It’s raining hard outside.
But my beautiful neighbors are with me and I am happy.
Here is one of them.
Gentle beauty
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Tag Archives: writing
On the edge of chaos
Millions of people believe that life came from the ocean.
Millions of turtles believe that life came from the sand.
Both oceans and sand are chaotic (even often they look orderly).
Anyway, if you don’t believe in God it means that you are sure that people
are fruits of chaos.
Happy Birthday!
Today I am 82.
I am grateful to God for my life (with many ups and downs), my dear wife (my love and best friend for 56 years), our children and grandchildren, our friends!
I enjoy beauty of nature, meeting people, reading, watching movies, playing chess, walking, taking pictures and many other things.
I am happy!
Life is wonderful!
Life, love, friendship.
Dear friends, I am 81 today!
I had hard time lately (pneumonia +).
Thank God, I am alive and recovering!
Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.
The purpose of our lives is to be happy.
I thank everybody for love and friendship!
I thank wonderful people of medical profession!
I still need their help and your prayers!
Best to all of you!
“If in doubt, don’t go out”
I love instructions and regulations!
Some of them are short and bold, others teach you how to live (or to die) right.
Their styles are different. Some of them use art to touch your heart and to stimulate your thinking, your feelings of right and wrong, your kindness, choice of your paths in life.
For example, fishes love this one. I wonder who wrote it and who paid for it.
It’s Anton Chekhov’s style!
Only three words! They express so much!
They are about life and death, about meaning of life.
For some people they are about adventures and actions.
We are all different!
Some of us are for unlimited freedom. Often they don’t even know that freedom is always limited.
Others are for enjoyment and pleasure. They’ll kill for pleasure of fish cleaning!
I am a simple man. I am for enjoyment and pleasure too but I find it in watching beautiful fishes and in eating well prepared fish dishes.
And here is completely different style.
I hope that you fully appreciate the difference.
Surely, you noticed the wonderful combination of colors and science.
This picture is full of love to people. It gives all available information how to “Break the Grip of the Rip!”
It’s a six words poetical story!
Everything is precise, easy to do. I especially like “wave for assistance”.
However, my wife told me that the most important instructions are:
“Know how to swim” and “If in doubt, don’t go out”.
She added: “The last one is universal! It is applicable not only to rip currents. It is for all women and men who think of going to blind dates!”
“IF IN DOUBT, DON’T GO OUT”.
Are you ready for divorce?
There are two kinds of fools: those who can’t change their opinions and those who won’t.
Josh Billings
Wait! Wait!
Don’t tell me that you are not married!
Don’t tell me that you love your spouse so much that you’ll never divorce her or him!
I am not talking about dissolving marriage.
I am talking about your readiness to listen, to think, be flexible, to part with your opinions if it makes sense.
courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Several weeks ago a couple of friends visited us in Pocono Manor. We had a very nice time together and we discussed different topics. They mentioned that their grandson (who is a college graduate) had opinions about everything and became angry and rude if somebody had expressed a different opinion.
It did not surprise us. We hear very often that students and professors are against discussions in universities, that they simply vote against allowing people with different opinions to speak on campuses.
I remember with great love wonderful teachers who gave us…
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Waves were kissing…
Yesterday night I was walking barefooted along the shore and warm gentle waves were kissing whatever they were able to reach.
After it I could not stop trying to express something that I felt. Results are below.
Do you like them? If yes what is your favorite?
What do you feel?
Is there anything you want to tell me?
Please let me know.
Thank you!
#1
#2
#3
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Istanbul (not Constantinople)
More than 50 years ago “Istanbul (not Constantinople)” was the very popular song in the Soviet Union. At that time only élite at the top could get permission to travel and to see Turkey or any other country.
After we became Americans we visited more than 50 countries including Turkey.
Istanbul is a wonderful city! It has so much to offer that you need to stay there long time just to get a proper feeling of it. Unfortunately, we had only one week for travel in the country.
However, it is impossible to forget the word Istanbul in America. You can see It all over the country.
ON HOLLYWOOD BROADWALK
Pocono Manor and my photos
In 1977 my wife and I visited Pocono Manor first time. We liked it so much that then we stayed there (in the Carriage House) when we could.
After my retirement we went there every summer and enjoyed peace and beauty of this small town.
