smile it would bring to your loved one to find a special letter from you under her/his pillow.

These letters are cherished by the recipient and often kept for a lifetime.

Tap into your creativity and use your imagination.

With love and heartfelt admiration,

Mark Dovel

Mark Dovel is a freelance writer who has been writing articles for several years. His specialty is outstanding love letters. If you need assistance with writing this type of letter, please contact him at P O Box 611, Bonsall CA 92303.

Ideas: Love Notes, Letters & More

2006-03-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

"I Love You" Letter

Take a piece of paper and write (in ink) “I love you” all over it - sort of like if you got in trouble at school and had to write 25 times "I will listen." Then on the back of the paper I wrote a poem and a little quote: "All the ink in the universe could not express how much I love you." It was very effective and it doesn't take that long to make.

--submitted by Anonymous

"Virtual" Love

Once my boyfriend told me that he is planning to buy a new PC. So, I thought this is my chance of telling him how much I loved him. This idea is particularly good if you know programming. So what I did was I went to a computer shop and bought a 20GB hard disk and then formatted it myself. Before that I've created a simple program that once installed will pop up each time the computer is booted and each time it pops up, it'll display a love message, it includes something like, why I love him, what makes him so special, etc. I presented the disk to him without telling what I have installed inside! When he finally bought the computer and booted it, he was so surprised! He loved it so much as it is quite creative, he said!

--submitted by Leena

"Why I Love You" Heart Pillows

The idea is to make enough to give one a day until a special day arrives – building up to it. Since our anniversary is the 23rd of February, I made 10 of these to build up "10 days of love.” First, I wrote down 10 different reasons why I loved my lover, then added a somewhat simple illustration (stick people work - it did for me). Have the illustrations go with the reasons you came up with. Then I bought 1 yard each of red and white fabric (any material you like) and a variety of different colors of fabric paint. You will also need cotton stuffing, the kind you would use for stuffed animals (it can be found in any craft section or store). Make up a heart pattern/template that you will use to make all the heart cutouts, (plain white paper works for this: fold it in half first, trace out half a heart on the fold line and then cut it out, you will get a nice, symmetrical heart). Pin or trace your pattern onto the material and cut out an equal number of hearts from each fabric color (I did 10 of each color for a total of 20 hearts). Each finished heart with be white on one side, red on the other. On all of the red hearts, use white fabric paint to write out a reason why you love your lover. On all of the white hearts, use the colored fabric paints to draw the illustration to go with it. Once they have all dried, place the corresponding reason why you love your lover with the illustration face to face (so that the blank sides of the fabric are facing outwards) hand sew or use a sewing machine to sew all around the edges. Don't forget to leave a small opeining to turn the heart inside out and for stuffing in the cotton. Once they have been turned inside out, stuff them and then hand stitch the small opening shut. Once they were finished, every day for the 10 days leading up to our anniversary, I gave him one of the pillows until he got all 10.

--submitted by Rachel

10 Places Your Hands Could Be

This is a cute idea. Write a note to your man entitled: "10 places your hands could be other than this book!" Make your list as naughty as you want! Then slip the note into his favorite book, paper or magazine.

--submitted by Anonymous

10 Things I Miss

Because my guy and I live so far apart, I really miss him, especially around Valentine's Day. So, I made up a big poster that had a lot of pictures of us, and I made it up as a collage surrounding a list I made that said 10 things I missed about him. They were just simple things, for example: “I miss the way you touch my chin to kiss me." At the end of the list, I added a line to sum it all up, and made it to rhyme with the last item on the list: last on the list was, "I miss your smile" then "I miss all of the above that makes you so worthwhile" right after it. It’s a cute idea and while he reads the list, he can look at all the pictures of the good times that you and him have shared together.

--submitted by Anonymous

100 Reasons

For our 3-month anniversary I made a list of 100 different reasons why I loved my guy. They were just simple things like how he says I love you. Each month I give him another reason to add to his list. It's a fun way to keep the romance alive. We both love it!

--submitted by Casey

100 Reasons Picnic

I got this idea from combining two of my favorite ideas on this website! I realized after reading an idea about this couples 100th day anniversary, my boyfriend and I's 100th day anniversary was coming up. I typed up 100 reasons why I love him and cut out each one out. Then, I blew up 100 balloons, and put one reason in each balloon. He had to pop them to find the next one. I had a balloon that said START which was kind of an introduction to the game and one that said END which contained a large note that said "I love you" on it. The setting this whole time was in my bedroom with candles lit and blankets down with a picnic basket fully prepared--an indoor picnic in the bedroom with 100 reasons why I love JT right in front of him!

--submitted by Lindsay

100 Reasons Why I Love You

My fiancé and I live about an hour away from each other, and both of us are in college. Sometimes we get caught up in the hubbub of college life. We chat on the phone a lot, but that gets expensive for a broke, college girl, so we also chat on the computer. One day, he asked me if I was sure that I loved him and I told him of course. He asked me why, and I told him there were at least 100 reasons. When he asked me to name 5, I told him to give me a minute, I had to do something. In the buddy info of my chat program, I listed 10 reasons why I love him, for him and everyone else I know to see. I told him to check, and he called me up as soon as he read it gushing about how much he loved me. A week later, I put up 10 more, and the same thing the week after that. Once he caught on that there was a new set of 10 every week, he started doing the same thing. It lasted for 10 weeks. We had so much fun doing it, we just kept it up. It's a great little reminder to have sometimes, just to let you know that you're thought of.

--submitted by Melissa

101 Reasons Poster

I racked my brain for something special to give my boyfriend for our one-year anniversary. I bought the biggest sheet of poster board I could find, and folded it in half like a gigantic card. I wrote "101 reasons why I Love..." on the front and on the inside I wrote “YOU” right in the middle, then wrote the reasons all over the card (and did manage to come up with 101 things!). These things can be qualities the person has, or it can even be memories. Like for one I did, "Because you went down the big scary white slide at Waterworld even though you didn't want to", or "because you go to Chick Flicks with me", stuff like that. Come up with a list and check them off as you write them on the poster so you don't have to keep going back and actually counting them on the poster. (This gets confusing) I did the reasons in different colors too. He loved it! He said it was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for him.

--submitted by Rebecca

20 Special Things

Sometimes you don't really realize how special all the little things you do for each other really mean. I'd suggest listing about 20 of the tiniest things you just love and send it to your significant other. Things like the way they wink at you just cause or smile at you across the room.

--submitted by Briscoe's girl

Love in Different Version

2006-03-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Love (disambiguation).

The heart, a frequent modern symbol of love

Love has several different meanings in the English language, from something that gives a little pleasure ("I loved that meal") to something one would die for (patriotism, pair-bonding). It can describe an intense feeling of affection, an emotion or an emotional state. In ordinary use, it usually refers to interpersonal love. Probably due to its emotional primacy, love is one of the most common themes in art. Love is sometimes descibed as an OCD.

Love might best be defined as acting intentionally, in sympathetic response to others (including any gods or goddesses), to promote overall well-being. Or to put simply, "love responds intentionally to promote well-being"(Thomas Jay Oord). Love promotes overall flourishing, but often focuses on those close at hand.

Love is inherent in all human cultures and thus may be seen as a defining trait of humanity, that is, love is a quality that makes one human. It is precisely these cultural differences that make any universal definition of love difficult, but not impossible, to establish. See the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Expressions of love may include the love for a soul or mind, the love of laws and organizations, love for a body, love for nature, love of food, love of money, love for learning, love of power, love of fame, love for the respect of others, et cetera. Different people place varying degrees of importance on the kinds of love they receive. Love is essentially an abstract concept, easier to experience than to explain.

Scientific models

Swans forming a heart, a common symbol for love, together.

Throughout history, predominately, philosophy and religion have speculated the most into the phenomena of love. In the last century, the science of psychology has written a great deal on the subject. Recently, however, the sciences of evolutionary psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, neuroscience, and biology have begun to take center stage in discussion as to the nature and function of love.

Biological models of love tend to see it as a mammalian drive, just like hunger or thirst. Psychology sees love as more of a social and cultural phenomenon. There are probably elements of truth in both views — certainly love is influenced by hormones (such as oxytocin) and pheromones, and how people think and behave in love is influenced by their conceptions of love.

[edit]

Attraction and attachment

The conventional view in biology is that there are two major drives in love — sexual attraction and attachment. Attachment between adults is presumed to work on the same principles that lead an infant to become attached to his or her mother or father.

In the February 2006 issue of National Geographic, Lauren Slater's cover page article "Love: The Chemical Reaction" discusses love and the chemicals responsible. In it Slater explains some of the research in the area. Some key points:

The chemicals triggered responsible for passionate love and long-term attachment love seem to be more particular to the activities in which both participate rather than to the nature of the specific people involved.

The serotonin effects of being in love have a similar chemical appearance to obsessive-compulsive disorder (which could explain why a person in love cannot think of anyone else). For this reason some assert that being on a SSRI and other antidepressants, which treat OCD, impede one's ability to fall in love. One particular case:

"I know of one couple on the edge of divorce. The wife was on an antidepressant. Then she went off it, started having orgasms once more, felt the renewal of sexual attraction for her husband, and they're now in love all over again." (38)

The long-term attachment felt after the initial "in love" passionate phase of the relationship ends is a result of chemicals such as oxytocin. Things like massaging and "making love" can help trigger oxytocin.

Novelty triggers attraction, so nerve-racking activities like riding a roller coaster are good dates. Even a person working out for ten minutes can make that person more attracted to other people on account of increased heart rate and other physiological responses.

[edit]

Companionate vs. passionate

The traditional psychological view sees love as being a combination of companionate love and passionate love. Passionate love is intense longing, and is often accompanied by physiological arousal (shortness of breath, rapid heart rate). Companionate love is affection and a feeling of intimacy not accompanied by physiological arousal.

[edit]

Triangular Theory of Love

Main article: triangular theory of love

In 1986 psychologist Robert Sternberg published his famous triangular theory of love in Psychological Review (Vol. 93, No.2, 119-135), which postulated a geometric interpretation of love. According to the triangular theory, love has three components:

Intimacy – which encompasses the feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness.
Passion – which encompasses the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, and sexual consummation.
Decision/Commitment – which encompasses, in the short term, the decision that one loves another, and in the long term, the commitment to maintain that love.

The “amount” of love one experiences depends on the absolute strength of these three components; the “kind” of love one experiences depends on their strengths relative to each other. The three components, pictorially labeled on the vertices of a triangle, interact with each other and with the actions they produce and with the actions that produce them so as to form a number of different kind of love experiences. The size of the triangle functions to represent the amount of love - the bigger the triangle the greater the love. The shape of the triangle functions to represent the kind of love, which typically varies over the course of the relationship: passion-stage (right-shifted triangle), intimacy-stage (apex-triangle), commitment-stage

(left-shifted triangle), typically. Each of these elements can be present in a relationship to the main nine varieties of love via the following combinations:

	intimacy	passion	commitment
Liking or friendship	x
Infatuation or limerence		x
Empty love			x
Romantic love	x	x
Companionate love	x		x
Fatuous love		x	x
Consummate love	x	x	x

[edit]

Formulaic models

In the history of human thought, various researchers, from time to time, have come forward with hypothetical formulas of love. One such famous formula, from the early 20th century, was provided by the pioneer sexologist Havelock Ellis who postulated the following mathematical equality:^[1]

Love = Sex + Friendship

[edit]

Love styles

Susan Hendrick and Clyde Hendrick developed a Loves Attitude Scale based on John Alan Lee's theory called Love styles. Lee identified six basic theories that people use in their interpersonal relationships:

Eros (romantic love) — a passionate physical love based on physical appearance and beauty.
Ludus (game playing)— love is played as a game; love is playful; often involves little or no commitment and thrives on "conquests".
Storge (companionate love) — an affectionate love that slowly develops, based on similarity and friendship.
Pragma (pragmatic love) — inclination to select a partner based on practical and rational criteria where both will benefit from the partnership.
Mania (possessive love) — highly emotional love; unstable; the stereotype of romantic love; its characteristics include jealousy and conflict.
Agapē (altruistic love) — selfless altruistic love; spiritual

The Hendricks found men tend to be more ludic and manic, whereas women tend to be storgic and pragmatic. Relationships based on similar love styles were found to last longer.

[edit]

Phases

Helen Fisher suggests three main phases of love: lust, attraction, and attachment. Generally love will start off in the lust phase, strong in passion but weak in the other elements. The primary motivator at this stage is the basic sexual instinct. Appearance, smells, and other similar factors play a decisive role in screening potential mates. However, as time passes, the other elements may grow and passion may shrink — this depends upon the individual. So what starts as infatuation or empty love may well develop into one of the fuller types of love. At the attraction stage the person concentrates their affection on a single mate and fidelity becomes important.

Likewise, when a person has known a loved one for a long time, they develop a deeper attachment to their partner. According to current scientific understanding of love, this transition from the attraction to the attachment phase usually happens in about 30 months. After that time, the passion fades, changing love from consummate to companionate, or from romantic love to liking.

'Sacred Love versus Profane Love' by Giovanni Baglione

[edit]

Cultural views

[edit]

Chinese

In contemporary Chinese language and culture, several terms or root words are used for the concept of "love":

Ai (愛) is used as a verb (e.g. Wo ai ni, "I love you") or as a noun, especially in aiqing (愛情), "love" or "romance." In mainland China since 1949, airen (愛人, originally "lover," or more literally, "love person") is the dominant word for "spouse" (with separate terms for "wife" and "husband" originally being de-emphasized); the word once had a negative connotation, which it retains among many on Taiwan.

Lian (戀) is not generally used alone, but instead as part of such terms as "being in love" (談戀愛, tan lian'ai—also containing ai), "lover" (戀人, lianren) or "homosexuality" (同性戀, tongxinglian).

Qing (情), commonly meaning "feeling" or "emotion," often indicates "love" in several terms. It is contained in the word aiqing (愛情); qingren (情人) is a term for "lover".

In Confucianism, lian is a virtuous benevolent love. Lian should be pursued by all human beings, and reflects a moral life. The Chinese philosopher Mozi developed the concept of ai (愛) in reaction to Confucian lian. Ai, in Mohism, is universal love towards all beings, not just towards friends or family, without regard to reciprocation. Extravagance and offensive war are inimical to ai. Although Mozi's thought was influential, the Confucian lian is how most Chinese conceive of love.

Gănqíng (感情), the feeling of a relationship. A person will express love by building good gănqíng, accomplished through helping or working for another. Emotional attachment toward another person or anything.

Yuanfen (緣份) is a connection of bound destinies. A meaningful relationship is often conceived of as dependent strong yuanfen. It is very similar to serendipity. A similar conceptualization in English is, "They were made for each other," "fate," or "destiny".

Zaolian (Simplified: 早恋, Traditional: 早戀, pinyin: zǎoliàn), "puppy love" or literally "early love," is a contemporary term in frequent use for romantic feelings or attachments among children or adolescents. Zaolian describes both relationships among a teenaged boyfriend and girlfriend, as well as the "crushes" of early adolescence or childhood. The concept essentially indicates a prevalent belief in contemporary Chinese culture that due to the demands of their studies (especially true in the highly competitive educational system of China), youth should not form romantic attachments lest they jeopardize their chances for success in the future. Reports have appeared in Chinese newspapers and other media detailing the prevalence of the phenomenon and its perceived dangers to students and the fears of parents.

[edit]

Japanese

In Japanese Buddhism, ai (愛) is passionate caring love, and a fundamental desire. It can develop towards either selfishness or selflessness and enlightenment.

Amae (甘え), a Japanese word meaning "indulgent dependence", is part of the child-rearing culture of Japan. Japanese mothers are expected to hug and indulge their children, and children are expected to reward their mothers by clinging and serving. Some sociologists (most notably, Takeo Doi) have suggested that Japanese social interactions in later life are modeled on the mother-child amae.

