![]() ![]() “For me, Florence is a patient yet austere teacher. That’s what calls me to this city, being part of the tomorrow. I have been wanting to include this compilation for some time but instead of only including historic citations from the past, I wanted to include the words from people who live here now as well.Įnjoy this love letter (or pissed off lover’s note) from a wide range of figures throughout history, writers and people who live, breathe and adore Florence today. Centuries of stories are cloaked within the beige stone of its ancient palazzi but what interests me more is what is happening today. What of this evolution of Florence and its people? What keeps them here and keeps beckoning others to arrive? It’s easy to be nostalgic about the good old days but all we have is here, and now. ![]() Of intense joy and equally as intense aggravation. A vague sound was associated with this relief, a wetness reminded me of bodily existence and I realized I was crying.For me Florence has always been a place of contemplation. A thought arose of my dying sister-in-law, and relief spread throughout at realizing the fallacy of death. I realized that where and who I am is self-evidently beyond life and death. I became aware of a sense of arriving, of finally having found what felt like I had been looking for – for eons. There seemed to be an oscillation between pure undifferentiated Being and Observing Ego, because I had awareness of coming into Form, feeling profound ecstasy, joy, gratitude and love, and then dissolving back into That which from these feelings flowed. The relief and the sense that finally the ancient, primordial Search was over was utterly indescribable. With both the joy and the difficulty of a birth, separate identity was relinquished, and all that remained was boundlessness. At that edge between Form and Formlessness, I felt the sense of being at a threshold which I had never before crossed. Even the sense of joy and amazement which this engendered dissolved as identity merged into formless Being. All body awareness dissolved into awareness of soft, expansive currents of bliss. A deeper letting go seemed to occur by allowing the body to rest without muscular effort. “(Male) I was somehow able to guide my body to a laying position, though I had very little body awareness. If it is identified with a unifying, enduring, and eternal love, it will seek the deepening of its mystery in the divine, Who puts all loves into our hearts.” If love is identified with the early ecstasy alone, it will seek its prolongation in another person's presence. In the second ecstasy he tries to receive from God all that both of them can give. In it, the lover seeks to get from the beloved all that he will give. The first ecstasy of love is a thrill, but a somewhat of a selfish thrill. Theirs is the true ecstasy which belongs less to youth than to old age. The deep, ecstatic love of some Christian fathers and mothers is a beautiful thing to see, but they have won it after passing through their Calvaries. That may come to us, but only after many purging trials, fidelities under stress, perseverance through discouragement and steady pursuit of our divine destiny past all the allurements of this earth. ![]() ![]() The earliest ecstasy is not the true lasting love we seek to find and hold. “First fervor is false fervor in marriage as in religion. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |