Fishing

FUN

One bright sunny morning I saw far away three fishermen who enjoyed themselves in a very dangerous place: on the edge of the pond in the middle of the 18th tee of the Pocono Manor golf course.

Fortunately, some golf balls were flying in my direction and they were safe at that moment.

I photographed the fishermen and went away thinking about love between generations and wonders of new discoveries.

I don’t know if there are fishes in the pond but I am sure that there are hundreds of golf balls in it.

 

 

“Sit down next to me”

Every time I see a bench in a beautiful place I remember a popular Russian song 50 years ago “Sit down next to me”.

Some words from this song:

 Sit down next to me.

I have to tell you.

I can’t hide it anymore

That I love you!

The photo below is taken recently in the early morning and I doubt that many people talked about love so early. However, I hear words and music of the song in my heart and mind and remember how happy we were dancing at that music 50 years ago.

Sit down next to me.

I have to tell you this moment

That from our first meeting

Many years ago

You always were

Infinitely sweet and dear to me!

We need more love today!

In a happy family love must flow in all directions. Communications are easy and honest between all generations as it is very important to understand needs of every member of the family.

In February 2013 I wrote in Russian a poem expressing feelings of my wife and myself. The poem written  for our children and grandchildren. Later some of our friends told us that it is applicable to all children and grandchildren.

Below is the poem in English and in Russian. I ask your forgiveness for the loose translation from Russian into English. I hope that you will understand the meaning of the poem.

********************  WE NEED MORE LOVE TODAY!  **************************

We were waiting for you when we were

Single. Then when we married.

We were waiting for you for years,

Then daily and every hour.

*

We loved you before you were born

And love you very much today
Thank you, Lord, for children and

Grandchildren, your gifts to us!

*

Our parents and older relatives passed

Away and their love is in our memories.

Some of our friends left this world too.

We miss their love very much!

*

You are our youth and light.

Our love to you grows every day.

Please love us more,

We need more love today!

*

Love us, show us your love!

There is no sense of hiding it.

Nobody knows how long we’ll

Be together. Hope many years!

*

*****************************  ЛЮБИТЕ НАС!  *********************

*

Мы ждали вас, когда мы были одиноки.
Затем когда уж было двое нас.
Мы ждали вас годами, месяцами.
Затем уж каждый день и каждый час.

*

Любили вас до вашего рожденья,
И любим безгранично вас сейчас.
Спасибо, Бог, за ваше появленье,
За то, что дал нам счастье любить вас!

*

Сегодня мы намного старше стали,

Сегодня дети взрослые у вас.
Родителей давно мы потеряли
И их любовь лишь в памяти у нас.

*

Ушли все те, кто нас постарше был.

Постарше был и крепко нас любил.

Ушли ближайшие друзья не раз,

Нам очень нехватает их сейчас!

*

Наша любовь растёт и процветает,
В семье ведь много больше стало вас.
Обратной же любви нам нехватает,
Дети и внуки, любите больше нас!

*

Любите нас, показывайте это,
Любви стесняться просто смысла нет.
Никто не знает, сколько будем вместе.
Надеемся, ещё немало лет!

***********************************************************************

PAINTING by JF

On a huge scale

PHOTO CHALLENGE: SCALE

I was not recently in space and did not make photos of planets to highlight differences in their sizes.

I decided to submit to this challenge a simple photo below taken near our apartment house in Queens.

Everyone can see a difference in size and age between a mother and a daughter on this picture.

However, no scale can measure size and depth of their love to each other.

They are in motion among billions of other human beings.

Everyone needs love! On a huge scale!

Love and friendship keep us young

DEPTH

Photo by Korinna B.

Love from the first sight

No worries or one night in Crimea.

I have a terrible feeling that many people missed this old post. It is about live, love and a night in Crimea a long time ago. Please let me know if you like it.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

In June of 1959 after meeting for 19 hours during 1,5 month my wife and I decided to marry. Then it was time for a honeymoon.

We could not afford a long one as we were very busy. She was designing a new machine for creating chemical fibers. I was working on my dissertation. Both of us had no savings.

Our parents and friends raised some funds for a two weeks honeymoon and recommended us to go to The Workers’ Corner (now Professor’s Corner) in Alushta (a city in Crimea).

All of them said: “It’s a wonderful place! Black Sea, wonderful beach, road up the mountain, beautiful Mount Castel! You’ll be happy there!”

My wife asked: “Where will we live?”

“No worries! All locals rent their apartments and live in shacks during summer. You’ll find something.”

ALUSHTA AND MOUNT CASTEL

We came to The Workers’ Corner and went up the…

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Very far and very close

I was doing my daily exercise on the deck when I noticed them.

Big guys were walking slowly but she was running behind them.

When I was ready to make a shot they were far away from me.