Linguistically, the two most common words for love are ai （愛）and koi (恋). Generally speaking, most forms of non-romantic love are expressed using the former, while romantic love is expressed using the latter. "Parental love", for example, is oya no ai (親の愛), while "to be in love with" is koi suru (恋する). There are of course exceptions. The word aijin (愛人) means "lover" and implies an illicit, often extra-marital relationship, whereas koibito (恋人) has the connotation of "boyfriend", "girlfriend", or "partner".

In everyday conversation, however, ai (愛) and koi (恋) are rarely used. Rather than using ai shiteiru (愛している) or koi shiteiru (恋している) to say "I love you", for example, most Japanese would say suki desu (好きです), which literally means "I like you" -- suki (好き) being the same word used to express preferences for food, music, etc., as in sushi ga suki desu (寿司が好きです), or "I like sushi." Rather than diluting the sentiment, however, the implied meaning of "love" is understood.

[edit]

Ancient Greek

Greek distinguishes several different senses in which the word love is used. For example, ancient Greek has the words philia, eros, agape, storge and xenia. However, with Greek as with many other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words totally. At the same time the ancient Greek text of the Bible has examples of the verb agapo being used with the same meaning as phileo.

Agape (ἀγάπη agápē) means love in modern day Greek. The term s'agapo means I love you in Greek. The word agapo is the verb I love. It generally refers to a "pure", ideal type of love rather than the physical attraction suggested by eros. However, there are some examples of agape used to mean the same as eros. It has also been translated as "love of the soul".

Eros (ἔρως érōs) is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. The Greek word erota means in love. Plato refined his own definition. Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Eros helps the soul recall knowledge of beauty, and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth. Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth by eros. Some translations list it as "love of the body".

Philia (φιλία philía), means friendship in modern Greek, a dispassionate virtuous love, was a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. Philia is motivated by practical reasons; one or both of the parties benefit from the relationship.

Storge (στοργή storgē) means affection in modern Greek; it is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring.

Xenia (ξενία philoxenía), means hospitality in modern Greek, was an extremely important practice in ancient Greece. It was an almost ritualized friendship formed between a host and their guest, who could previously be strangers. The host fed and provided quarters for the guest, who was only expected to repay with gratitude. The importance of this can be seen throughout Greek mythology, in particular Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

[edit]

Latin

The Latin language has several different verbs corresponding to the English word 'love'.

Amare is the basic word for to love, as it still is in Italian today. The Romans used it both in an affectionate sense, as well as in a Romantic or sexual sense. From this verb come amans, a lover, amator, 'professional lover', often with the accessory notion of lechery, and amica, 'girlfriend' in the English sense, often as well being applied euphemistically to a prostitute. The corresponding noun is amor, which is also used in the plural form to indicate 'love affairs' or 'sexual adventures'. This same root also produces amicus, 'friend', and amicitia, 'friendship' ed on mutual advantage, and corresponding sometimes more closely to 'indebtedness' or 'influence'). Cicero wrote a treatise called On Friendship (de Amicitia) which discusses the notion at some length. Ovid wrote a guide to dating called Ars Amatoria (The Art of Lovers), which addresses in depth everything from extramarital affairs to overprotective parents.

Complicating the picture somewhat, Latin sometimes uses amare where English would simply say to like; this notion, however, is much more generally expressed in Latin by placere or delectare, which are used more colloquially, and the latter of which is used frequently in the love poetry of Catullus.

Diligere often has the notion 'to be affectionate for', 'to esteem', and rarely if ever is used of romantic love. This word would be appropriate to describe the friendship of two men. The corresponding noun diligentia, however, has the meaning 'diligence' 'carefulness' and has little semantic overlap with the verb.

Observare is a synonym for 'diligere'; despite the cognate with English, this verb and its corresponding noun 'observantia' often denote 'esteem' or 'affection'.

Caritas is used in Latin translations of the Christian Bible to mean 'charitable love'. This meaning, however, is not found in Classical pagan Roman literature. As it arises from a conflation with a Greek word, there is no corresponding verb.

[edit]

Indonesian and Malaysian

In Indonesian and Malaysian linguistics perspective, love can be defined in several ways:

Cinta is a word that defines lust or love that involves physical attraction.

Jatuh cinta literally means falling in love: the initial action that triggers love.

Sayang is a word to express unconditional love, but also to express deep regret in losing something.

[edit]

Religious views

Whether religious love can be expressed in similar terms to interpersonal love is a matter for philosophical debate. Religious 'love' might be considered a euphemistic term, more closely describing feelings of deference or acquiescence. Most religions use the term love to express the devotion the follower has to their deity, who may be a living guru or religious teacher. This love can be expressed by prayer, service, good deeds, and personal sacrifice. Reciprocally, the followers may believe that the deity loves the followers and all of creation. Some traditions encourage the development of passionate love in the believer for the deity. Refer to Religious Views below.

[edit]

Buddhist

In Buddhism, Kāma is sensuous, sexual love. It is an obstacle on the path to enlightenment, since it is selfish.

Karunā is compassion and mercy, which reduces the suffering of others. It is complementary to wisdom, and is necessary for enlightenment.

Advesa and maitrī are benevolent love. This love is unconditional and requires considerable self-acceptance. This is quite different from the ordinary love, which is usually about attachment and sex, which rarely occur without self-interest. Instead, in Buddhism it refers to detachment and unselfish interest in others' welfare.

The Bodhisattva ideal in Tibetan Buddhism involves the complete renunciation of oneself in order to take on the burden of a suffering world. The strongest motivation one has in order to take the path of the Bodhisattva is the idea of salvation within unselfish love for others.

[edit]

Christian

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
—1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (KJV)

There are several Greek words for Love that are regularly referred to in Christian circles.

Agape - In the New Testament, agapē is charitable, selfless, altruistic, and unconditional. It is parental love seen as creating goodness in the world, it is the way God is seen to love humanity, and it is seen as the kind of love that Christians aspire to have for others.
Phileo - Also used in the New Testament, Phileo is a human response to something that is found to be delightful. Also known as "brotherly love".
Two other words for love in the Greek language -- Eros (sexual love) and storge (needy child-to parent love) were never used in the New Testament.

C.S. Lewis, an influential Christian theologian, wrote a book called The Four Loves.

Many Christians believe that the greatest commandment is "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." are the two greatest commandments (the two greatest commandment of God, according to Jesus). See The Gospel of Mark chapter 12, verses 28-34). Saint Augustine summarised this when he wrote "Love God, and do as thou wilt". Saint Paul glorified agape love as the most important virtue of all in 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. Attempting to define it he wrote, " Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. "(13:4-8 KJV)

Christians also believe that God felt so much agape love for man that he sacrificed his son for them. John the Apostle wrote, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." (John 3:16-17 KJV)

Many Christian theologians see God as the source of love, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." (1 John 4:8 KJV])

[edit]

Hindu

In Hinduism kāma is pleasurable, sexual love, personified by the god Kama. For many Hindu schools it is the third end in life .

In contrast to kāma, prema or prem refers to elevated love.

Karuna is compassion and mercy, which reduces the suffering of others.

Bhakti is a Sanskrit term from Hinduism meaning 'loving devotion to the supreme God'. A person who practices bhakti is called bhakta. Hindu writers, theologians, and philosophers have distinguished nine forms of devotion that they call bhakti, for example in the Bhagavatha-Purana and according to Tulsidas. The booklet Narada bhakti sutra written by an unknown author distinguishes eleven forms of love.

[edit]

Islamic

In a sense, love does encompass the Islamic view of life as universal brotherhood which applies to all who hold the faith. There are no direct references stating that God is love, but amongst the 99 names of God (Allah), there is the name Al-Wadud or 'the Loving One', which is found in Surah 11:90 as well as Surah 85:14. It refers to God as being "full of loving kindness". In Islam, love is more often than not used as an incentive for sinners to aspire to be as worthy of God's love as they may. One still has God's love, but how the person evaluates his own worth is to his own and God's own counsel. All who hold the faith have God's love, but to what degree or effort he has pleased God depends on the individual itself.

Ishq, or divine love, is the emphasis of Sufism. Sufis believe that love is a projection of the essence of God to the universe. God desires to recognize beauty, and as if one looks at a mirror to see oneself, God "looks" at itself within the dynamics of nature. Since everything is a reflection of God, the school of Sufism practices to see the beauty inside the apparently ugly. Sufism is oftentimes referred to as the religion of Love. God in Sufism is referred to in three main terms which are the Lover, Loved, and Beloved with the last of these terms being often seen in Sufi poetry. A common viewpoint of Sufism is that through Love humankind can get back to its inherent purity and grace.

[edit]

Jewish

"And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."
—Deuteronomy 6:5

In Hebrew Ahava is the most commonly used term for both interpersonal love and love of God. Other related but dissimilar terms are Chen (grace) and Hesed, which basically combines the meaning of "affection" and "compassion" and is sometimes rendered in English as "loving-kindness".

Judaism employs a wide definition of love, both between people and between man and the Deity. As for the former, the Torah states: "Love your neighbor like yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). As for the latter, one is commanded to love God "with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5), taken by the Mishnah (a central text of the Jewish oral law) to refer to good deeds, willingness to sacrifice one's life rather than commit certain serious transgressions, willingness to sacrifice all one's possessions and being grateful to the Lord despite adversity (tractate Berachoth 9:5). Rabbinic literature differs how this love can be developed, e.g. by contemplating Divine deeds or witnessing the marvels of nature.

As for love between marital partners, this is deemed an essential ingredient to life: "See life with the wife you love" (Ecclesiastes 9:9). The Biblical book Song of Songs is a considered a romantically-phrased metaphor of love between God and his people, but in its plain reading reads like a love song.

The 20th-century rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler is frequently quoted as defining love from the Jewish point-of-view as "giving without expecting to take" (from his Michtav me-Eliyahu, vol. I). Romantic love per se has few echoes in Jewish literature, although the medieval rabbi Judah Halevi wrote romantic poetry in Arabic in his younger years (he appears to have regretted this later).

[edit]

Mythological

Different cultures have deified love, typically in both male and female form. Here is a list of the gods and goddesses of love in different mythologies.

Áine — goddess of fertility and passionate love in Irish mythology
Amor or Cupid — god of passionate love in Roman mythology
Aonghus or Aengus— god of beauty, youth, and sensual love in Irish mythology
Aphrodite — goddess of beauty and passionate love in Greek mythology
Astarte — goddess of love in Canaanite mythogy
Eros — god of passionate love in Greek mythology
Freya — goddess in Norse mythology
Inanna — goddess of love and war in Sumerian mythology
Ishtar — goddess of love and war in Babylonian mythology
Kama — god of sensual love in Hindu mythology
Rati — goddess of passionate love in Hindu mythology
Venus — goddess of beauty and passionate love in Roman mythology
Xochipilli — god in Aztec mythology
Antheia — goddess in Crete mythology of love, flowers, gardens, and marshes

[edit]

Theological

Even though in monotheistic religions, the God is considered to represent love, there are often angels or similar beings that represent love as well.

Haniel — Angel of Venus, and of eros, in Judeo-Christian theology.
Raphael — Angel of love(agape) in Judeo-Christian theology.
Mihr — angel of love in Persian mythology

The Science Of Love (the chemistry of romance)

2006-03-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

Life, 22, 2, 38(1)
Feb, 1999
ISSN: 0024-3019

ABSTRACT:
Researchers believe that love at first sight is not just a cliche. A chemical reaction which may lead to romance can be created when one person first looks at another. A mix of natural chemicals and hormones may explain why opposites attract, mismatched couples success and some
couples survive the worst situations.

TEXT:
The couples on the following pages prove what researchers now know: Romance, quite literally, requires a certain chemistry. Love at first sight is no apocryphal cliche. Writer Nuna Alberts reports that researchers now know why one glimpse of the right person can let off a chemical reaction leading to romance. But what happens after what? Why do some relationships succeed while others fizzle? That may be more magic than science. Claudia Glenn Dowling visits with 10 famous couples who have overcome time and trials: depression, the death of a child, cancer, the stress of public life. Through it all, their marriages have survived--even grown stronger. "Need is the thing that holds a marriage together over the long haul," says actor Carroll O'Connor. "If the need stops, the marriage stops."

Thirty-one-year-old Dana Commandatore claims she has never been the kind of woman men immediately notice. But one night last year, while at a singles bar with friends, she couldn't keep the opposite sex away. "Guys were coming up to me and getting very close, and I was like, 'Wow!'"
The New York City office manager, now in a committed relationship with one of the men she met that night, credits her ability to attract him that evening to a costly potion ($60 for a tenth of an ounce) called Falling in Love. Its manufacturer, Philosophy cosmetics, claims the concoction is laced with pheromones, those odorless airborne molecules, synthesized from human chemical secretions, that are purported to boost attractiveness. (And yes, it's available at a department store near you.)

Bunk? Sniff if you will. Many do. But whether one believes Commandatore is hopelessly susceptible or remarkably savvy, one thing is clear: New research in the field of love and attraction shows that
romance--long the domain of poets, philosophers and five-hankie movies--may be ruled as much by molecules as it is by emotion. In fact, scientists now believe that the impulse that drives us to mate, marry and remain monogamous is not a result of mere social convention: It is also a complex mix of naturally occurring chemicals and hormones--Cupid's elixirs, if you will--that helps guide us through life's most important decision. That physiological component, say the researchers, may help explain some of love's mysteries: why opposites attract, why so many seemingly mismatched couples succeed, why we stick together with partners through even the worst of times.

"When you fall in love or in lust, it isn't merely an emotional event," says Theresa Crenshaw, M.D., the Masters and Johnson-trained author of The Alchemy of Love and Lust. "Your body's hormones, each with unique contributions, get involved too."

Free will, of course, can't be discounted. If you like redheads, you like redheads. If you're a sucker for a beautiful voice, the man who croons "Night and Day" to you has an edge. But doctors have long known that even that most primal of impulses, lust--the feeling that propels the lonely out the door in search of love--has a chemical basis. It is testosterone, the hormone that creates basic sexual desire in men and women.

Researchers are now concentrating on what happens after one walks out the door and into a wide world of romantic opportunity. What physical attributes, outside the obvious, attract? What role do pheromones play? When do other, more potent brain chemicals begin to kick in? The last decade's discoveries in neuroscience let researchers predict--even, for the first time, control, albeit in a limited way--what was once thought uncontrollable: love. "We are at the dawn of a new beginning, where people may soon never have to suffer the pain of love's slings and arrows," such as rejection, difficulty in bonding and attachment disorders, says James H. Fallon, professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine. In 10 years, maybe less, he says, there could be brain chemical nasal sprays to enhance love between a couple. "We're very close. And that's not just happy talk...we're like giddy kids at the possibilities."

Indeed, what scientists believe they already know about matters of the heart is remarkable. To illustrate their findings, follow the story of Mike, a fictional Everyman, as he falls in love. One night, Mike, single, nervously arrives at a party, gets a drink, then scans the room. Science tells us that, unconsciously, he is already noting the size and symmetry of the facial bones of the women around him (a recent study by University of New Mexico biologists found that symmetrical bone structure is prized more than anything because it suggests a lack of undesirable genetic mutations). He also studies the women's curves, as research shows that men prefer waists to be 60-80 percent the size of hips, an indicator, however crude, of health and fertility. (Women, for their part, seek men with slightly feminized faces--think Leonardo DiCaprio--because they appear warmer, kinder and more trustworthy.) "Judging beauty has a strong evolutionary component," says University of Texas at Austin professor of psychology Devendra Singh. "You're looking at another person and figuring out whether you want your children to carry that person's genes."

At the party, Mike subconsciously follows these clues and makes eye contact with a woman, Sue. She smiles. His midbrain--the part that controls visual and auditory reflexes--releases the eurotransmitter dopamine, a brain chemical that gives him a rush--and the motivation to initiate conversation. As he nears, Mike's pheromones reach Sue's hypothalamus, eliciting a "yes, come closer" look. Why this happens isn't clear, but one study at the University of Bern, in Switzerland, suggests that people use smell as a possible cue for distinguishing genetic similarity in a potential partner--a consideration in preventing possible birth defects.