In the old post below I gave you information about past and future of Pocono Manor.As far as I know Kalahari Resorts already bought the historic Inn at Pocono Manor and will finish soon construction of the largest in the world indoor water park and other facilities.
Will the place be better or worse?
We’ll know the answer this summer.In the meantime I want to show you my photos taken last summer.
I placed them in a page “POCONO MANOR GALLERY”. Please click on the first photo and you’ll be able to see all pictures in proper sizes and colors.
What is Pocono Manor?
Wikipedia says: “Pocono Manor is an unincorporated community in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, United States, located at approximately latitude 41.1 and longitude -75.359, at an elevation of 1,706 feet, on Pennsylvania State Highway 314 east of Pocono Summit and west of Swiftwater.[1] It is the location of a resort and golf course called The Inn at Pocono Manor, with a Donald Ross-designed golf course,[2] site of the Pocono Northeast Classic; and of the Pocono Manor Historic District.”
We are now in Pocono Manor and it is clear that the definition above is not very good.
First of all, there is the Carriage House in Pocono Manor. It is an independent time-sharing property.
Secondly, there are many private houses (the Cottage Colony).
Thirdly, until last year there were two 18-holes golf courses. Currently one course is intact…
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Queens gallery
Every photo you take communicates something about a moment in time – a brief slice of time of where you were, who you were with, and what you were doing.
I would add to the quote above: “…what you thought and/or felt at that moment”.
Today I added the page “Queens gallery”. You can see it HERE. Click on the first photo and you’ll see all of them in proper sizes and colors.
I mentioned several times in my posts that we can find beauty everywhere. It is inside us and outside. There are wonderful sunrises and sunsets everywhere. There are beautiful plants, flowers, animals, birds, parks, wonderful buildings in every big city or a small town.
Beautiful nature and beautiful people are everywhere!
I hope that you’ll like something in my photos shot in Queens.
Please take a look and let me know what you liked.
Thank you!
PAINTING by JF
Tilted?!
For many decades I look at people, things and events from different angles.
It allows me to feel and to understand more, to love more and to enjoy life fully.
Below is a photo that I shot several days ago.
Hope that you’ll like it.
TILTED by JF
From summer to spring.
Soon my wife and I again will move from summer to spring. We are looking forward to it. Why? Please read the old post below and you will understand. Please click on “original” to see photos.
Best to you!
Enjoy life!
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.
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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…
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Sail
I looked on the photo below and thought: “Would Henri Matisse like it?”
There was no answer from above or below.
“Yes!’, – came answer from inside.
What’s your opinion?
Love + horses
In June of 2014 I published my first and only play “Love and Moscow Derby”.
I hoped that many thousands from all countries will read and enjoy it.
Surely, everyone thinks about love, many people love horses and everybody is a gambler.
However, so far the play did not go viral.
Today I reread the first act of it (only love, no horses) and liked it very much.
What’s going on?
Please read the first act (only 234 words) of my play “Love and Moscow Derby” HERE.
If you like it please don’t hesitate to reblog, retweet or share it in any other way with your followers.
Go for it!
Yes, we can!
Who created symmetry (2)?
Not long ago I published the post WHO CREATED SYMMETRY?
I expressed there several original thoughts about symmetry.
One of them: “As a rule beauty is not symmetrical.”
Another: “… symmetry … shows limits of human imagination.”
Please read more in this old post and then take a look at the picture below.
What’s your opinion?
Anna Akhmatova (introduction)
I thought long and hard how to describe life of a famous woman on this blog so that you could understand this woman, her problems and her decisions, her achievements and her tragedies.
I also want to show how government of the country can take away your freedom, your loved ones and totally control your life if you allow it.
Finally, I want to show that outstanding women did not fight for equality with men. They worked hard and often achieved more than men.
There is no doubts in my mind that live of every person can be a basis for a historical novel with wide specter of events, emotions, problems, choices and their results.
However, a blog should use short posts as many bloggers follow hundreds of posts daily.
I also believe that in a blog characters and events must be painted with few words.
Now I want to remind you that recently I published the post GET A FEELING OF ANNA AKHMATOVA’S POETRY. If you missed it or forgot it please click on the title of the post and read it.
I want to add here one detail..