However, the scene was very close to my heart.

Hope you’ll like it.

MORNING WALK                                     by JF

Love and care

LOVE AND CARE                                                                                          by JF

People, I love you!

PEOPLE, I LOVE YOU!
by JF

Why do I love Pocono Manor?

You already saw many photos of Pocono Manor’s houses, views and animals here.

Is it possible to love a place so much to return to it for many years?

Believe me it is.

It is possible if you can walk to the Pocono Manor Inn every morning and see a view like this one:

A MORNING VIEW                                                                                                             by JF

It is possible if you can enter the Pocono Manor Inn and take the photo below (it is my hat on the chair).

INSIDE THE INN                                                                                                         by JF

It is possible if you enjoy two paintings below:

PAINTING IN THE INN                                                                                                 by JF

 

PAINTING IN THE INN                                                                                             by JF

It is possible if you can go in the library (usually there is nobody there) and find many precious books of long forgotten wonderful authors.

Add to all these reasons sweet memories of wonderful times here with family and friends.

I am sure that you understand that my love to this place grows with each year.

FAMILY AS A SYSTEM

I started this blog on 10/03/2013. At that time I had no idea where it will go. I only knew that I was close to 80 and so I chose the name of the blog “closetoeighty”.

In the beginning of November I published the post below, then I published many other posts about happiness and pursuit of happiness. I am going to combine them later on a separate page.

In the meantime I decided to reblog this post.

After I became 80 I decided to change the name of the blog to “PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS”. All people want to be happy. However, I am convinced that it is impossible to be happy without pursuing happiness.

Several quotes about summer.

I believe that summer is our time, a time for the people, and that no politician should be allowed to speak to us during the summer. They can start talking again after Labor Day.

Lewis Black

Both the Winter and the Summer Solstices are expressions of love. They show us the opposition of light and dark, expansion and contraction, that characterize our experiences in the Earth school so that we can recognize our options as we move through our lives.

Gary Zukav

Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.

Ada Louise Huxtable

Summer is like the ultimate one-night stand…hot as hell, totally thrilling, and gone before you know it.

Unknown

SWEDISH COUNTRYSIDE IN SUMMER                               courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Lady on the bicycle.

I looked at my stats and found that old post “Lady on the bicycle” was the most popular post on this blog. It’s time to reblog it for new followers. Hopefully, they’ll like it.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

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Several quotes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’ 

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

 

From summer to spring.

Not too long ago I published the post FROM WINTER TO SUMMER. Several months passed. We had wonderful time in Hollywood, Florida.

Now is time to move from summer to spring, from 84 degrees in Hollywood to 65 degrees in Queens, from palms to blooming magnolias, from our friends here to our family and friends in New York and New Jersey.

It takes only three hours to come from summer to spring and to enjoy wonders of New York City. In a week we can walk in the Central Park, we can go to the St. Patrick’s Cathedral, we can visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Embed from Getty Images

Life is wonderful! You don’t need to be a millionaire to enjoy it! Just walk and look around you, smell flowers, soak wonderful views, greet people with smiles, listen to laughter of children, to music in churches, in some buildings on the 5th and Madison Avenues.

Life is wonderful! Enjoy it! Enjoy learning, enjoy work, enjoy meeting friends, walks, workouts, meditation, gaining wisdom!

Think and grow! It is never too late to become a better person, to understand your place in the world, to make your contribution to it!

I know, I know!

After I published yesterday the short post “Do you believe in evolution? Our relative?” one of my followers (M-R) asked me to clarify my beliefs. I do it by reblogging this post.

We build our worlds!

This morning I found a post with a photo that I liked very much.

You can see the post below.

IT IS GOOD THERE WHERE WE ARE NOT.

The post is properly categorized and tagged. There is Absence and Emptiness in the photo. It is definitely black-and-white. It is fine art. It is easy to see mystery there too. There is also beauty there.

However, I can’t agree with the title of the post.

I believe that from early childhood we must start building our own worlds.

We must understand ourselves, choose our priorities, take risks, work hard and build our own personal wonderful worlds.

We are born to enjoy life!

It is our major task to create happiness where we are!

 

 

 

 

 

Several quotes about beauty.

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.”.

Ashley Smith

“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”

Albert Einstein

“Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Artist and sculptor Bruno Torfs.

Bruno Torfs’ life is amazing. He traveled a lot, created many beautiful paintings and then drastically changed his direction.

You can read about Bruno and see his Art and Sculpture Garden HERE.

And you can see both his sculptures and his paintings HERE.

However, life is unpredictable. In 2009 Bruno Torfs and his family were in terrible danger.

They survived but their home and his gallery were completely destroyed.

You can read about it and to see that Bruno did not surrender HERE.

He restored his home and the Garden. The Garden is open to visitors again!