Mike is now feeling the first flutter of sexual attraction. His hypothalamus--the brain region that triggers the chemicals responsible for emotion--tells his body to send out attraction signals: His pupils dilate; his heart pumps harder so that his face flushes; he sweats slightly, which gives his skin a warm glow; glands in his scalp release oil to create extra shine. By night's end, he gets her phone number. The next day, memories of Sue direct his brain to secrete increasing levels of dopamine, creating feelings of yearning that propel him toward the phone. He calls. She sounds excited. The dopamine released in the base of the forebrain prompts the first strong feelings of pleasure that Mike associates with Sue.

When they meet the next night at a restaurant, his stomach does flip-flops and he starts feeling giddy at the sight of her. He can think of nothing but that face, those eyes, that smile, as his brain pathways become intoxicated with elevated levels of dopamine, norepinephrine (another neurotransmitter) and, particularly, phenylethylamine (PEA). This cocktail of natural chemicals gives Mike a slight buzz, as if he had taken a very low dose of amphetamines (or a large dose of chocolate, another source of PEA). This contributes to the almost irrational feelings of attraction--we've all felt them--that begin dominating his thoughts at work, while he drives, as he goes to sleep. "It's a natural high," says Anthony Walsh, professor of criminology at Boise State University and author of The Science of Love: Understanding Love and Its Effects on Mind and Body. "Your pupils dilate, your heart pumps, you sweat--it's the same reaction you'd have if you were afraid or angry. It's the fight-or-flight mechanism, except you don't want to fight or flee."

In the weeks that follow, Mike and Sue's relationship deepens. The first night Mike brings Sue home, he dims the lights and plays a little soft music. The chemical oxytocin floods his body. Twenty years ago, oxytocin was considered a female hormone useful only as a trigger for labor contractions and to induce lactation. In the '80s, research found that it is produced in the hypothalamus by both men and women, helping to create feelings of caring and warmth (thus bonding mother and baby after birth and during nursing). As Sue's oxytocin also surges, the couple begin forming a bond. Scientists now think that oxytocin actually strengthens the brain's receptors that produce emotions. Oxytocin increases further during touching, cuddling and other stages of sexual intimacy. It may also make it easier to evoke pleasant memories of each other while apart. Mike can think of Sue and experience, in his mind, the way she looks, feels and smells, and that will reinforce his connection to her. (Helen Fisher, a Rutgers University anthropologist, is conducting research with magnetic resonance imaging to track which parts of the brain change when someone is in love.)

Next comes the wedding. Honeymoon. Now what? Fast-forward 18 months. At this point, Mike and Sue could be at a crossroads. Science tells us that 18 months to three years after the first moment of infatuation, it's not unusual for feelings of neutrality for one's love partner to set in ("Why don't you take out the trash?" vs. "I dream about you all the time"). For many, there could be a chemical explanation. The mix of dopamine, norepinephrine and PEA is so much like a drug, say scientists, that it takes greater and greater doses to get the same buzz. So after someone has been with one person for a time, his brain stops reacting to the chemicals because it is habituated. "The brain can't maintain the revved-up status," says Walsh. "As happens with any drug, it needs more and more PEA to make the heart go pitter-patter."

Couples with attachments that are shaky for other reasons (money woes, abuse, irreconcilable differences) may part and--because the body's tolerance for PEA soon diminishes--seek someone new with whom to find the thrill of early love. More likely, however, committed couples will moveon to what science suggests is the most rewarding and enduring aspect of love. Though the same addictive rush isn't involved, ongoing physical contact, not just sex, helps produce endorphins, another brain chemical, and continued high doses of oxytocin. Endorphins calm the mind and kill anxiety. Both chemicals are like natural opiates and help stabilize the couple by inducing what famed obstetrician Michel Odent, of London's Primal Health Research Center (whose book, The Scientification of Love, will be published this year), calls "a druglike dependency."

Even in the animal world, neuroscientists had long wondered what kept prairie voles loyal to one mate while their cousins, the montane voles, were promiscuous maters. As it turned out, prairie voles are much more sensitive to the effects of oxytocin. In experiments, when those receptors are blocked, the animals' stay-at-home tendencies decline. "At present, our knowledge of neuroscience is doubling every two and a half years," says Robert Friar, professor of physiology and human sexuality at Michigan's Ferris State University. "That means that in the last two and a half years we have learned more than all prior humans about the workings of the brain." Says the University of California's Fallon: "Certainly the '90s are a blur for people in neuroscience. We all want to be up twenty-four hours a day so we don't miss a thing."

But in the end, will love's mysteries ever unravel in a laboratory? Some, like Fallon, say yes. Others, perhaps most of us lucky enough to have experienced true love, might believe--and wish--otherwise. Even in this advanced age of science, where we can transplant organs, map the human genome and clone our own offspring, we still have not come close to understanding what, exactly, ignites our spark of life, our souls, our very being. Maybe, possibly, that will remain true for the farthest reaches of love.

MATING GAME

2006-03-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

HEADLINE: The mating game; hormones and animal sexual activities; includes related articles on animal maternal love and an school experiment on mate selection

BYLINE: Stiefel, Chana

BODY:
It's Saturday night. You style your hair, spray on deodorant, and gurgle mouthwash. You tear through your closet for your best jeans, then perform the curious ritual of checking yourself over and over in the mirror. What's it all about? Romance, of course.

On Saturday nights the world over (and every other day of the week, for that matter), Romeos and Juliets of the animal kingdom--from ants to zebras--are also preening and "dating." Now biologists are discovering how brain chemistry affects animal mating styles, and are piecing together the many meanings of animal courtship rituals. Their consensus: AnimAls and humans who "fall in love" share more traits in common than ever believed.

For starters, new research shows that some mammals release hormones (chemicals that affect body functions) like those of humans falling in love. Also, many animals "flirt" just like teens--they dance, sing, dress up, offer gifts, spray chemical perfumes and, yes, even fight over each other. To top it off, biologists are finding that the "show-off" antics many male animals perform to nab mates serve a vital purpose: The female gets to judge just how suitable her admirer is before making any commitment--and mating with him.

Scientists now think the capacity for love is programmed into animal biochemistry--especially hormones. Animals and plants produce hormones in very small amounts, which have powerful effects on their organs and systems. Humans, for example, produce 30 hormones in various body organs,
called endocrine glands, as well as in the brain and kidneys. Without hormones our bodies wouldn't grow or mature sexually. Hormones actually cause our hearts to speed up under stress, and help the body convert food into energy. When it comes to the role of hormones in choosing mates, scientists have recently zeroed in on the brain.

ROMANCE!
Take the prairie vole, a fluffy rodent that sticks with the same mate for life. When single voles meet, the female's brain releases a heightened dose of the hormone oxytocin, explains Sue Carter, a zoologist at the University of Maryland. Scientists have known since 1906 that oxytocin stimulates
human female contractions during child birth. Now they think the hormone also acts as eurotransmitter, or chemical messenger in the brain's nerve cells, that can guide behavior and seal emotional ties. When oxytocin courses through the female vole's brain, she bonds with the male.
Deprived of the hormone (in the lab), she ignores him!

Similarly, the male vole's brain releases vasopressin, a hormone that prompts him to bond with his mate and guard her and their young from predators. "You can't imagine how much time these animals spend together," Carter says. "They spend over half their time sitting quietly touching each other. The release of hormones seals the bond." If that isn't romance, what is?

HOW TO GET A DATE
Species of all kinds also exhibit what scientists call social behavior--they interact with each other in a wide variety of courtship rituals.

Sea horse pairs start each day by wrapping their tails around each other and performing a tango around a blade of grass. Some scientists believe that sea horses remain forever faithful to their mates. They've tried to persuade male and female sea horses to "cheat" in a tank full of sea horse
"singles." But "married" sea horses seem to only have eyes for each other.
(Perhaps most amazing is that male sea horses get pregnant and give birth!)

The next generation of sea horses will repeat their parents' romantic rituals. Scientists say that courtship behavior is often passed down from generation to generation. For creatures like sea horses, who spend no time with their parents after birth, courtship behavior is pure genetics, the result of "dance steps" passed down from one generation to another. Genes are chemical instructions in animal cells received from mom and dad. Of course, some young mammals pick up "dating" tricks by simply imitating their parents.

Courtship strategies evolve over long periods of time, usually based on what "works" for each species to survive, says Penny Kalk, a mammalogist at the Bronx Zoo in New York. These genetically inherited traits are known as adaptations. Evolution helps explain how cats of all kinds--from kittens to Siberian tigers--have adapted the same mating rituals. In a courtship
dance, "the female runs, rolls, and lifts her rear up in the air," Kalk says. Apparently this "dance" evolved among biological ancestors of female felines to attract "cool cats."

Other animal courtship adaptations abound. You may surprise your date with
flowers or candy. Male bowerbirds in Australia and New Guinea have inherited the know-how to build lavish bowers--walled chambers made of twigs, decorated with blue feathers, yellow flowers, and leaves. A choosy female "can come in close, check out the male, and make sure she's making
the right decision," says Gerald Borgia, a zoology professor at the University of Maryland.

STINGING LOVE
Talk about "electric" love! Stingrays are flat fish with whiplike tails that have adapted a sensory system known as electroreception. A weak electric current flows from tissues in a ray's mouth, gills, and other body parts. Seawater acts like a three-dimensional wire, conducting the current
through the surf. During mating season, females pile up in groups up to 50 rays high, forming "condominiums" in the sand. When females give off electric signals, males use their own electrical receptors to hone in on them. The males then circle the condos and try to pull out females for
mating.

If you find the scent of cologne alluring, you're not alone. Since the female gypsy moth can't fly, she manufactures her own natural "perfume" to attract a far-away male. She releases chemicals called pheromones from a gland on her abdomen. The pheromones waft into the air, carrying a specific
scented signal that lures only male gypsy moths. The male's antennae, each one covered with 15,000 pheromone-sensitive hairs, can detect a single molecule of the scent from as far as seven miles away!

DATING DANGERS
Sometimes the contest for mates gets downright nasty. Male elephant seals are cow-size mating machines that often claim a harem of 50 females. Once landing on a beach to mate, males test each other's strength to fight over females. Males let out loud warning cries to keep rivals away. If their
alarm fails, watch out! Males slam their chests against rivals and rip at their necks with long canine teeth, resulting in a bloody bout. The loser flees--without the girl.

The mating game can also be deadly. At the sight of a female, a male praying mantis freezes in place. He gradually but cautiously moves toward her. Then he jumps on her and begins to mate. During mating, the female may twist around, bite off the male's head and eat it!

Why do animals--including humans--go through such trouble to find their mates? Biologists say that the strongest drive in any creature is the desire to preserve one's genes for eternity. "The bottom line is getting your genes passed on to the next generation," explains zoologist Borgia Animals feel the need to pass on genes in the form of offspring, even if it means getting dumped, bruised, or beheaded. The species that try hardest have the best chance of survival. So dating and mating are a natural part of life on Earth.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Communication Between Men and Women

2006-03-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

On the forum she said: All I have to say is we women ask a man or our hubby a question (like does this dress look good?) we need to be mature enough to handle the answer OR DON'T ASK!

Which produced this interesting and introspective reply from Nekosohana, one of the forum's male members. I have made some very minor edits, primarily for spelling or punctuation:

Most of those questions are socially expressed contracts that we have with our partners. Women know the answer to the question, but it's not a real question. In reality, society programs women to say that because society programs men to not express the "L" word.

Don't believe me? Look at little boys and little girls. My friends laughed at me for liking a girl. It's not socially acceptable at that age to like girls and when we get older, our masculinity is not defined by self image (which it should be), but by the images of ourselves we get off of others.

If you are to look in a bathroom miror, you will (not?) see the true you. Agreed? You will see only the image of yourself that your own mind allows. As people expand their knowledge of self, that image will change. Both physically and mentally (but we are sticking to mentally for the moment).

But the problem lies in a simple truth that we don't seem to get. Our baseline is taken from a biological version of the funhouse mirror, our parents. We learn through our youth that our parents define us (which is why women inevitably become their mothers - or exact opposites) - because the base patterns we use for self evaluation are not born inside us (like they are with others of the animal race), they are received from our parents.

As we get older and become more self aware, we make a decision in our very early youth to accept these patterns or reject them. This seems to happen in the teenage years (hence the rebellious phases).

My ex-wife accepted her mother's patterns, which included 4 divorces (or 3?), and 6 children from 4 different men. So is it any surprise that when the work came, my wife wasn't willing to take the extra step? No, because she repeated her mother, to the "T'.

So back to your statement. We men are contracted early with patterns as well that say machismo = manly. In that same contract there is a clause that says, expression of feelings is unacceptable because that is not machismo. And machismo = manly. Most men accept this as law. Agree? That's why we have songs about men who would rather fish than spend time with their women. As you can tell, I rejected the clause.

So, to wrap this up it goes like this. Men have a set pattern of not being able to express feelings, because they don't understand that expression does not equal weakness (or the non-machismo fault). Women invariably understand this, why? Because most had fathers to a certain degree, or father figures. If they didn't, well I haven't thought far enough to argue that point yet. So they also play to the contract with something that goes like this:

Instead of saying: "Do you love me" or "Am I still beautiful to you?" (and all people desire to be craved, even men) because the above contract rules tell then they will not get an answer, or will degrade their men somehow, they ask: "Do I look fat?" or "Does this dress look good?" with the implied expectation that since they met with his contract he will meet with theirs. And he often does, because in this case, we all know the rules, whether we admit it or not.

In reality, I feel that honesty is the best policy. But I learned in my marriage, that sometimes it can be good to play along, that the end to happiness is not always in the stark truth (and I am all for stark truth), but in the understanding that, like sarcasm, the "dishonest" answer is not always a lie.

Regardless of whether you agree with everything he has written, I think this is an interesting and introspective opinion.

Take care of yourself.

From Pat Gaudette,
Your Guide to Divorce Support.

Paradox Of Our Times

2006-02-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;
We spend more, but have little;
We buy more and enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families;
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less common sense;
More knowledge, but less judgement;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicine, but less wellness.

We spend too recklessly, laugh too little,
Drive too fast, get too angry too quickly,
Stay up too late, get up too tired, Read too seldom,
Watch TV too much, and don't pray often enough.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and lie too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;
We've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back,
But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We've conquered outer space, but not inner space;
We've done larger things, but not better things;
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul;
We've split the atom, but not our prejudice;
We write more, but learn less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait;
We have higher incomes; but lower morals;
More food but less appeasement;
More acquaintances, but fewer friends;
More effort but less success.

We build better computers to hold more information,
Produce more copies than ever, yet have less communication;
We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of fast foods and upset stomachs;
More kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare;
More leisure and less fun;

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce;
Of fancier houses, but broken homes;
Tall men and short character;
Steep profits, and shallow relationships.

These are days of quick trips, throwaway morality,
One-night stands, and pills that do everything from
Cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the show window,
And nothing in the stockroom.

Think about it.

Kisses

2006-02-25T01:37:00.000-08:00

Meanings Of Kisses

Kiss on the hand - I adore you.

Kiss on the cheek - I just want to be friends.

Kiss on the chin - You are cute!

Kiss on the neck - I want you.

Kiss on the lips - I love you.

Kiss on the ears - Let's have some fun.

Kiss anywhere else - You're the best.

Where To Kiss...

Places to Kiss Your Love

Behind their ear.
Tip of their nose.
Back of their neck.
Underside of their forearm.
Curve of their waist.
Palm of their hand.
Inside their wrist.
Under their chin.
Their eyelids.
Inside of their ankle.
Their collar bone.
Tips of their fingers.
Their spine.
Small of their back.
Their tummy.
Behind their knees.

Of course, this is just to give you an idea. Aim to shower your love with kisses ALL OVER!

Types Of Kisses

2006-02-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

Types Of Kisses

Below you will find a variety of kiss types. If you find some that catch your fancy, feel free to try them :-)

Butterfly Kiss - With your faces less than a breath away, open and close your eyelids against your partners. If done correctly, the fluttering sensation will match the one in your heart.

Cheek Kiss - A friendly, "I really like you" kiss. Often the preferred kissing method of a first date. With your hands on your partner's shoulders, gently brush your lips across her cheek.

