Okay, you guys know I’m a big crybaby; right?  I’ve mentioned it a few times in here ‘n there during our journey together.  I weep.  For all that I’m an in-your-face, opinionated, tell-it-like-it-is kinda gal, I’m also re-fucking-diculously sensitive.  I tear up at cute babies, cry over sappy movies, weep at wounded animals and bawl like a baby over world and human rights issues.

Since I’ve been blogging I’ve met a lot of really cool people, and for all I hear about trolls and stalkers and hateful rudeness in comments, and for all that I’ve seen of it elsewhere- I have never (yet) been the target of any of it here in Thorne’s World.  Even back when I was raising hell and taking names on political, feminist and glbt issues.  Even as an “out” lesbian witch liberal.

If anything I have been repeatedly blown away by the very eclectic variety of folks who have stopped by and commented, and who have often become bloggy friends of a sort.  Some of these folks have different politics and different spiritual beliefs, and even on the occasions that we have disagreed it has always been civil.  I used to think that it was a sort of reverse of the usual hiding-behind-your-keyboard syndrome.  That in much the same way that many folks find it easy to be rude and obnoxious in the internet, maybe there are just as many who realize that it’s just as easy to “take what you need or like and leave the rest” when blog visiting.  I do it myself.  If I pop over to x-blogdotcom to find a crochet pattern, do I really care that the blogger posting the pattern also has bible verses in her header and a post entitled “My love letter to Rush”?

Hahahaha.  Well, okay.  So I care, but do I necessarily choose to engage?  Not so much.  I simply leave a polite comment thanking her for the pattern!

So back to my tears.  I think I may have been wrong about that just leave the rest concept.  I really think that there is a lot more to most of us here in bloggy land than we ever show.

I have been choked up since yesterday, upon reading this post over at Shelly’s This Eclectic Life. You should read the post, but what I got from it was that a very cool lady with an incredibly big heart was at war.  Actually her heart was at war with her polite southern upbringing and her professional persona.

This morning I got up to discover that her heart won, when I saw Not Your Momma’s Bingo posted on her blog and I cried a lil more.  While I was reading that fun post (through blurry eyes), I had a video that another friend had emailed me loading in the background and when I was done at Shelly’s, I switched tabs to view and listen to it and it was on- a regular Thorne’s World bawlfest.

Watch the video.  Hear the words.  This post; this video is dedicated to Shelly and to the countless others who fight this war and win.  And even to the countless others who are still struggling with their own inner editors; bless you for fighting the good fight.

Shelly, Thank you for Stand(ing) By Me.
I love you, gal!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM]

Calling all my most excellent straight friends!!!  Check out this do-dad I swiped from Di at Forks Off The Moment‘s sidebar.  It’s up for grabs, ya’ll!

Peace, out!

Content Warning: Thorni is feeling deep today.    So here in front, I’m simply going to post my truest understanding of love in honor of Valentine’s Day  in the simple yet elegant words of Kahlil Gibran, and wish you all:

Love.

Love not in a hokey, jokesy way, but love in all its depth and beauty; in all it’s light and shadow.

Behind the cut, should you care to join me, I’m going to write a bit about this piece and how it has shaped me and inspired me throughout my life, from my first reading of The Prophet at age 12.

Kahlil Gibran on Love, From The Prophet

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked. He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness. He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say,
“God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

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