Our genes, which we inherit from our parents, determine who we are biologically.
Our blueprint. Everything from our eye color to our height. Even our laugh.
But also our diseases. Asthma, diabetes, cancers.
But who you are at your core goes way beyond genes.
Who you really are is the result of many, many things. How you deal with fear. Who you surround yourself with.
And how you show up when it matters.
The organs in the human body have entirely different functions.
The cells which make up those organs act independently of each other.
But in a healthy body, seemingly independent cells quietly depend on the functioning of the others. Because when one system stops working, the others can't function for long.
Just as organ systems are codependent for survival, so are human beings. Studies have shown that our happiness and health depends on our relationships not just functioning, but thriving.
Sometimes the best we can do is bear each other's burdens and ease each other's pain.
And hold each other's hands in the dark.
They say your life flashes before your eyes right before you die.
The important moments. The moments that tested you. The moments that made you who you are.
We're all gonna die.
We don't get much say over how or when, but we do decide how we're gonna live.
So do it, decide. Is this the life you wanna live? Is this the person you wanna love? Is this the best you can be? Can you be stronger? Kinder? More compassionate?
Decide.
Breathe in, breathe out, and decide.
There is this playground game that kids play.
They lock hands and on the count of three, they try to snap each others fingers off. You hold out as long as you can or at least longer than the other guy. The game doesn't end until someone says stop, gives up, cries mercy. It isn't a fun game. In the game of mercy, when one kid cries out, the other one listens and the pain stops.
Don't you wish it was that easy now?
It's not a game anymore and we're not kids. You can cry mercy all you want, but nobody's listening.
It's just you, screaming into a void.
The human body is full of energy.
Sprinting at full speed, it produces enough wattage to power anything in your house.
Your cells are built to move charged ions through the cellular membrane. And the nervous system is a highway of electrical signals zapping through your muscles and brain.
Your body runs on positive and negative charges, all obeying a basic law of physics: opposites attract.
There's lightning in everyone. Opposite charges finding each other. They connect. They spark.
And as long as they do, your life goes on. Your cells keep multiplying. Your brain keeps thinking. Your body wants to move, so it moves, because it can.
Life is electricity. Positive and negative. Creation and destruction.
Destruction, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
But we're all storms inside.
In the 1800s, one of the more common reasons women visited the doctor was hysteria.
A now defunct diagnosis.
Hysteria was used to describe a wide array of symptoms: chest pain, anxiety, a swollen abdomen, mood swings. They tried a variety of treatments for hysteria, ranging from rest to psychosomatic therapy.
But true relief for these women didn't exist until physicians tried using what they called pelvic massage. The cure was called a hysterical paroxysm, which, today, has come to been known as an orgasm.
Modern medicine continues to recognize the stress-reducing benefits of the female orgasm but doctors no longer perform the cure.
When done properly and consensually, sex can be medicine. We know it reduces stress and strengthens the immune system. It even rejuvenates your brain activity.
But sex without connection can leave you feeling empty.
Friendship, laughter, simple human touch, these are stress relievers too. Because truly, it's about connection. When you're physically close to another person, the nervous system responds. The body is flooded with feel-good hormones.
And everything else just fades away.
For thou art the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory
Ah broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
Let the bell toll!--a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;
And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear?--weep now or never more!
See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!
Come! let the burial rite be read--the funeral song be sung!--
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young--
A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.
"Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,
"And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her--that she died!
"How shall the ritual, then, be read?--the requiem how be sung
"By you--by yours, the evil eye,--by yours, the slanderous tongue
"That did to death the innocent that died, and died so young?"
Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song
Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel so wrong!
The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside
Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride--
For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies,
The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes--
The life still there, upon her hair--the death upon her eyes.
"Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise,
"But waft the angel on her flight with a Pæan of old days!
"Let no bell toll!--lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth,
"Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damnéd Earth.
"To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven--
"From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven--
"From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven."
"Lenore" is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
It began as a different poem, "A Paean", and was not published as "Lenore" until 1843.
The poem discusses proper decorum in the wake of the death of a young woman, described as "the queenliest dead that ever died so young".
The poem concludes:
"No dirge shall I upraise,
But waft the angel on her flight with a paean of old days!"