Earlobe Kiss - Gently sip and suck the earlobe. Avoid louder sucking noises as ears are sensitized noise detectors.

Eskimo Kiss - With your faces less than a breath apart, gently rub your noses together.

Eye Kiss - Hold your partner's head with both hands and slowly move their head in the direction you wish your kiss to go... then slowly kiss up towards your partner's eyes and give them a tender kiss on top of their closed eyes.

Eyelid Kiss - While your partner is resting/sleeping with eyes closed, very very gently kiss the spot right below their browbone. A very intimate kiss.

Finger Kiss - While laying together gently suck on their fingers. This can be very seductive and pleasurable.

Foot Kiss - An erotic and romantic gesture. It may tickle, but relax and enjoy it! To give a toe kiss by gently suck the toes and then lightly kissing the foot. It helps to gently massage the base of the foot while performing the kiss.

Forehead Kiss - The "motherly" kiss or "just friends" kiss. The forehead kiss can be a comforting kiss to anyone. Simply brush your lips lightly across the crown of their head.

Freeze Kiss (or Melt Kiss) - Experiment with this fun kiss. Put a small piece of ice in your mouth, then open mouth and kiss your partner, passing them the ice with your tongue. It's an erotic and sensual french kiss with a twist of cold.

French Kiss - The kiss involving the tongue. Some call this the "Soul Kiss" because the life and soul are thought to pass through the mouth's breath in the exchange across tongues. Surprisingly, the French call this "The English Kiss".

Fruity Kiss - Take a small piece of fruit and place between your lips (juicy fruits such as grapes, strawberries, small pieces of pineapple or mango are ideal). Kiss your partner and nibble one half of the piece of fruit while they nibble the other until it breaks in half, allowing the juice to run into your mouths.

Hand Kiss - Gently raise her hand to your lips. Lightly brush your lips across the top of her hand. Historically this kiss was performed with a bow, which showed deference to a lady.

Hickey Kiss - The object is not to draw blood, but to gently leave a mark that will prove your interlude was not a dream. This is often included in erotic foreplay.

Hostage Kiss - Cover your lips with tape and get your love's attention. When they come near, make noises like you're trying to tell them something and motion as if you can't get the tape off. Once they remove the tape from you to hear what you're trying to say tell them: "I've been saving my lips all day just for you!" Then kiss your love passionately!

Hot and Cold Kiss - Lick your partner's lips so that they're warm, and then gently blow on them. The sudden cold blast makes for a sensual explosion, and they will often try it on you next, as well as get very passionate.

Mistletoe Kiss - Surprise your lover by capturing them with a gentle holiday kiss under the mistletoe. This is also a good method for shyer individuals to steal a kiss from a potential lover.

Letter Kiss - Send your lover a kiss in a love letter by writing the letter x several times in a row at the bottom of a letter such as XXXXX.

Lick Kiss - Just before kissing, gently run your tongue along you partners lip whether it be the top or bottom one depending on the position of your lips. Very sensual.

Lip Sucking Kiss - When kissing gently suck on their lower lip. This can be very exciting.

Neck Nibble Kiss - Gently nibble up and down your partners neck. End with a gentle kiss on the lips.

Nip Kiss - This kiss can create a very erotic sensation. While kissing your partner, ever so gently nibble on their lips. You must be very careful not to bite to hard or hurt your partner. When done correctly, this kiss ignites wonderful sensations.

Reverse Lips Kiss - It involves standing above your lover and kissing them from over their head. This way, each kisser can take the hyper-sensitive bottom lip of thier lover in their mouths, and GENTLY draw blood to the surface of the lip by nibbling and sucking. A very sensuous, connecting kiss.

Searching The Cavern - Use the lips and tongue to gently tickle and kiss your lover's navel. Vary speeds and stroke to change sensation. Invigorating and intoxicating.

Shoulder Kiss - Simply come from behind, embrace her, and kiss the top of her shoulder. This is a sensual, loving kiss.

Sip Kiss - Take a small sip of your favorite drink. Leaving a little bit of it on your lips, kiss your partner. It is a unique way to create a sensual feeling and your partner will enjoy it.

Talking Kiss - Whisper sweet nothings into your partner's mouth. If caught in the act, simply say as Chico Marx, "I wasn't kissing her. I was whispering into her mouth."

Teaser Kiss - Starting on the forehead, a sweet short kiss on lips, then move up the arms up to her hand, kiss her hand, then come back up her arm, to her face and then lightly kiss her lips till she wants a passionate kiss.

The Buzzing Kiss - Gently place your lips against your lover's neck , behind their ear. Now, send a shudder through their skin by gently growling and humming, vibrating your lips and cheeks as you do so. Move up and down the neck, over the bones of the face and lips. Stimulating and erotic when done correctly.

The Whipped Cream Kiss - Dip your finger into some cool whip or whipped cream of your choice. Lick it off slowly, then embrace your partner and kiss them deeply letting their tongue slip over yours for a wonderfully sweet kiss. It's very seductive and passionate.

Tiger Kiss - Quietly sneak up behind your partner making sure they do not know what you are going to do. Out of the blue, grab them and gently bite their neck. Make sure to get a few good growls in too. This will surely surprise them.

Trickle Kiss - Take a sip of a favourite drink and trickle it slowly into partner's mouth while kissing.

Tongue Sucking - A variation of the French kiss. During an open-mouth kiss gently suck on your partner's tongue (not too hard because it may hurt). Very sexy :-)

Quickie Kiss - When you're in a rush. Often the nose gets it rather than the lips.

Vacuum Kiss - While kissing open-mouthed, slightly suck in as if you were sucking the air from your partners mouth. This is a playful kiss.

Wake Up Kiss - Before your partner awakes lean over and kiss their cheek and move over giving soft kisses until you reach their lips. Definitely a more than pleasant way to wake up!

Virtual Kiss - For Internet lovers. Send an e-card or a kiss via email with this symbol: :-*

What's Your Love Story?

2006-02-21T13:10:00.000-08:00

In your relationship, are you a cop, a comedian, a prince or a martyr? Robert J. Sternberg, Ph.D., reveals how you can use your "love story" to find your perfect match.

Relationships can be as unpredictable as the most suspense-filled mystery novel. Why do some couples live happily ever after, while others are as star-crossed as Romeo and Juliet? Why do we often seem destined to relive the same romantic mistakes over and over, following the same script with different people in different places, as if the fate of our relationships, from courtship to demise, were written at birth?

Perhaps because, in essence, it is. As much as psychologists have attempted to explain the mysteries of love through scientific laws and theories, it turns out that the best mirrors of the romantic experience may be Wuthering

Heights, Casablanca and General Hospital. At some level, lay people recognize what many psychologists don't: that the love between two people follows a story. If we want to understand love, we have to understand the stories that dictate our beliefs and expectations of love. These stories, which we start to write as children, predict the patterns of our romantic experiences time and time again. Luckily, we can learn to rewrite them.

I came up with the theory of love as a story because I was dissatisfied not only with other people's work on love, but also with my own. I had initially proposed a triangular theory of love, suggesting that it comprises three elements: intimacy, passion and commitment. Different loving relationships have different combinations of these elements. Complete love requires all three elements. But the theory leaves an important question unanswered: what makes a person the kind of lover they are? And what attracts them to other lovers? I had to dig deeper to understand the love's origins. I found them in stories.

My research, which incorporates studies performed over the study showed. But some stories seem to predict doom more than others: the business, collectibles, government, horror, mystery, police ("I believe it is necessary to watch your partner's every move" or "My partner often calls me several times a day to ask what I am doing"), recovery ("I often find myself helping people get their life back in order" or "I need someone to help me recover from my painful past"), science fiction ("I often find myself attracted to individuals who have unusual and strange characteristics") and theater stories ("I think my relationships are like plays" or "I often find myself attracted to partners who play different roles").

How Stories Spin Our Relationships

When you talk to two people who have just split up, their breakup stories often sound like depictions of two completely different relationships. In a sense, they are. Each partner has his or her own story to tell.

Most important to a healthy, happy relationship is that both partners have compatible stories--that is, compatible expectations. Indeed, a 1998 study conducted with Mahzad Hojjat, Ph.D., and Michael Barnes, Ph.D., indicated that the more similar couples' stories were, the happier they were together.

Stories tend to be compatible if they are complementary roles in a single story, such as prince and princess, or if the stories are similar enough that they can be merged into a new and unified story. For example, a fantasy story can merge with a gardening story because one can nourish, or garden, a relationship while dreaming of being rescued by a knight on a white steed. A fantasy and a business story are unlikely to blend, however, because they represent such different ideals--fate-bound princes and princesses don't work at romance!

Of course, story compatibility isn't the only ingredient in a successful relationship. Sometimes, our favorite story can be hazardous to our well-being. People often try to make dangerous or unsatisfying stories come true. Thus, someone who has, say, a horror or recovery story may try to turn a healthy relationship into a Nightmare on Elm Street. People complain that they keep ending up with the same kind of bad partner, that they are unlucky in love. In reality, luck has nothing to do with it: They are subconsciously finding people to play out their love stories, or foisting their stories on the people they meet.

Making Happy Endings

Treating problems in relationships by changing our behaviors and habits ultimately won't work because crisis comes from the story we're playing out. Unless we change our stories, we're past decade with hundreds of couples in Connecticut, as well as ongoing studies, has shown that people describe love in many ways. This description reveals their love story. For example, someone who strongly agrees with the statement "I believe close relationships are like good partnerships" tells a business story; someone who says they end up with partners who scare them--or that they like intimidating their partner--enacts a horror story.

Couples usually start out being physically attracted and having similar interests and values. But eventually, they may notice something missing in the relationship. That something is usually story compatibility. A couple whose stories don't match is like two characters on one stage acting out different plays--they may look right at first glance, but there is an underlying lack of coordination to their interaction.

This is why couples that seem likely to thrive often do not, and couples that seem unlikely to survive sometimes do. Two people may have similar outlooks, but if one longs to be rescued like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and the other wants a partnership like the lawyers on the television show The Practice, the relationship may not go very far. In contrast, two people with a war story like the bickering spouses in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf may seem wildly incompatible to their friends, but their shared need for combat may be what keeps their love alive.

More than anything, the key to compatibility with a romantic partner is whether our stories match. To change the pattern of our relationships, we must become conscious of our love stories, seek people with compatible tales, and replot conclusions that aren't working for us.

The Beginning of the Story

We start forming our ideas about love soon after birth, based on our inborn personality, our early experiences and our observations of our parents' relationships, as well as depictions of romance in movies, television and books. We then seek to live out these conceptions of love ourselves.

Based on interviews I conducted in the 1990s, asking college students to write about their romantic ideals and expectations, I have identified at least 25 common stories which people use to describe love. (There are probably many more.)

Some stories are far more popular than others. In 1995, one of my students, Laurie Lynch, and I identified some of the most common tales by asking people to rate, on a scale of one to seven, the extent to which a group of statements characterized their relationships. Their highest-ranked statements indicated their personal love story. Among the most popular were the travel story ("I believe that beginning a relationship is like starting a new journey that promises to be both exciting and challenging"), the gardening story ("I believe any relationship that is left unattended will not survive") and the humor story ("I think taking a relationship too seriously can spoil it"). Among the least popular were the horror story ("I find it exciting when I feel my partner is somewhat frightened of me," or "I tend to end up with people who frighten me"), the collectibles story ("I like dating different partners simultaneously; each partner should fit a particular need") and the autocratic government story ("I think it is more efficient if one person takes control of the important decisions in a relationship").

Another study of 43 couples, conducted with Mahzad Hojji, Ph.D., in I996, showed that women prefer the travel story more than men, who prefer the art ("Physical attractiveness is the most essential characteristic I look for in a partner"), collectibles and pornography ("It is very important to be able to gratify all my partner's sexual desires and whims," or "I can never be happy with a partner who is not very adventurous in his or her sex life") stories. Men also prefer the sacrifice story ("I believe sacrifice is a key part of true love"). Originally, we had expected the opposite. Then we realized that the men reported sacrificing things that women did consider significant offerings.

No one story guarantees success, our treating symptoms rather than causes. If we're dissatisfied with our partner, we should look not at his or her faults, but at how he or she fits into our expectations.

To figure out what we want, we need to consider all of our past relationships, and we should ask ourselves what attributes characterized the people to whom we felt most attracted, and what attributes characterized the people in whom we eventually lost interest. We also need to see which romantic tale we aim to tell--and whether or not it has the potential to lead to a "happily ever after" scenario (see quiz, page 55).

Once we understand the ideas and beliefs behind the stories we accept as our own, we can do some replotting. We can ask ourselves what we like and don't like about our current story, what hasn't been working in our relationships, and how we would like to change it. How can we rewrite the scenario? This may involve changing stories, or transforming an existing story to make it more practical. For example, horror stories may be fantasized during sexual or other activity, rather than actually physically played out.

We can change our story by experimenting with new and different plots. Sometimes, psychotherapy can help us to move from perilous stories (such as a horror story) to more promising ones (such as a travel story). Once we've recognized our story--or learned to live a healthy one of our choosing--we can begin to recognize elements of that story in potential mates. Love mirrors stories because it is a story itself. The difference is that we are the authors, and can write ourselves a happy ending.

101 love sayings and quotations

2006-02-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

101 love sayings and quotations - large collection of cute SMS love greeting, quotes sayings to send on your mobile phone

love sayings

A good love is delicious because you can't get enough too soon.

A smile to put you on high... A kiss to set your soul alright...Would it be alright if I spent tonight being loved by you?

Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!

Don't forget to love yourself.

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much.

I see you in every passing face

I'll love you till the cows come home.

If love were a movie, you'd be a box office hit!

It's a rainy day when you're not around

Let love be your greatest aim.

Life is the flower for which love is the honey.

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.

Love is the master key which opens the gates of happiness.

Love is to think about someone else more times in a day than you think about yourself.

Love makes everything lovely.

Love makes life so confusing but without love would you want to live?

Love teaches even asses to dance.

Love without return is like a question without an answer

Love your enemies. It really pisses them off!

Love: Two minds without a single thought.

Lovers, like bees, lead a honey-sweet life.

love quotations

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished. - Goethe.

A man falls in love through his eyes, a woman through her ears. - Woodrow Wyatt

I like not only to be loved, but to be told that I am loved. - George Elliot

LOVE: The irresistable desire to be irresistibly desired. - Mark Twain

The first duty of love - is to listen. - Paul Tillich

One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love. - Sophocles

How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?" - Albert Einstien

Life is a flower of which love is the honey. - Victor Hugo

Love is friendship set to music. - E. Joseph Crossmann

At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. - Plato

Love is a great beautifier. - Louisa May Alcott

In our life there is a single color, as on an artist`s palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love. - Marc Chagall

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity. - Einstein.

I feel something in my heart, it's like a little flame, every time I see you, this flame lights up, this flame is special for you, because I LOVE YOU!

Love is being stupid together.

Love is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction.

Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.

No one is too young for love, because love doesn't come from your mind, which knows your age, but from your heart, which knows no age.

Love conquers all. - Virgil.

A Lover's Complaint

2006-02-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

A Lover's Complaint
by William Shakespeare

From off a hill whose concave womb reworded
A plaintful story from a sist'ring vale,
My spirits t'attend this double voice accorded,
And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale,
Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,
Tearing of papers, breaking rings atwain,
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.

Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the sun,
Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw
The carcase of a beauty spent and done.
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit, but spite of heaven's fell rage
Some beauty peeped through lattice of seared age.

Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,
Which on it had conceited characters,
Laund'ring the silken figures in the brine
That seasoned woe had pelleted in tears,
And often reading what contents it bears;
As often shrieking undistinguished woe
In clamours of all size, both high and low.

Sometimes her levelled eyes their carriage ride
As they did batt'ry to the spheres intend;
Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied
To th'orbed earth; sometimes they do extend
Their view right on; anon their gazes lend
To every place at once, and nowhere fixed,
The mind and sight distractedly commixed.

Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plait,
Proclaimed in her a careless hand of pride;
For some, untucked, descended her sheaved hat,
Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;
Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,
And, true to bondage, would not break from thence,
Though slackly braided in loose negligence.