Anna Akhmatova’s ancestor was Khan Akhmat. From Wikipedia: “He was killed one night in his tent by a Russian killer-for-hire. Karamzin (Russian historian – JF) tells us that this marked the end of the Mongol yoke on Russia. …It was well known that this Akhmat was a descendant of Genghiz Khan.”
This explains how Anna Gorenko became Anna Akhmatova.
Pillars of the Dream: Work
I found this terrific post on the very good blog Farming The Dream and immediately decided to share it with you.
Atheists believe that work made people from apes.
What can happen if there is not enough work?
I have found that Super Bowel commercials are really the only ones worth watching. At the price they pay per minute, I’d hope so.
Though this commercial is probably not very popular in other countries, it does have a good message that comes clear in one sentence: “It’s pretty simple, you work hard, create your own luck, and you got to believe that anything is possible.” That sentence sums up the idea of work in The American Dream.
Andrew Carnegie – Source – http://greatimmigrants.carnegie.org
Work uses Opportunities within Freedom to build our lives. By its strength, we can forge different destinies for us and our families. The immigrant can become a steel magnate, like Andrew Carnegie; a boy splitting rails for the railway can become president, like Abraham Lincoln.
Source – flickr.com
I have often turned to Gaining Favor With God and Man by William M. Thayer when looking at…
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Reading
Dear friends, I have a big problem!
Often I think that we are from different worlds.
It is not because I lived 40 years in the USSR or I am a bit older than many of you.
I know that all of you love reading. I am sure that you met at some time quotes below:
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.
He that loves reading has everything within his reach.
Who I am, what I am, is the culmination of a lifetime of reading, a lifetime of stories. And there are still so many more books to read. I’m a work in progress.
So what is the problem?
I think it is in our ways of reading.
Let me explain.
When I was 8 years old I went in the library in Tashkent and a librarian told me: “I see that you love to read. Let’s do it in a right way! First read all books of fairy tales, then I’ll give you books about myths, then we’ll go through classics, then you can read books of philosophers, then some science fiction. After it you are on your own.”
This is exactly what we did. Nine years later I graduated from the high school and at that time I read many, many books written in Russian or translated from different languages into Russian. Since 1975 I also read thousands of books written in English or translated into English.
Today I don’t know how much you read or what you read. But it is very important to know!
Why? Because you can understand and accept my thoughts or posts only if you are ready for it.
Blogs are a new way of conversation. Writing and reading blogs is exercise of minds. And all of us are “work in progress”.
If we believe that we know everything, if our opinions are fixed and we are unable or not willing to follow and consider thoughts of others we stopped our growth. It means that we are mentally dying.
Several followers of this blog asked me who is my favorite author. I could not answer this question because I have favorite authors from many countries.
Today I want to mention one of them. He was born In Germany. His name is Erich Maria Remarque.
Please let me know if you read his books. If yes what his books you liked most.
Thank you!
Painting by JF
Being ordinary.
I had a nightmare:
all people became famous,
all people became very successful,
all people became very rich,
all people reached their goals and …
*NONE OF THEM WAS HAPPY!
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I took a cold shower, then turned on my PC and found two quotes below:
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“Do not ask your childrento strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.”
― William Martin
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“And while it takes courage to achieve greatness, it takes more courage to find fulfillment in being ordinary. For the joys that last have little relationship to achievement, to standing one step higher on the victory platform. What is the adventure in being ordinary? It is daring to love just for the pleasure of giving it away. It is venturing to give new life and to nurture it to maturity. It is working hard for the pure joy of being tired at the end of the day. It is caring and sharing and giving and loving…”
― Marilyn Thomsen**
I read the quotes, signed happily, drank a glass of warm milk and immediately fell asleep.
PAINTING by JF
Walls and places
I noticed today that THE DAILY POST has a photo challenge Wall and a daily prompt PLACES.
Share an image of a wall that reveals something about a place, people, or you.
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Beach, mountain, forest, or somewhere else entirely?
I thought immediately that walls of our apartment in Queens tell a lot about us, our friends, relatives and places we visited
We have three paintings of our friend artist Vladimir Ryklin, several other paintings we like (including two paintings of our granddaughters) and many my photos of different places.
Below are examples what you can see on the walls of our apartment.
CASTLE CHAMBORD IN FRANCE photo by JF
MAGNOLIA PLANTATION photo by JF
PAINTING by VLADIMIR RYKLIN
PAINTING by MARK KLIONSKY
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 