A-Z Challenge Day 12 'L'

L is for... emotion!!!

as in Love, Lust, Loneliness, & Laughter








LOVE
Take away love, and our earth is a tomb."  Robert Browning

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."
Louis de Bernieres

"You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly."   Sam Keen

"You know you are in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."  Dr. Seuss

If we can't love ourselves, why should anyone else? Anonymous

LUST“sex is the consolation you have when you can't have love”   Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez

Love is about giving and lust is only focused on taking.  Anonymous 

Lust is wanting to sleep with someone. Love is wanting to wake up next to them in the morning.  Anonymous"Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strength to them all ambition, cruelty, avarice, revenge, are all founded on lust."
Marquis De Sade

LONELINESS
"Only in a house where one has learnt to be lonely does one have this solicitude for things. One's relation to them, the daily seeing or touching, begins to become love, and to lay one open to pain." Elizabeth Bowen



"A lonely man is a lonesome thing, a stone, a bone, a stick, a receptacle for Gilbey's gin, a stooped figure sitting at the edge of a hotel bed, heaving copious sighs like the autumn wind." John Cheever

"In our extreme youth, in our most humiliating sorrow, we think we are alone. When we are older we find that others have suffered too." Suzanne Moarny

"To most people loneliness is a doom. Yet loneliness is the very thing which God has chosen to be one of the schools of training for His very own. It is the fire that sheds the dross and reveals the gold." Bernard M. Martin

LAUGHTER
"The sound of laughter has always seemed to me the most civilized music in the universe." Peter Ustinov

"Laughter -- An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable." Ambrose Gwinett Bierce


"Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure, making the music sound sweeter, the wine taste richer, the laughter ring louder because they are there." Judith Viorst

"People who laugh actually live longer than those who don't laugh. Few persons realize that health actually varies according to the amount of laughter." Dr. James Walsh.

There are nearly 1900 participants this year and you'll find a list HERE

A-Z Challenge Day 10 - J

 I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date.... Sorry folks, but better late than never, so here is my offering for today.

J is for Jackass

And what is the first thought that comes to your mind when you hear that?




So - what is a 'jackass?'

When refering to animals, it is donkey, an ass, and a burro, as all are the same name for the same beast. Jackass, is merely the name for a male ass, while jennett, not jillass, is the name for a female ass.

Of course when not refering to the animal variety you may fist think of! 

And before I offend every male visitor, please be assured I am not being 'general' today when I mention of Jackasses!

J is also for JOY

For the last wo years I have been working on an experimental Regency story.  Why 'experimental?'  Well, I truly did not know whether I had what it took to get the atmosphere of the time right, or whether the characters would come across convincingly.

Today I learned it has been accepted by Secret Cravings Publishing. So--- I am happy dancing all over the house.

There are nearly 1900 participants this year and you'll find a list HERE

Sweet Saturday Sample

Thanks to everyone who visits me on Sweet Saturday Samples and I truly appreciate your comments. 
After diverting further into the story to give you a real Valentine smaple last week, I am hopping back to Henri's reappraisal of his enforced holiday at his brother and sister-in-law's riding school for disabled children.

The simplicity of Christmas at the farm had appealed to Henri. The joy of seeing it through the eyes of his three-month-old nephew, Jonathan, intrigued him, and brought a new magic and meaning to the day. Yes, they’d exchanged presents and stuffed themselves motionless with the awesome food Melanie prepared. It was, he knew, a Christmas that would ever remain as one of his most precious memories.

He’d expected to chafe at the lack of a filled schedule. Had wondered what he’d do with himself during this enforced period of inactivity, and laughed at the absurdity.

True, for the first few days, the disruption of his life, coupled with the re-entry of Monica into his orbit, stoked both his fury and sense of disconnection. Used to a life of routine with every moment accounted for, it took several days to acclimatise to the rhythm of the farm.

The sight of his brother’s joy filled him with an unknown sense of yearning he couldn’t identify. Heck, his life was all mapped out for him. One day he’d step into his father’s shoes, marry the woman his parents chose for him, sire the required heir and a spare, and—

His steps faltered, and he reflected back over the last few weeks, since his arrival.