A thousand favours from a maund she drew
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
Which one by one she in a river threw,
Upon whose weeping margent she was set;
Like usury applying wet to wet,
Or monarch's hands that lets not bounty fall
Where want cries some, but where excess begs all.

Of folded schedules had she many a one,
Which she perused, sighed, tore, and gave the flood;
Cracked many a ring of posied gold and bone,
Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;
Found yet moe letters sadly penned in blood,
With sleided silk feat and affectedly
Enswathed and sealed to curious secrecy.

These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes,
And often kissed, and often 'gan to tear;
Cried "O false blood, thou register of lies,
What unapproved witness dost thou bear!
Ink would have seemed more black and damned here!"
This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,
Big discontent so breaking their contents.

A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh,
Sometime a blusterer that the ruffle knew
Of court, of city, and had let go by
The swiftest hours observed as they flew,
Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew,
And, privileged by age, desires to know
In brief the grounds and motives of her woe.

So slides he down upon his grained bat,
And comely distant sits he by her side,
When he again desires her, being sat,
Her grievance with his hearing to divide.
If that from him there may be aught applied
Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage,
'Tis promised in the charity of age.

"Father," she says "though in me you behold
The injury of many a blasting hour,
Let it not tell your judgement I am old:
Not age, but sorrow over me hath power.
I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied
Love to myself, and to no love beside.

"But, woe is me! too early I attended
A youthful suit -it was to gain my grace -
O, one by nature's outwards so commended
That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face.
Love lacked a dwelling and made him her place;
And when in his fair parts she did abide
She was new-lodged and newly deified.

"His browny locks did hang in crooked curls,
And every light occasion of the wind
Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.
What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find:
Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind,
For on his visage was in little drawn
What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn.

"Small show of man was yet upon his chin;
His phoenix down began but to appear,
Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin,
Whose bare outbragged the web it seemed to wear;
Yet showed his visage by that cost more dear,
And nice affections wavering stood in doubt
If best were as it was, or best without.

"His qualities were beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;
Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm
As oft twixt May and April is to see,
When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.
His rudeness so with his authorized youth
Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.

"Well could he ride, and often men would say
`That horse his mettle from his rider takes:
Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!'
And controversy hence a question takes,
Whether the horse by him became his deed,
Or he his manage by th' well-doing steed.

"But quickly on this side the verdict went:
His real habitude gave life and grace
To appertainings and to ornament,
Accomplished in himself, not in his case.
All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
Came for additions; yet their purposed trim
Pieced not his grace, but were all graced by him.

"So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kind of arguments and question deep,
All replication prompt, and reason strong,
For his advantage still did wake and sleep.
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He had the dialect and different skill,
Catching all passions in his craft of will,

"That he did in the general bosom reign
Of young, of old, and sexes both enchanted,
To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
In personal duty, following where he haunted.
Consents bewitched, ere he desire, have granted,
And dialogued for him what he would say,
Asked their own wills, and made their wills obey.

"Many there were that did his picture get
To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind;
Like fools that in th'imagination set
The goodly objects which abroad they find
Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assigned,
And labour in moe pleasures to bestow them
Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them.

"So many have, that never touched his hand,
Sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart.
My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,
And was my own fee-simple, not in part,
What with his art in youth, and youth in art,
Threw my affections in his charmed power,
Reserved the stalk and gave him all my flower.

"Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand of him, nor being desired yielded;
Finding myself in honour so forbid,
With safest distance I mine honour shielded.
Experience for me many bulwarks builded
Of proofs new-bleeding, which remained the foil
Of this false jewel and his amorous spoil.

"But ah, who ever shunned by precedent
The destined ill she must herself assay?
Or forced examples 'gainst her own content
To put the by-past perils in her way?
Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay,
For when we rage, advice is often seen
By blunting us to make our wills more keen.

"Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood
That we must curb it upon others' proof,
To be forbod the sweets that seems so good
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O appetite, from judgement stand aloof!
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though reason weep, and cry `It is thy last'.

"For further I could say this man's untrue,
And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;
Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew;
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;
Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;
Thought characters and words merely but art,
And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.

"And long upon these terms I held my city,
Till thus he 'gan besiege me: `Gentle maid,
Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
And be not of my holy vows afraid.
That's to ye sworn to none was ever said;
For feasts of love I have been called unto,
Till now did ne'er invite nor never woo.

" `All my offences that abroad you see
Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;
Love made them not; with acture they may be,
Where neither party is nor true nor kind.
They sought their shame that so their shame did find;
And so much less of shame in me remains
By how much of me their reproach contains.

" `Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,
Or my affection put to th' smallest teen,
Or any of my leisures ever charmed.
Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;
Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,
And reigned commanding in his monarchy.

" `Look here what tributes wounded fancies sent me
Of pallid pearls and rubies red as blood,
Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me
Of grief and blushes, aptly understood
In bloodless white and the encrimsoned mood -
Effects of terror and dear modesty,
Encamped in hearts, but fighting outwardly.

" `And lo, behold these talents of their hair,
With twisted metal amorously impleached,
I have received from many a several fair,
Their kind acceptance weepingly beseeched,
With the annexions of fair gems enriched,
And deep-brained sonnets that did amplify
Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.

" `The diamond? -why, 'twas beautiful and hard,
Whereto his invised properties did tend;
The deep-green em'rald, in whose fresh regard
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;
The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend
With objects manifold: each several stone,
With wit well blazoned, smiled or made some moan.

" `Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,
Of pensived and subdued desires the tender,
Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not,
But yield them up where I myself must render -
That is to you, my origin and ender;
For these, of force, must your oblations be,
Since I their altar, you enpatron me.

" `O then advance of yours that phraseless hand,
Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise.
Take all these similes to your own command,
Hallowed with sighs that burning lungs did raise.
What me your minister, for you obeys,
Works under you, and to your audit comes
Their distract parcels in combined sums.

" `Lo, this device was sent me from a nun,
A sister sanctified, of holiest note,
Which late her noble suit in court did shun,
Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;
For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,
But kept cold distance, and did thence remove
To spend her living in eternal love.

" `But, O my sweet, what labour is't to leave
The thing we have not, mast'ring what not strives,
Planing the place which did no form receive,
Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves!
She that her fame so to herself contrives,
The scars of battle scapeth by the flight,
And makes her absence valiant, not her might.

" `O pardon me, in that my boast is true!
The accident which brought me to her eye
Upon the moment did her force subdue,
And now she would the caged cloister fly:
Religious love put out religion's eye.
Not to be tempted, would she be immured,
And now to tempt, all liberty procured.

" `How mighty then you are, O hear me tell!
The broken bosoms that to me belong
Have emptied all their fountains in my well,
And mine I pour your ocean all among.
I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,
Must for your victory us all congest,
As compound love to physic your cold breast.

" `My parts had power to charm a sacred nun,
Who, disciplined, ay, dieted in grace,
Believed her eyes when they t'assail begun,
All vows and consecrations giving place.
O most potential love! -vow, bond, nor space,
In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,
For thou art all, and all things else are thine.

" `When thou impressest, what are precepts worth
Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,
How coldly those impediments stand forth,
Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!
Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst shame;
And sweetens, in the suff'ring pangs it bears,
The aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears.

" `Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,
Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine,
And supplicant their sighs to you extend,
To leave the batt'ry that you make 'gainst mine,
Lending soft audience to my sweet design,
And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath
That shall prefer and undertake my troth.'

"This said, his wat'ry eyes he did dismount,
Whose sights till then were levelled on my face;
Each cheek a river running from a fount
With brinish current downward flowed apace.
O how the channel to the stream gave grace!
Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses
That flame through water which their hue encloses.

"O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
In the small orb of one particular tear!
But with the inundation of the eyes
What rocky heart to water will not wear?
What breast so cold that is not warmed here?
O cleft effect! Cold modesty, hot wrath,
Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.

"For lo, his passion, but an art of craft,
Even there resolved my reason into tears;
There my white stole of chastity I daffed,
Shook off my sober guards and civil fears;
Appear to him as he to me appears,
All melting; though our drops this diff'rence bore:
His poisoned me, and mine did him restore.

"In him a plenitude of subtle matter,
Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,
Of burning blushes or of weeping water,
Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,
In either's aptness, as it best deceives,
To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,
Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows,

"That not a heart which in his level came
Could scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,
Showing fair nature is both kind and tame;
And, veiled in them, did win whom he would maim.
Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;
When he most burned in heart-wished luxury
He preached pure maid and praised cold chastity.

"Thus merely with the garment of a grace
The naked and concealed fiend he covered,
That th'unexperient gave the tempter place,
Which like a cherubin above them hovered.
Who, young and simple, would not be so lovered?
Ay me, I fell; and yet do question make
What I should do again for such a sake.

"O, that infected moisture of his eye,
O, that false fire which in his cheek so glowed,
O, that forced thunder from his heart did fly,
O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestowed,
O, all that borrowed motion, seeming owed,
Would yet again betray the fore-betrayed,
And new pervert a reconciled maid."

William Shakespeare

2006-02-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

William Shakespeare
1564 - 1616

English poet and dramatist. His plays were performed rather than published so it is difficult to know the order they were written in. It seems likely that the Henry VI plays came first (late 1580s). The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors and Love's Labour's Lost are all thought to be 1595, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice were both printed in 1600, Othello (1604), King Lear seems to date from 1605, Macbeth from 1606, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest all probably 1611. The Sonnets were written in the mid-1590s but appeared only in 1609.

Shakespeare is seen as the greatest English dramatist of all time and his work has influenced generations of later artists of all sorts.

Phoenix and the Turtle, The
by William Shakespeare

Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou shrieking harbinger,
Foul precurrer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near!

From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feathered king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead,
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.

So they loved as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none;
Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt this turtle and his queen;
But in them it were a wonder.

So between them love did shine
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight;
Either was the other's mine.

Property was thus appalled,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was called.

Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together,
To themselves yet either neither;
Simple were so well compounded;

That it cried, "How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain."

Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supremes and stars of love,
As chorus to their tragic scene.

Threnos

Beauty, truth, and rarity
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclosed in cinders lie.

Death is now the phoenix' nest;
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,

Leaving no posterity
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.

Truth may seem, but cannot be;
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she:
Truth and Beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

Lost Love Poems

2006-02-17T12:38:00.000-08:00

Love is a Universal emotion, the goal we all seek, the prize that can make our lives complete and whole. Love is both timeless and, in too many instances, transient. These poems are about those times.

We all believe, if only because we must, that love can be found. Some of us - maybe most of us - have discovered it can also be lost.

Slow Tears
by Martini

I look up
as a tear rolls slowly
down my cheek
I think about better days
and wonder if I'll feel that way again
you look at me
with those eyes I know so well
always serious, so deep and insightful
as though you're always in control
But not today
not now
Now you look so scared
like for once you don't have the answer
I gaze at you
looking deep into those hazel eyes
Hoping to understand
why you've said those things you did
I wonder for a moment
if this is all a dream
if I shall wake in the morning
and be relieved
you look at me
with a confusion I have never seen
slowly pull me towards you
and wipe the tears from my cheek

Seek Not My Heart
by Kit McCallum

Oh gentle winds 'neath moonlit skies,
Do not you hear my heartfelt cries?

Below the branches, here about,
Do not you sense my fear and doubt?
Side glistening rivers, sparkling streams,
Do not you hear my woeful screams?

Upon the meadows, touched with dew,
Do not you see my hearts a'skew?
Beneath the thousand twinkling stars,
Do not you feel my jagged scars?

Seek not my mournful heart kind breeze,
For you'll not find it 'mongst these trees.

It's scattered 'cross the moonlit skies,
Accompanied by heartfelt sighs.
It's drifting o're the gentle rain,
A symbol of my silent pain.

It's buried 'neath the meadow fair,
Conjoined with all the sorrow there.
It's lost among the stars this night,
Too far to ease my quiet fright.

No gentle winds, seek not my heart,
For simply ... it has torn apart.

Our Love
by jenawin

our love is a
wasteland
of
promises in vain

of past
of present
of future
nothing

rotting
quietly
in my palms

My Love Left On A Saturday
by Michael Perez

My belt loosens slowly.
Reminders of you stay fresh
in murky ponds of suffocating tadpoles.
Wake me in the morning,
when the sun shines again.
It's frightening when all I know
falls apart.
And all I know is you.
Hunger squeezes me tighter.
My soul sags with exhaustion.
Ashtrays fill with sleepless nights.
Weeping intensifies my anxiety.
Can tomorrow come without you...
here today?
The cheap chandelier falls on my face.
The rose filled lamp explodes in my hands.
Pain is unrecognizable.
All I knew was you.
You.
My love.

To My Valentine
by Saxoness

Once upon
A time
There was
Truth to the
Myth of what
You
And I
Had found
In a blank paged
Fairy tale.

Snow White
Doesn't sleep
In a casket made of
Glass
Slippers will break
If you wear them.

Walk across this
Written word
With fingers
Gently
Seeking
Loving
You
And me
No more.

He loves
Me
He loves me!
Not
Enough.

To:
My Valentine
Will you
Be mine
No longer . . .

Imagination
by Stymie63

Locked in my cage, I stare at the emptiness;
this very emptiness possesses my soul -
we are one.

The months pass, as do the years,
yet as time progresses, it loses all relevance.
I sit here trapped in a recurring nightmare, never to awaken.
I feed on my own self-pity -
I never hunger. I merely exist,
captive in this asylum, biding my time;
my sole gratification, inebriated isolation.

The door to my cage is ajar, as is often the case,
yet it's pointless to leave;
each journey leads me back
to this God-forsaken realm of suffering and despair.

Long ago, I was free;
I remember faces, smiling faces.
A different me, in a different time -
it was a time of fulfillment, of togetherness, of love.
Then one day the fantasy ended, and I was here . . .
but enough about the past; I must face my reality.

Distant voices race through my head,
as I stave off insanity.
But this time, the voice is real.
Unsure of its origin, I feel my soul is not as cold; my burden lighter.
Though I smile, I soon shiver in frustration.
Tears stream down my cheeks,
as I cannot deny that the other voice is my own,
as my rationality succumbs to my imagination.

Alone
by Moondust

Purity once had a name,
And beauty once had a face.
Life once had a meaning,
And once I was safe.
Once there was freedom,
And once I could laugh.
Happiness once was alive,
And once I had another half.
Once I shared her love,
Once I was by her side,
Once I felt I fitted,
So quickly that died.
Her grace so great,
Her beauty so vast,
All I ever wanted,
Was for it to last.
Fate maybe had another plan,
Or maybe she had another love,
But it all fell apart,
The hand too big for the glove.
Now it's all died away,
Happiness, joy, love; all memories.
Now I walk alone in this dark, dark world,
With no light to guide my way.

Cyber Romance Poems

2006-02-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

The Internet is more than a cooperation of computers. It's a cooperation between people. And where people meet, even anonymously, it seems that Romance and Love will enter the equation as well.

If you're like me, you probably think falling in love over a modem is unusual and perhaps even rare. But, like me, you would be wrong. Perhaps the very nature of a web site devoted to poetry brings these couples to the fore, but I have been amazed at the number of people I've met through Passions that have found their significant other on-line. Some have met through email, some through chat or forums, some through personal ads. All have found a connection, that elusive thing that binds them to another human being.

Where R U On ICQ
by Tekkobra

Upon this line I found you,
on a little proggie called ICQ,

this ocean called the internet,
you threw me an electronic net.

now you have me and what r you to do?
will you keep me locked away in ICQ?

braving the dangers and the threat,
will I c u is that what u choose?

or will I remain just a name,
and you hidden from me just the same.

Can we realize such a dream,
or always disconnect so safe, so clean...

Scrolling
by Mas-ash

Was it the words that made me think about him all night
or was it the smile that he brought to my face when I saw the E- Mail
message that seem to shine so bright.

Yes I feel so confused, How could it be?
He stole my Heart away with the stroke of his computer keys.
We chat, we talk its just not the same, there should be no reason I get so
excited when I see his chat name.
We are in a private room, designed for two, sometimes I think they
designed one especially for me and you.
We are chatting for hours when I realize, oops, I'm on the computer, I was
lost there for a while, but His words they really make me smile.