Lenore's fiancé, Guy de Vere, finds it inappropriate to "mourn" the dead; rather, one should celebrate their ascension to a new world.
Unlike most of Poe's poems relating to dying women, "Lenore" implies the possibility of meeting in paradise.
The poem may have been Poe's way of dealing with the illness of his wife Virginia. The dead woman's name, however, may have been a reference to Poe's recently dead brother, William Henry Leonard Poe.
Poetically, the name Lenore emphasizes the letter "L" sound, a frequent device in Poe's female characters including "Annabel Lee", "Eulalie", and "Ulalume".
the theme of the death of a beautiful woman, which Poe called "the most poetical topic in the world".
women in many works by Poe, she marries young and is struck with illness.
Poe's death poems may have been his way of dealing with the illness of his wife Virginia.
The dead woman's name, however, may have been a reference to Poe's recently dead brother, William Henry Leonard Poe.
Biographers and critics usually suggest Poe's frequent use of the "death of a beautiful woman" theme stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his own life, including his mother Eliza Poe and his foster mother Frances Allan.
A strong case can be made for Poe's wife Virginia: She was the one he loved as a child, the only one who had been his bride, and the only one who had died
Poetically, the letter "L" sound, a frequent device in Poe's female characters in "Annabel Lee", "Eulalie", and "Ulalume".
Annabel Lee - w/ lyrics ~ STEVIE NICKS
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 her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
"Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe.
Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman.
The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are envious. He retains his love for her after her death.
There has been debate over who, if anyone, was the inspiration for "Annabel Lee". Though many women have been suggested, Poe's wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe is one of the more credible candidates.
Written in 1849, it was not published until shortly after Poe's death that same year.
The poem's narrator describes his love for Annabel Lee, which began many years ago in a "kingdom by the sea".
Though they were young, their love for one another burned with such intensity that even angels were envious. For this reason the narrator believes the seraphim caused her death.
Even so, their love is strong enough that it extends beyond the grave and the narrator believes their two souls are still entwined.
Every night, the narrator dreams of Annabel Lee and sees the brightness of her eyes in the stars. Every night the narrator lies down by her side in her tomb by the sea.
Like many other Poe poems including "The Raven", "Ulalume", and "To One in Paradise", "Annabel Lee" follows the theme of the death of a beautiful woman, which Poe called "the most poetical topic in the world".
Like women in many other works by Poe, she marries young and is struck with illness.
The poem focuses on an ideal love which is unusually strong. In fact, the narrator's actions show that he not only loves Annabel Lee, but he worships her, something he can only do after her death. The narrator admits that he and Annabel Lee were children when they fell in love, but his explanation that angels murdered her is in itself childish, suggesting he has failed to mature since then. His repetition of this assertion suggests he is trying to rationalize his own excessive feelings of loss.
Unlike "The Raven", in which the narrator believes he will "nevermore" be reunited with his love, "Annabel Lee" says the two will be together again, as not even demons "can ever dissever" their souls.
The name Annabel Lee emphasizes the letter "L", a frequent device in Poe's female characters such as "Eulalie", "Lenore", and "Ulalume".
It is unclear on whom the eponymous character Annabel Lee is based. Biographers and critics usually suggest Poe's frequent use of the "death of a beautiful woman" theme stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his own life, including his mother Eliza Poe and his foster mother Frances Allan. Biographers often interpret that "Annabel Lee" was written for Poe's wife Virginia, who had died two years prior
A strong case can be made for Poe's wife Virginia: She was the one he loved as a child, the only one who had been his bride, and the only one who had died
Some believed that Annabel Lee was merely the product of Poe's gloomy imagination and that Annabel Lee was no real person in particular.
Local legend in Charleston, South Carolina tells the story of a sailor who met a woman named Annabel Lee. Her father disapproved of the pairing and the two met privately in a graveyard before the sailor's time stationed in Charleston was up. While away, he heard of Annabel's death from yellow fever, but her father would not allow him at the funeral. Because he did not know her exact burial location, he instead kept vigil in the cemetery where they had often secretly met. There is no evidence that Edgar Allan Poe had heard of this legend, but locals insist it was his inspiration, especially considering Poe was briefly stationed in Charleston while in the army in 1827
