When I have Fears by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be 
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

The Journey By: Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice--

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save

the only life you could save.

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] BY E. E. CUMMINGS

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)                                                                                                                  i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

 i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Wild Geese

 

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

~ Mary Oliver ~

Yellow

See the stars, look how they shine for you

Be radiant

xo,
a. theresa

adele is great

summer crush

Our lives were interlaced for one summer. A summer of new beginnings for me, and a summer of goodbyes for you.

I know I had no chance with you, and you probably never think about me, but I feel that we had a connection. Everytime I glanced at you, you blue eyes were shimmering, as the ocean does on a clear day. I could tell that under that blue, electric gaze, there was something there. Some hidden feeling, or passion, maybe not for me, but for life. You were a quirky boy, and still are, and I loved getting lost in your quirky ways this summer.

I guess over analyzing things isn't always so bad? It's always good to dream.

Roald Dahl

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” – Roald Dahl.


I completely agree with Roald Dahl on this one. Beauty is so deceiving in our world. Our society views things that are not beautiful as not worth it. But if we all took a step back and actually looked, really looked, we could find beauty, and magic, in the most "unattractive" people and places.

 Taking a step out of your own little world, expectations, and standards, can bring a boat load of opportunities and experiences. You just have to take the chance and dare to find the hidden beauty, and magic. You WILL be surprised at what RADIANT things have been hiding there all along...

xo,
Manda

Dream Place Number 4

I haven't added any new places to my dream travel list lately, so I've decided that I have to update the list today. This 4th place I want to visit is a place filled with, well, A LOT of love. It's a city teeming with glamour, food, culture, and history. My 4th dream place, is the one and only,Rome!
Ah! A Roma, c'è tanto buon cibo!

Dream Place #4: Roma, Italia


"But you don't know pleasure. You have to be told you've earned it.
You see a commercial that says: 'It's Miller Time!' And you say,
That's right, now I'm going to buy a six pack. And then drink the
whole thing and wake up the next morning and you feel terrible.
But an ITALIAN doesn't need to be told. He walks by a sign that says:
You deserve a break today. And he says, Yes, I know.
That's why I'm planning on taking a break at noon to go
 over to your house and sleep...with your wife!"-Luca Spaghetti(Eat Pray Love)

Love in 137 words

The moon shined down on the pathway leading up to Kate’s garden. Leaves fluttered in the trees and the wind sighed. Everything was still in the heat of the summer night. Nobody dared make a noise, and disrupt the peaceful reverie of the stillness that had come over the world.

 Well nobody except for the couple sitting on the front porch of an old Victorian house. They softly whispered in the humid air, talking to each other as old friends, and new lovers.

 Slowly they talked about their deepest fears. They talked about the sky and the stars and how small they really were in the vast world. Kate leaned against Andrew’s sturdy frame, her eyes glistening with wonder. She silently exclaimed to herself, “What feeling on earth can bring more joy than the feeling of love?”

By: Me

Life isn't fair

Why do people always get their hopes up, just to get them knocked down? Why do people follow their dreams, and work hard, just to have their dreams bashed and beaten? Why do people always find silver lining in gray clouds, just to have it ripped apart? Why is life not fair?

I"m not feeling very radiant today.

I want a love like this

Quotes! Quotes...and more....quotes

"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you'll always be in the same place."-anon

"Unless it is mad, passionate, extraordinary love, it is a waste of time. There are too many mediocre things in life, Love should not be one of them."

"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."-Jimmy Dean

" Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value."-Albert Einstein

"It is what it is, It was what it was."

"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."-Mark Twain

"Art washes from the soul, the dust of everyday life."

"Sometimes, said Pooh, the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

"And then my soul saw you and it kind of went: Oh there you are, I"ve been looking for you."

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right--for you'll be criticized anyway."

"It is a risk to love. What if it doesn't work out? Ah, but what if it does."-Peter McWilliams

"Always remember, you are braver than you think, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."-Wizard of Oz

"My head says:Who cares? But then my heart whispers: YOU do stupid..."

Obsessed

I"m absolutely obsessed with this quote.

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."

Emotion

I haven't written a post in a while because I have been quite busy. But today I was reading this book of poetry I got from the library, and I came across a poem I just had to put up on RADIANCE. Every time I read this poem, raw emotion jumps out at me. Edgar Allan Poe sure knew how to put his passion into words.

Annabel Lee

by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

LOVE

"There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione's arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.
"Is this the moment?" Harry asked weakly, and when nothing happened except that Ron and Hermione gripped each other still more firmly and swayed on the spot, he raised his voice. "OI! There's a war going on here!"
Ron and Hermione broke apart, their arms still around each other.
"I know, mate," said Ron, who looked as though he had recently been hit on the back of the head with a Bludger, "so it's now or never, isn't it?"
"Never mind that, what about the Horcrux?" Harry shouted. "D'you think you could just --- just hold it in, until we've got the diadem?"
"Yeah --- right --- sorry ---" said Ron, and he and Hermione set about gathering up fangs, both pink in the face."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)


The "Harry Potter" series is truly RADIANT! And I love that there are even several love stories weaved into the overall storyline...

The Trees

Why do I sometimes feel like I'm going to explode?
Why do I sometimes feel completely alone?
The trees talk to me with their leaves
but do nothing to comfort me
only when the days are cold
do I realize
maybe i missed something
maybe the trees do speak something
I just have to listen.

....

"[Never] let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game." --A Cinderella Story

Magic

It floats through my veins. The notes one by one beating at the beat of my heart. Soft and smooth or short and sharp. Long and loud or quiet and quick.

Music is magic. After a day of troubles, music can bring back joy. It has the power to cure, and to revive.

Singing, dancing, with the music. Then you feel a rush and realize that the music is over and has swiftly passed you by, leaving you in the warmth of the moment.

oh dear, RADIANT music

Puppy

GUESS WHAT? I'm getting a puppy!!! Pretty RADIANT right? Next week we get to take a little six week old golden retriever female home(:

Possible names:
Lily
Mia
Bella
Meg