Communications is the key to unlock my heart,
It's funny the computer has enable to get thus far.
Cyber space is strange and that is true,
But guess what - It Scrolled My Heart a Road Directly to you

Love On The Internet
by Dove

Though I wasn't looking for anyone new,
One day I got e- mail and in it was you.
Charming, sensitive and so debonair,
I strongly resisted it go anywhere.

But letters and stories captured my heart,
Filled me with passion almost from the start.
Love on the Internet, how could it be?
These things just don't happen to people like me.

But doves and butterflies flew into our lives,
Carrying messages we could not deny.
Each person has meaning and love to express,
And we could deny our hearts nothing less.

It's a beautiful love that has grown between us,
Something beyond any words we discuss.
Much deeper than LOL, cyber kisses and such,
Far down to our souls, beyond human touch.

My love's not confined by what it can see,
I feel you, I taste you, I experience your dream.
Close my eyes, and I envision what in my heart I can hear,
"Love knows no boundaries, no distance, no fear."

It's the soul that captures God's love in a way
That eternally melts hearts together to stay.
Fused and sealed forever as one,
Love has its way and new life is begun.

Every Night
by Michelle

Every night, when I lay me down to sleep,
I want to reach over, to feel your lips so sweet.
Although I know I cannot be there,
You will always keep me from having any fear.

The sheets are very cold;
I feel like I'm in a huge hole.
What if we never meet?
Would my life be any better yet?

I long for the day we lock eyes;
I want you to be surprised.
As much as you may imagine what I'll be,
I can only be me.

So every night, when I lay me down to sleep,
You are in my mind with me.
And right before I fall asleep,
I wish upon that star for you to be with me.

Meeting Half Way
by Hope

Your message came through to me
It said please meet me half way
Its just what you have dreamed of
I have found us a place to stay

It's a snug cozy country cottage
So serene in the morning mist
The more I read the message
I now knew I could not resist

Nothing more now need be said
Message all read , I had to depart
You have captured my sweetest dream
You're like a magnet within my heart

There you held roses at the gate
Then you poured the sweetest wine
Fulfilling promises we had made
As your body enfolded mine

Roses scattered in pink and red
On the bed you lay next to me
Yearnings and dreams we have had
Now our passions were flowing free

Morning awakened in your arms
We glanced the first light of day
Thanked you for fulfilling my dreams
We must meet more often half way

In The Shadows
by Asil Nomrah

In the shadows, emotion provides
Moonlight - illumination for a larger world
(Population: 2)
Side by side
Split - apart
Reuniting
Despite jealous daytime gods

Lips touch mine in the shadows
Touches flow across the stream
Data bubbles caress my nerve endings
Like a million tiny kisses
Vibrating neuron pathways
A fiery display of colored lights
The firmament of my skull
My flesh grows insubstantial and seeks
The Maestro of this interplay
His spacious reach a sanctuary
And release in this corporeal prison
I am putty, a doll, in his arms

My shadow Maestro
Conductor in this symphony
Of passion play
"Every woman" the conduit
For his extraordinary power
Calling forth primal urges
with modern alchemical implements

Joining across the ages
Past and Present
Pain and Love
Side by side
Split - apart
Reuniting
In the shadows

Stretch Forth Your Hand
by Sandy

Stretch forth your hand and hold to mine
as through this fog we go.
Endless as night in a borrowed dream
of one lost and deep in sorrow...

I see you not and I hear not your voice,
and yet I feel you so nearby.
It's just a dream - yes, always a dream -
unreachable for even you and I...

I know that I shall never know
why I met you this way.
Carrying this cross of burden along
knowing that here alone I must stay...

I cannot know, nor ever will see
why this path I know I need walk.
Without you here by my side to touch
and never given the chance to talk...

I close my eyes now and try to see
the reason why you have been.
A burning fire, an unquenchable desire
and so much more than just a friend...

A weight of pure sadness presses my soul
and tears flow where I cannot see.
For what I've so wanted and couldn't have
and what I knew never could be...

It was you who would visit my dreams
and you were unreachable for me then.
I was but a small child when I saw you,
but I knew I'd find you, my friend...

I was so sure when I was young that
when I did find you you'd be mine.
The thought never did enter my mind
that it would come too late in time...

I sit here with tears and
cannot think quite clear of what I
wanted to say. I just want you to know
that I never did doubt,
Yes... That I would find you again
Someday...

adapted from: http://www.netpoets.com

Love Poems

2006-02-15T13:23:00.000-08:00

What is a love poem? Is it necessarily a poem about romantic love? About romance? Marriage and commitment? Or is a love poem something else entirely?

In a recent short story I wrote, a writer is told by a young critic that he doesn't understand love. "It's neither noble nor eternal, as you would have your audience believe," she says.

"Nobody understands love," the writer admits. "It seems to be Universal. Timeless. Yet, it's also very individual, filtered by our own lives and expectations. I don't understand love, and can't understand love, because it's a different thing for each of us."

These love poems are Universal. Timeless. And yet very much a different thing for each of us. We hope you enjoy them...

Can You See It In My Eyes?
by Sandy Fioretti

You don't know how I'm feeling.
I have yet to vocalize
Desire deep inside me.
Can you see it in my eyes?

I tremble when I'm near you
Heat travels up my thighs
and I want you with an urgency
That I just can't describe.

Dare I reach out to touch you?
Do you think you'd realize
How much I want and need you?
Can you see it in my eyes?

I long to say, "I love you,"
But am scared of your reply.
Terrified like a child
I've become paralyzed.

The camouflaged emotions
Lead to pain and silent cries.
And yet I just can't tell you.
Don't you see it in my eyes?

Confessing through this poem
My dilemma summarized.
The feeling's quite cathartic,
But will lead to my demise.

My Love
by Missy Anderson

Staring at a blank screen
waiting for your arrival
but you never come.
How could you leave me like this
alone in a world so cold
You told me you loved me with all your heart
I should have known from the very start
that our love would come to a bitter end.
I will remain waiting for you, though,
staring through my teary eyes
and hoping for an I.M. that will never come
knowing that I am just a figment from your past
and that this is really the end.

My Heart Believes In You
by Stewart Bradshaw

I kept my head up high,
and then you came my way.
I have been hurt so many times.
My heart filled with so much pain.
but now that pain has gone away.
For I have found a place I want to be.
This place I see is with thee.
For in your arms I have felt and seen,
a wonderful feeling that I cannot believe.
A safe haven in your arms just for me.
Now I give my heart to thee.
For my heart believes in you.

My Angel
by Boardman

There was a short time in my life
When my problems were more than my ex-wife
When all of a sudden this angel popped in
It was love at first site you could tell by my grin

Her hair was as golden as the brightest summer sun
For a while there, I was actually having fun
Her eyes were as blue as the purest blue ocean
And comfortable I was even without any motion

My Angel, I wanted to keep her

When we were together I had no more pain
Her beauty was breathtaking please let me explain
With her in my arms I melted like ice
She was gorgeous and smart and incredibly nice

Well now that you know the way that I felt
Let me tell you about the hand I was dealt
She came with her friend who was not even dating
And then she flew home to her boyfriend who was waiting

My Angel, I wanted to keep her
Oh Well!

To My Best Friend?
by Shannbodan

This is for the greatest person
that I have ever known.
Being away from you for so long
I am feeling so alone.
With you I am so happy
you keep my heart content.
But I had to be a volunteer -
so off to England I went.
That is where I found my heart
and how I feel for you.
I try so hard to deny this feeling
and I don't know what to do.
I said that I would never again
let someone take my heart.
And here I'm sitting wanting you
and hate that we're apart.
Everyday you are in my thoughts,
every night you're in my dreams.
I can't believe what's happening,
is this really what it seems?
I know you're only wanting
to be the best of friends,
but I am asking you sincerely
if it's your rule you'll bend.
To take a chance to know me
to let me share it all.
And maybe one day very soon
for me one day you'll fall.
Our friendship we now have
is something that I'd miss
but maybe once we let go
we will find eternal bliss.

5 Ways to Make Your Lust Last

2006-02-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

5 Ways to Make Your Lust Last

By Laura Snyder

Much as we love hot, quick have-to-have-you-now nookie, the trend we'd really like to inspire is for more all-night marathon sex.

If you're all for jumping on that particular bandwagon, here are 5 ways to try tonight.

Make it Last Move #1: Prolong the Preliminaries.

Foreplay should almost certainly last longer than it takes to unzip your pants. If your usual carnal customs are a kiss here, a grope there and then moving right on to the main attraction, try letting a little expectation build with some extended foreplay.

Make it Last Move #2: Mix Up Your Moves

Marathon coupling means more time to try new positions. And you'll need those breaks in the action give your bodies the breather necessary to stay on simmer, instead of boiling over. So next time the finish line is fast approaching, stop and do something else. Halt mid-coitus for a little light massage or pause to lock eyes and share a sexy grin. Then resume. There's a bonus: taking a break from the action, you'll add to the anticipation, leading to a more explosive finale.

Make it Last Move #3: Tame the Tempo

It's a reality you know all too well. The more rapid-fire he's reacting, the faster he'll finish. Ladies, take the opportunity to control his acceleration, but either taking a more active pace-setting position (where you're in control), or steady his rhythm into slowing down.

Make it Last Move #4: Try More Touches

Every time you introduce a new sensation - a nibble, a tickle, a quick squeeze - you create a tiny climax-delaying pause while your body adjusts to the novel feeling. Make sure in your effort to last longer, guys, that you don't deliberately leave out your member. Trying to delay your orgasm by ignoring your equipment will backfire, since all that inattention will make you more reactive when you do get touched. So, get your girl to prep you for lasting action with some mild attention to that pleasure center.

Make it Last Move #5: Take Turns

Sex shouldn't be goal-oriented, so if you're focused too much on slowing him down, or speeding her up, change the pace a bit to relieve the performance pressure. Don't lose sight of the real goal...being together.

The Science of Flirting

2006-02-14T13:51:00.000-08:00

There are certain things you can do that might help your date go with a bang - and turn into something more serious.

Ditch the chat up lines

It can take between 90 seconds and 4 minutes to decide if we fancy someone. But this has little to do with your smooth-talking. As far as attraction goes, here's how we get the message:

55% is through body language

38% is the tone and speed of our voice

Only 7% is through what we say

Stare into each others' eyes

New York psychologist, Professor Arthur Arun, has been studying the dynamics of what happens when people fall in love. He has shown that the simple act of staring into each other's eyes has a powerful impact.

He asked two complete strangers to reveal to each other intimate details about their lives. This carried on for an hour and a half. The two strangers were then made to stare into each others eyes without talking for four minutes. Afterwards many of his couples confessed to feeling deeply attracted to their opposite number and two of his subjects even married afterwards.

When we are aroused and interested in what we are looking at our pupils dilate. In medieval Italy, women put belladonna into their eyes to make them look bigger. In fact, bella donna means 'beautiful lady'. However, this is not recommended, as belladonna is a kind of poison!

Match their moves

When people are attracted to each other, they tend to sit or stand in the same way and copy each other's physical gestures. This is known as 'mirroring'. When someone does this, it marks good communication and shows us that our interest is reciprocated. Mirroring also happens when talking to close friends as well as potential lovers, so be careful as you may misread signs of friendship as signs of love.

Don't play hard to get

Research suggest that playing hard to get doesn't usually work. However, there is a theory that we tend to fancy people who are hard to get for everyone else, but easy for us to get.

Scientists tested this 'selective difficulty' theory by using a computer dating experiment. One woman was keen to meet any of the dates that the computer selected for her. Another played hard to get and wasn't enthusiastic towards any of her computer matches. A third was selective and only showed interest in one of the candidates. Out of all three women, the choosy woman was the most preferred by all the male participants.

Understanding lonely hearts ads

If you wrote a lonely hearts ad, what would it say about you? Does the opposite sex find you more attractive if you describe yourself as sexy or successful, or wealthy or reliable?

Discover the science behind the ads by taking our lonely hearts test.

Be dangerous

Another experiment showed that if people experience fear on a date they often misinterpret that feeling as love. So dates at a theme park are likely to be successful. A bungee jump might seal your relationship for life!

In fact, people who both like the same level of thrills and excitement are more likely to be compatible.

Take our test on sensation seeking and see how your score relates to that of your part

What Makes You Fancy Someone?

2006-02-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

Appearance could be another indicator of the quality of a person's genes. Research suggests that there are certain things we all look for - even if we don't know it.

Perfect symmetry

It is thought that asymmetrical features are a sign of underlying genetic problems. Numerous studies in humans have shown that men in particular go for women with symmetrical faces. The preference in women for symmetry is not quite so pronounced. Women are also looking for a man's ability to offer food and protection. This might not be indicated in their genes, but in their rank and status, for example.

The hour-glass figure

Studies have shown that men prefer women with a waist to hip ratio of 0.7. You can calculate your own using this formula:waist measurement ÷ hip measurement = ratio.

This seems to apply whatever the woman's overall weight. A group of researchers even compared this ratio with the average ratio of Miss America winners over the years. It was exactly the same. This ratio would seem to make sense as an indicator of a woman's reproductive health. When women age their waist tends to become less pronounced as they put on fat around the stomach. This coincides with them becoming less fertile.

Learn to love yourself

Have you noticed how many married couples look quite similar? Studies have shown that more than anything we prefer somebody who looks just like we do. From a batch of individual photographs people can spot who are the couples with unnerving reliability.

Try our Match-making quiz and give it a go!
Research has uncovered that there is a correlation in couples between their:

Lung volumes

Middle finger lengths

Ear lobe lengths

Overall ear size

Neck and wrist circumferences

Metabolic rates

Mummy's boys and Daddy's girls?
The latest studies indicate that what people really, really want is a mate that looks like their parents. Women are after a man who is like their father and men want to be able to see their own mother in the woman of their dreams.

At the University of St Andrews in Scotland, cognitive psychologist David Perrett studies what makes faces attractive. He has developed a computerised morphing system that can endlessly adjust faces to suit his needs.

Students in his experiments are left to decide which face they fancy the most. Perrett has taken images of students' own faces and morphed them into the opposite sex. Of all the faces on offer, this seems to be the face that subject will always prefer. They can't recognize it as their own, they just know they like it.

Perrett suggests that we find our own faces attractive because they remind us of the faces we looked at constantly in our early childhood years - Mum and Dad. Even the pheromone studies are now showing a preference for our parents' characteristics.

Examine your ability to read faces and to find your perfect mate by taking our face perception test, developed by Professor David Perrett.

Will it last?
Unfortunately there's no way of telling for certain if a relationship will last. But there might be some clues in your partner's family!

In studies of behavioral genetics it has been shown that a person's tendency to divorce is written in their genes. When scientists studied identical twins, they found that whatever their degree of marriage success was, they shared it with their sibling. Men who went through multiple marriages were highly likely to have a twin brother who did the same.

The numbers game
Perhaps the best indication as to whether your love will last come from statistical studies. Researchers have come up with several predictors for success. This is based on how you met and when, how you resolve conflict and how similar you and your expectations are.

Judge Relaxes Courtney Love's Sentence, Lets Her Leave Treatment Facility

2006-02-12T02:41:00.000-08:00

Judge Relaxes Courtney Love's Sentence, Lets Her Leave Treatment Facility
11.18.2005
Singer is allowed to do time in outpatient program.

Courtney Love
Photo: Frank Micelotta/ Getty Images

CoCourtney Love's made so much progress in her rehab stint that a Los Angeles judge relaxed the terms of her sentence a little bit on Friday (November 18). The singer is now allowed to do her time in an outpatient program instead of a residential treatment facility.

Love was sent away for a six-month sentence in September as punishment for having violated her probation when a drug-related incident sent her to the hospital in July (see "Courtney Love Ordered Back To Rehab For Six Months"). Judge Rand Rubin told Love at the time that he had been planning to send her to jail but decided that treatment would be a better option.

Even though Love's sentence is relaxed, she still faces certain restrictions. She's allowed to be at home but can only leave for limited, court-approved reasons, such as going to work, continuing her counseling sessions (three AA meetings a week), completing the terms of her community service and attending matters regarding her daughter's school. She was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and so far has completed just over half that (56 hours). Love also has a curfew — she's not allowed to be out past 10 p.m. And she's to continue to submit to random drug tests.

Love's spent her time in rehab writing new music that she's calling "The Rehab Demos." According to an interview she gave to U.K. newspaper The Guardian, Love's written eight new songs using a Martin acoustic guitar that producer Linda Perry gave her six weeks ago. Song titles include "The Depths of My Despair," "My Bedroom Walls," "Sad But True" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean."

"I've had nothing but time in here," she told The Guardian. "There's not a lot of activities. You have to make your own fun, and my fun is my guitar, so I'm down to it and I have to really question what it is I do for a living. Primarily I do two things: I act and I sing, and if I don't do those things well, then I don't know what my objective is."

During her forced isolation, Love's also lost weight, tried to quit smoking and tried to stop relying on prescription drugs. "Being fat is one of the worst things that ever happened to me," she said. "I was taking one particular [prescription] drug, which is supposed to calm you down. The side effect was it put 40 pounds on me in a matter of eight weeks. I just got fat and I couldn't work."

Love has also returned to Buddhism to help her get through this period of her life.

"That's the trick. That's the ticket," she said. "When I was 24, I was a Buddhist, and that was responsible for the success of Hole in the first place and [helped] after Kurt [Cobain] died. Right around the time I did 'The People vs. Larry Flynt,' I started chanting and then I stopped. This is the third time I've really committed myself. I really got pushed to the wall and I realized that I have to discover this tract of Buddhism to rediscover myself."

Love's probation violation stems from three cases, two of which she struck plea agreements (see "Courtney Resolves Assault, Possession Cases With Plea Deal"). The cases involved charges of assault with a deadly weapon (which was reduced to misdemeanor assault with three years of probation), two felony counts of illegal possession of prescription painkillers (which was reduced to one misdemeanor count of possession of a forged or altered narcotic prescription with more probation), and being under the influence of those same prescription painkillers (for which she received a sentence of 18 months of drug treatment a year ago).

Love is due back in court for another progress report on January 20.

— Jennifer Vineyard

Love Poems

2006-02-11T09:30:00.000-08:00

A Special World

A special world for you and me
A special bond one cannot see
It wraps us up in its cocoon
And holds us fiercely in its womb.

Its fingers spread like fine spun gold
Gently nestling us to the fold
Like silken thread it holds us fast
Bonds like this are meant to last.

And though at times a thread may break
A new one forms in its wake
To bind us closer and keep us strong
In a special world, where we belong.

- Sheelagh Lennon -

An Entrapment

My love, I have tried with all my being
to grasp a form comparable to thine own,
but nothing seems worthy;

I know now why Shakespeare could not
compare his love to a summer’s day.
It would be a crime to denounce the beauty
of such a creature as thee,
to simply cast away the precision
God had placed in forging you.

Each facet of your being
whether it physical or spiritual
is an ensnarement
from which there is no release.
But I do not wish release.
I wish to stay entrapped forever.
With you for all eternity.
Our hearts, always as one.

- Anthony Kolos -

If I could have just one wish,
I would wish to wake up everyday
to the sound of your breath on my neck,
the warmth of your lips on my cheek,
the touch of your fingers on my skin,
and the feel of your heart beating with mine...
Knowing that I could never find that feeling
with anyone other than you.

- Courtney Kuchta -

What I Love About You

I love the way you look at me,
Your eyes so bright and blue.
I love the way you kiss me,
Your lips so soft and smooth.

I love the way you make me so happy,
And the ways you show you care.
I love the way you say, "I Love You,"
And the way you're always there.

I love the way you touch me,
Always sending chills down my spine.
I love that you are with me,
And glad that you are mine.

- Crystal Jansen -

Next.... http://www.lovepoemsandquotes.com/LovePoem05.html

I Love You

2006-02-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

"I Love You" in Different Languages

Afrikaans :
Ek is lief vir jou
Ek het jou lief
Albanian :
Te dua
Amharic :
Afekrishalehou
Arabic :
Ana Behibak (to a male)
Ana Behibek (to a female)
Basc :
Nere Maitea
Bavarian :
I mog di narrisch gern
Bengali :
Ami tomAy bhAlobAshi
Berber :
Lakh tirikh
Bicol :
Namumutan ta ka
Bulgarian :
Obicham te
Cambodian :
kh_nhaum soro_lahn nhee_ah
Bon sro lanh oon
Cantonese :
Ngo oi ney
Catalan :
T'estim (mallorcan)
T'estime (valencian)
T'estimo (catalonian)
T'estim molt (I love you a lot)
Chinese :
Wo ie ni (Manderin, Cantonese)
Croatian :
Volim te (most common), or
Ja te volim (less common)
Czech :
miluji te
Danish :
Jeg elsker dig
Dutch :
Ik hou van jou
Estonian :
Mina armastan sind
Esperanto :
Mi amas vin
Persian (Farsi) :
Tora dust midaram
Flemish :
Ik zie oe geerne
Finnish :
Mina" rakastan sinua
French :
Je t'aime
Friesian :
Ik bin fereale op dy
Ik ha^ld fan dy (Most commonly used phrase) (the ^ is above the a)
Gaelic :
Ta gra agam ort
German :
Ich liebe Dich
I mog Di ganz arg! (Suebian: South German dialekt.)
Greek :
S' ayapo
Gujarati
(a dialect of India)
"Tane Prem Karoo Choo"
Hausa :
Ina sonki
Hebrew :
aNEE oHEIVET oTKHA (female to male)
aNEE oHEIV otAKH (male to female)
Ani ohev at (man to woman)
Ani ohevet atah (woman to man)
Hindi:
Mein Tumse Pyar Karta Hoon
Hokkien :
Wa ai lu
Hopi :
Nu' umi unangwa'ta
Hungarian :
Szeretlek te'ged
Icelandic :
?g elska ßig
Indonesian :
Saya cinta padamu
Saya Cinta Kamu
Aku tjinta padamu
Saja kasih saudari
Italian :
Ti amo
Irish :
taim i' ngra leat
Japanese :
Kimi o ai shiteru
Kazakh :
Men seny jaksy kuremyn
Kiswahili :
Nakupenda
Korean :
Tangsinul sarang ha yo
Kurdish :
Ez te hezdikhem
Latin :
Te amo
Vos amo
Lao :
Khoi huk chau
Latvian :
Es Tev milu
Lingala :
Nalingi yo
Lithuanian:
Ash miliu tave
Luo :
Aheri
Madrid lingo :
Me molas, tronca
Malay/Indonesian :
Saya cintakan awak(awak=kamu=you)
Aku sayang engkau (engkau=kamu=you)
Malay :
Saya cintamu
Saya sayangmu
Maltese:
Inhobbok!
(Added by Christine )
Mandarin :
Wo ai ni
Mohawk :
Konoronhkwa
Navajo :
Ayor anosh'ni
Ndebele :
Niyakutanda
Norwegian :
Jeg elsker deg (Bokmaal)
Eg elskar deg (Nynorsk)
Pakistani :
Muje se mu habbat hai
Persian :
Tora dost daram
Pilipino :
Mahal Kita
Iniibig Kita
Polish :
Ja Cie Kocham or Kocham Cie (Pronounced Yacha kocham)
Portuguese :
Eu te amo
Romanian :
Te iu besc
Russian :
Ya lyublyu tebya
Ya vas lyublyu
Scot Gaelic :
Tha gra\dh agam ort
Serbian :
Volim te (most common), or
Ja te volim" (less common)
Shona :
Ndinokuda
Sioux :
Techihhila
Slovak :
lubim ta
Slovene :
ljubim te (??????)
Spanish :
Te amo
Swahili :
Nakupenda
Swedish :
Jag a"lskar dig
Swiss-German :
Ch'ha di ga"rn
Tagalog :
Mahal kita
Taiwanese :
Gwa ai lee
Tamil
Naan Unnai Kadhalikiren (Entry by krishna connexions@theoffice.net)
Thai :
Phom Rak Khun
Ch'an Rak Khun
Tunisian :
Ha eh bak
Turkish :
Seni seviyorum!
Urdu :
Mujhe tumse muhabbat hai (Entry by Magsemail@aol.com)
Vietnamese :
Anh ye^u em (man to woman)
Em ye^u anh (woman to man)
Toi yeu em
Vlaams :
Ik hou van jou
Welsh :
'Rwy'n dy garu di.
Yr wyf i yn dy garu di (chwi)
Yiddish :
Ikh hob dikh lib
Zazi :
Ezhele hezdege (sp?)
Zuni :
Tom ho' ichema

*Bicol       ->  Philipin dialect
*Ndebele     ->  Zimbabwe
*Vlaams      ->  Belgian Dutch
*Zazi        ->  Kurdic dialect
*
*Shona       ->  Zimbabwe
*Luo         ->  Kenya
*a"          ->  a with umlaut
*e^          ->  ^ above e



Not/P.S.  1998 ve 1999
Yillarinda yollanmis olan bir cok mesaj bir disk hatasi sonucu kaybedilmistir...  
A number of messages from 1998 and 1999 were lost due to a disk crash.

William Shakespeare

2006-02-08T19:20:00.000-08:00

In the movie Shakespeare in Love, a young and promising William Shakespeare is finding it difficult to write a new play. He feels he has lost his gift for stringing together eloquent sentences and yearns for some sort of inspiration to rid him of his horrible writer's block. William then meets the lovely and royal Viola, who is craving to be an actress. She becomes his muse, as well as the lead `actor' in his new play Romeo and Juliet, as they weave a tangled love affair. This burning passion they feel can only end with separation when Viola is forced to marry Lord Wessex and move to America. This film is a wonderful combination of romance, comedy, and drama that attempts a new perspective of the classic Romeo and Juliet story. It employs clever dialogue, beautiful scenes, and wonderful characterization to entertain the viewer. The film's Renaissance dialogue is true to its time period. With such an excellent script, William comes across as the master of speech that he really is. Some parts of the movie are purely funny as almost to parody the seriousness of Romeo and Juliet. Other parts intertwine the actual lines from the play, such as the multiple bedroom scenes between Will and Viola, to provide a unique and obvious parallel between it and the movie. When Will quotes `Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' to Viola, this provides not only a sentimental scene but actual words from Shakespeare to add to the historical content of this film. This film has an interesting twist on the tragic tale because Will becomes not just a writer pouring out the lines for pay, but a man pouring out his heart in true love. At the end of the movie, Romeo and Juliet is presented as though you were actually sitting on the dirt floor of the playhouse. You see the play through the eyes of a person in England during the late 1500's, except by this time the lead is not longer Romeo and Juliet but literarily and symbolically Will and Viola. The setting of this film is very well done, and the playhouses, taverns, and elegant houses convey the feeling of Renaissance England. The costumes, including Queen Elizabeth's glamorous dresses and Viola's body-shaping corset, are seemingly accurate. (I would have hated wearing those clothes!) The scenes between Will and Viola are rarely anything but love scenes, and they, like their counterpart scenes in Romeo and Juliet, mostly happen at night. This adds to the mystery and forbidden feeling of the movie. The characterization of this film was splendidly carried out. I could not help but fall in love with the beautiful emotion that gushed from Will and Viola ( Will is extremely good looking by the way). When the couple was separated in the end, I felt like a terrible wrong had been committed. The character of Queen Elizabeth, with her snide comments and all-knowing attitude, was a comical representation of a serious position that kept me completely entertained. Christopher Marlowe also provides a wonderful character that conveys `real person' qualities of competition between two famous playwrights. I found this film to be completely engaging from start to finish, but I would not recommend it to everyone. I believe it could truly be given the title of `chick flick' by some viewers despite its fight scenes and comedic devices. The viewer will gain a knowledge of the Renaissance period and its characteristics while also getting the feeling of knowing the great William Shakespeare, however inaccurate the description of Will may be. I feel that now I appreciate the play Romeo and Juliet with a new sense of understanding that can only come from looking at an old tale in a new light.

Love Words from Friends

2006-02-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

Jorge Luis Borges

To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.

Francis William Bourdillon

The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one, Yet the light of the bright world dies with the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies when love is done.

Ashleigh Brilliant

I could do without many things with no hardship--you are not one of them.

Rupert Brooke

A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years.
All the little emptiness of love.

Robert Browning

Outside are the storms and strangers: We - Oh, close, safe and warm sleep I and she, I and she . . .
Take away love, and our earth is a tomb.

La Bruyere

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.

Jerry Burton

Each morning as I awaken your the reason I smile, Your the reason I love.

Leo Buscaglia

Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love, you will find that you are left holding only yourself.

Amanda R. Byrd

Love is the language our hearts use to speak to one another. For you, my dear, my heart sings.

George Gordon Lord Byron

Alas! the love of women! it is known To be a lovely and fearful thing!
And I would hear yet once before I perish The voice which was my music--Speak to me!
In her first passion woman loves her lover, In all the others all she loves is love.
Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.

Elizabeth Cameron

When you like someone, you like them in spite of their faults. When you love someone, you love them with their faults.

Albert Camus

The desire for possession is insatiable, to such a point that it can survive even love itself. To love, therefore, is to sterilize the person one loves.

Alexis Carrel

The love of beauty in it's multiple forms is the noblest gift of the human cerebrum.

Migeul de Cervantes

She fights and vanquishes in me, and I live and breathe in her, and I have life and being.

Nicholas Chamfort

... what we love intensely or for a long time we are likely to bring within the citadel, and to assert as part of oneself.
Love is the exchange of two fantasies and the contact of two skins.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.

G.K. Chesterton

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.

Mary B. Coger

Love is a light that never dims Like the deepest passion is the ultimate sin

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All thoughts, all passions, all delights Whatever stirs this mortal frame All are but ministers of Love And feed his sacred flame.

Francis Ford Coppola

Love never dies. ("Bram Stroker's Dracula")

Corneille

Reason and love are sworn enemies.

Bryce Courtney

Love is an energy - it can neither be created nor destroyed. It just is and always will be, giving meaning to life and direction to goodness... Love will never die. (Celeste in "April Fools Day")

Debbie Crabtree

May your love soar on the wings of a dove in flight.

San Juan de la Cruz

Beloved, all that is harsh and difficult I want for myself, and all that is gentle and sweet for thee.

E.E. Cummings

Be of love (a little) more careful than of anything.
Sweet springtime is my time is your time is our time for springtime is love time and viva sweet love.

Luyen Dao

Love is the expression of simplicity in emotion, the unattainable longing that comes so unexpectedly, with great subtlety and bliss.

E. De Amicis

A woman is always a mystery: one must not be fooled by her face and her hearts inspiration.

Liciano De Crescenzo

We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other.

Thomas Dekker

Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, Smiles awake you when you rise. ("Patient Grissill")
O what a heaven is love! O what a hell!

Charles Dickens

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.

Emily Dickinson

Death is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.
Wild Nights! Wild Nights! were I with thee- Wild Nights would be our luxury-- Futile the winds to a heart in port, Gone with the compass-- Gone with the chart-- Rowing in Eden..Ah the Sea! Might I but moor-- Tonight in thee

Benjamin Disraeli

The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can never end.

John Donne

Come live with me, and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, With silken lines, and silver hooks. ("The Bait")
I am two fools, I know, For loving, and for saying so in Whining poetry.
Twice or thrice had I loved thee, Before I knew thy face or name; So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame, Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be. ("Air and Angels")

John Dryden

In pious times, ere priestcraft did begin, before polygamy was made a sin.
Pains of love be sweeter far Than all other pleasures are.

Wayne Dwyer

In any relationship in which two people become one, the end result is two half people.

Albert Einstein

Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.

T.S. Eliot

Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose-garden. My words echo Thus, in your mind. ("Four Quartets")

George Elliot

For what is love itself, for the one we love best?--an enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

All mankind love a lover.

Euripides

Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.

fortune cookie

Absence sharpens love, but presence strengthens it.

George Fox

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend forever.

Matthew K. Free

Two hearts are stronger than three, but only if you instill yours inside of me.

Erich Fromm

Immature love says: "I love you because I need you." Mature love says: "I need you because I love you."
In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two.
Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.

Robert Frost

Love is a irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.

John Fussle

love is painful that is true not to love is painful too; but there is a greater pain: to love and not be loved again

Benito Perez Galdos

I believe that if I should die, and you were to walk near my grave, from the very depths of the earth I would hear your footsteps.

Mahatma Gandhi

Where there is love there is life.

J. Gay

She who has never loved, has never lived.

Georgia

Love is a tickle around the heart that you can't scratch!

Rosemonde Gerard

For you see, each day I love you more, Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.

Love Sayings Part 2

2006-02-05T03:57:00.000-08:00

A good love is delicious because you can't get enough too soon.

A smile to put you on high... A kiss to set your soul alright...Would it be alright if I spent tonight being loved by you?

Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!

Don't forget to love yourself.

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much.

I see you in every passing face

I'll love you till the cows come home.

If love were a movie, you'd be a box office hit!

It's a rainy day when you're not around

Let love be your greatest aim.

Life is the flower for which love is the honey.

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.

Love is the master key which opens the gates of happiness.

Love is to think about someone else more times in a day than you think about yourself.

Love makes everything lovely.

Love makes life so confusing but without love would you want to live?

Love teaches even asses to dance.

Love without return is like a question without an answer

Love your enemies. It really pisses them off!

Love: Two minds without a single thought.

Lovers, like bees, lead a honey-sweet life.

sex & relationships

2006-02-05T03:54:00.000-08:00

I love you, I think
say it too soon and you're a loser, don't say it at all and you're a cold-hearted cow, so why are those three words so damn complicated?

Saying (gulp!) "I love you"
They are the three most significant words in the English language. Deliver them at the right time to the right person and the first time they're said out loud calls for champagne. Blurt them out at the wrong time to the wrong person and you need a stiff drink for totally different reasons.

So, what if he says, "That's nice. Anyway, as I was sayingA."? Or looks at you with pity and says, "I think you're awfully sweet, it's just thatA."? Or, what if he says nothing at all? Timing is everything.

Say "I love you" too soon and you not only look desperate, you lose power and dignity instantly. Leave it too late and you risk missing that magic moment that could launch you both into the next stage of your relationship. So, how do you judge when it's appropriate to let the cat out of the bag?

So, what if he says, "That's nice. Anyway, as I was sayingA."? Or looks at you with pity and says, "I think you're awfully sweet, it's just thatA."? Or, what if he says nothing at all? Timing is everything.

Say "I love you" too soon and you not only look desperate, you lose power and dignity instantly. Leave it too late and you risk missing that magic moment that could launch you both into the next stage of your relationship. So, how do you judge when it's appropriate to let the cat out of the bag?

Make sure you both speak the same language

Your "I love you" might mean, "I think this is special, let's give it a go." His interpretation might be "When's the wedding?" If you think your partner will overreact, tack something onto the end like, "Don't panic - I'm not about to propose. I'm just telling you how I feel."

Wait until you're absolutely bursting

Like, you'll explode if you don't say it right now. Wait until you're 150% convinced you mean it. And no, you cannot possibly mean it after three dates.

If you're saying it first, sneak it into the conversation

Who says it first? Whoever's bravest. The coward's way out is to say, "I think I'm falling in love with you." If your amour looks at you in horror, you can always say, "Don't panic, I know it's just casual with us. I was only kiddingA."

Another less traumatic option is to pop it at the very end of a conversation when you can disappear immediately after saying it. Like just before you walk through the doors to catch a plane or at the end of a phone call. "Love you," then clunk.

Dropping the "I" off also makes it less heavy because "Love you" is what you say to your mum. This way, if the object of your affection looks sideways at you, you can always add, "As a friend, of course."

Don't ask

Never, ever follow up an "I love you" with, "Do you love me?" If he does he'll tell you immediately. If he doesn't, or if he's not ready to say it, he'll be forced to say something he may not want to say. Dignity demolished.

Love Sayings

2006-02-05T03:52:00.000-08:00

	To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
	BERTRAND RUSSELL
	In love, one and one are one.
	JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
	True love is like seeing ghosts: we all talk about it, but few of us have ever seen one.
	LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
	True love is the joy of life.
	JOHN CLARKE
	Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.
	MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
	The aim of love is to love: no more, and no less.
	OSCAR WILDE
	Love, like virtue, is its own reward.
	JOHN VANBRUGH
	Love is God.
	LEW WALLACE
	To love one’s neighbors, to love one’s enemies, to love everything — to love God in all His manifestations. Human love serves to love those dear to us but to love one’s enemies we need divine love.
	LEO TOLSTOY
	Love's gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted.
	RABINDRANATH TAGORE
	The essence of love is kindness.
	ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
	Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.
	ALEXANDER SMITH
	Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things.
	PAUL
	Whatever is done from love always occurs beyond good and evil.
	FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
	"All You Need Is Love."
	JOHN LENNON and PAUL McCARTNEY
	He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.
	JOHN
	There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
	JOHN
	Love rules his kingdom without a sword.
	GEORGE HERBERT
	Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
	ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
	Love never claims, it ever gives.
	MOHANDAS K. GANDHI
	Love... is the Law of our Being.
	MOHANDAS K. GANDHI
	If you would be loved, love and be lovable.
	BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
	Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.
	JEAN ANOUILH

A True Crime Story of Guns and Gangsters

2006-02-05T03:49:00.000-08:00

St. Valentine's Day Massacre with Pictures - 1929 - Al Capone True Crime Story

One February evening in North Chicago, seven well-dressed men were found riddled with bullets inside the S.M.C Cartage Co. garage. They had been lined up against a wall, with their backs to their executioners and shot to death. With the exception of Dr. Reinhardt H. Schwimmer these men were mobsters working under the leadership of gangster and bootlegger, "Bugs" Moran. Within a few seconds, while staring at a bare brick wall, these seven men had become a part of Valentine's Day history: the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Chicago policemen re-enact the St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1929)

During the height of prohibition and the never-ending competition between gangster rivals Al "Scarface" Capone and George "Bugs" Moran, bloody warfare was nothing new to the authorities of Chicago. However, investigators on the scene found the Valentine's Day Massacre to be somewhat puzzling. The victims were mobsters, with an endless supply of weapons and well known capability for brutality. Why would they turn their backs and face the wall for anyone without putting up a fight? That was one of many questions to be answered.

Another question came about after an eyewitness gave her account of what happened on that night in 1929. She lived directly across the street and had a perfect view of the garage. She claimed to have seen two uniformed policemen exit the garage while escorting two plain clothed men who held their hands up in the air, as if they were under arrest. Of course, this comforted the shaken woman, thinking that the loud gun fire that she had just heard had been resolved and the parties responsible were being taken into custody. However, the Chicago police had no record of any such activity at 2122 Clark Street until they arrived on the scene to find the horrifying blood bath.

When it comes to suspects, a murder mystery can run the gamut of possibilities. In the case of The Valentine's Day Massacre, the person with the most motive was not difficult to come by. Although he claimed to be in Florida at the time of the murders, Al Capone was, without hesitation, the one and only suspect in this infamous crime. Thanks to prohibition, Capone had become the crime czar of Chicago, running gambling, prostitution and bootlegging rackets while continuously expanding his territories by getting rid of rival gangs. Capones fortune was estimated at $60,000,000. That kind of money gave Al Capone one of the oldest and most common motives in murder mystery history. He had to take down "Bugs" Moran at any cost. But as one of the leading gangsters in Chicago, Moran was not an easy person to get rid of. So in order to get rid of Moran, Capone chose to start at the bottom and get rid of Moran's outfit, leaving him defenseless.

When the bodies were discovered splattered on the floor of the garage, it seemed at first glance, that not one single person could have survived the force of the attack. However, this proved to be untrue, when one investigator on the scene found Frank Gusenberg lying amongst the bloody corpses, breathing heavily and choking on his own blood. Immediately, the unconscious victim was taken to the hospital where investigators waited with anticipation for their only possible lead to wake up and finger the men who were responsible. Their greatest fear was that he would die before they had the opportunity to question him, but eventually he did wake. When he was asked for the identity of the killer, he simply stated "I'm not gonna talk," before he laid his head back and died. Without Frank Gusenberg's testimony and with only a few eye witnesses outside the garage, the investigators had to return to the scene of the crime and try to piece the murder together with what information they had.

After a re-enactment of the crime, authorities concluded that the two men dressed as policemen entered the garage and acted as if they were police on a routine investigation. The Moran outfit automatically assumed that they were policemen on a routine sting. It was obvious that they didnt suspect anything questionable with the two uniformed killers or they certainly would have never been killed without a fight. But as it was, the mobsters seemed to have cooperated with the costumed officers and consequently let the fake policemen disarm them and force them up against the wall. As soon as their backs were turned, the two men in plain clothes entered with guns and shot them down.

Therefore, the eye-witnesses were somewhat accurate when they claimed to have seen two policemen arresting two men. What they had actually seen was four brutal murderers making their cleverly planned get away. If a neighbor or neighbors looked out after such rapid and explosive gunfire, what better way to calm their nerves, by letting them think that everything was under control. And indeed it was under control. The mysterious killers drove away into the night, long before anyone thought to call the police, because the neighbors saw from their windows that the police were already there.

As any mystery lover knows, a murder mystery would not be complete without a clear and well defined conclusion, but in the case of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, it has every element of the mystery, but the ending. Al Capone was never arrested for the crimes; the mysterious gun men were never identified and Capone never graced a reader or interested member of the public with an over dramatic confession. Instead, he was blandly indicted for tax evasion some years later and spent seven years in prison only to be released to retire in Florida, where he died from Syphilis in 1947.

In many respects, the Valentine's Day Massacre follows the perfect mystery blueprint up to the end. Although Capone never went into complete detail on the events of the massacre, perhaps he did allude to his future plans for that bloody Valentine's Day in 1929. A few months prior to the murders, Al Capone mentioned to a fellow "associate" his plan to take down Moran. Capone was told by the "associate" that he would have to kill a lot of people in order to get to "Bugs" Moran. It is rumored that Capone replied by simply saying: "I'll send flowers."

Valentine Traditions

2006-02-05T03:45:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of years ago in England, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine's Day. They went singing from home to home. One verse they sang was: Good morning to you, valentine; Curl your locks as I do mine--- Two before and three behind. Good morning to you, valentine.
	In Wales wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!"
In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
	In some countries, a young woman may receive a gift of clothing from a young man. If she keeps the gift, it means she will marry him.
Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.
	A love seat is a wide chair. It was first made to seat one woman and her wide dress. Later, the love seat or courting seat had two sections, often in an S-shape. In this way, a couple could sit together -- but not too closely!
Think of five or six names of boys or girls you might marry, As you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off.
	Pick a dandelion that has gone to seed. Take a deep breath and blow the seeds into the wind. Count the seeds that remain on the stem. That is the number of children you will have.
If you cut an apple in half and count how many seeds are inside, you will also know how many children you will have.

Reasons Why I Love You !

2006-02-05T03:42:00.000-08:00

I can be myself when I am with you.
Your idea of romance is dimlights, softmusic, and just the two of us.
Because you make me feel like,like, like I have never felt before.
I can tell you anything, and you won't be shocked.
Your undying faith is what keeps the flame out of love alive
You and me together, we can make magic.
We're a perfect match.
Thinking of you, fills me with a wonderful feeling.
Your love gives me the feeling, that the best is still ahead.
You never give up on me, and that's what keeps me going.
You are simply irresistible

I love you because you bring the best out of me.
Your terrific sense of humor
Everytime I look at you, my heart misses a beat
You're the one who holds the key to my heart
You always say what I need to hear (You are perfect).
You have taught me the true meaning of love.
Love is, what you mean to me - and you mean everything.
You are my theme for a dream.
I have had the time of my life and I owe it all to you.
When I look into your eyes, I can see your heart.
Your love for me is a natural anti-depressant.
I love to hear your voice.

Your love has helped me to rediscover myself.
Your love is an effective anti-dote to despair.
I love to wake up with you by my side...It makes my days better.
You always make me feel that you are by my side no matter what.
I love that feeling of being secure when you wrap your arms around me.
I love the way you keep your cool when I do something stupid.
Just being with you feels like I can defy the whole world.
You mean the world to me.
I like your small gestures that speak volumes about how much you care.
I love the way you treasure the gifts that I gave you.

I love the way you patch up with me after a tumultuous fight.
And, of-course, your intelligence, 'cause you were smart enough to fall in love with me ;-)

I love Internet

2006-02-05T03:19:00.000-08:00

I love internet, because it's make anything so fun and enjoyable. I can get many information that I want and unable me to represent my idea to someone else.

Now, I need an information about Valentine Day I got it easily, wonderful!

History of Valentines

As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans engaged in an annual young man's rite to passage to the God Lupercus. The names of the teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men; thus, a man was assigned a woman companion for the duration of the year, after which another lottery was staged. After eight hundred years of this cruel practice, the early church fathers sought to end this practice... They found an answer in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred some two hundred years earlier.

According to church tradition St. Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D. At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius-II who had issued an edict forbidding marriage.
This was around when the heyday of Roman empire had almost come to an end. Lack of quality administrators led to frequent civil strife. Learning declined, taxation increased, and trade slumped to a low, precarious level. And the Gauls, Slavs, Huns, Turks and Mongolians from Northern Europe and Asian increased their pressure on the empire's boundaries. The empire was grown too large to be shielded from external aggression and internal chaos with existing forces. Thus more of capable men were required to be recruited as soldiers and officers. When Claudius became the emperor, he felt that married men were more emotionally attached to their families, and thus, will not make good soldiers. So to assure quality soldiers, he banned marriage.
Valentine, a bishop , seeing the trauma of young lovers, met them in a secret place, and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this "friend of lovers," and had him arrested. The emperor, impressed with the young priest's dignity and conviction, attempted to convert him to the roman gods, to save him from certain execution. Valentine refused to recognize Roman Gods and even attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully.
On February 24, 270, Valentine was executed.

"From your Valentine"
While Valentine was in prison awaiting his fate, he came in contact with his jailor, Asterius. The jailor had a blind daughter. Asterius requested him to heal his daughter. Through his faith he miraculously restored the sight of Asterius' daughter. Just before his execution, he asked for a pen and paper from his jailor, and signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that lived ever after.

Valentine thus become a Patron Saint, and spiritual overseer of an annual festival. The festival involved young Romans offering women they admired, and wished to court, handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The greeting cards acquired St.Valentine's name.

The Valentine's Day card spread with Christianity, and is now celebrated all over the world. One of the earliest card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. The card is now preserved in the British Museum.

Internet is Enjoyable for Anything

4 Steps to a Successful Website

Love Letter Etiquette

Ideas: Love Notes, Letters & More

Love in Different Version

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scientific models

Attraction and attachment

Companionate vs. passionate

Triangular Theory of Love

Formulaic models

Love styles

Phases

Cultural views

Chinese

Japanese

Ancient Greek

Latin

Indonesian and Malaysian

Religious views

Buddhist

Christian

Hindu

Islamic

Jewish

Mythological

Theological

The Science Of Love (the chemistry of romance)

MATING GAME

Communication Between Men and Women

Paradox Of Our Times

Kisses

Types Of Kisses

What's Your Love Story?

101 love sayings and quotations

A Lover's Complaint

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare 1564 - 1616

Lost Love Poems

Cyber Romance Poems

Love Poems

5 Ways to Make Your Lust Last

The Science of Flirting

What Makes You Fancy Someone?

Judge Relaxes Courtney Love's Sentence, Lets Her Leave Treatment Facility

Love Poems

I Love You

"I Love You" in Different Languages

William Shakespeare

Love Words from Friends

Love Sayings Part 2

sex & relationships

Love Sayings

A True Crime Story of Guns and Gangsters

St. Valentine's Day Massacre with Pictures - 1929 - Al Capone True Crime Story

Valentine Traditions

Reasons Why I Love You !

I love Internet

William Shakespeare
1564 - 1616