音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.75]Passage 46 When Heaven and Earth Kiss

[00:07.32]For my money, a good sunset is the cheapest shot of wonder out there.

[00:12.90]Think of it —bursts of incandescent energy that can curl your toes,

[00:18.49]warm your soul, and prove cost effective all at the same time.

[00:23.73]The iciest hearts on the planet can be thawed by the heaven’s burnished flame.

[00:29.09]Countries sitting down for peace talks ought to begin

[00:33.21]with a joint viewing of rose-dipped hues and golden halos

[00:38.17]merging into growing flowers of light.

[00:41.35]And for romance, this daily dose of celestial seduction

[00:46.49]is just what the love doctor ordered.

[00:49.22]When first meeting the incredible woman who is now my wife,

[00:53.38]I quickly caught what Bonnie was about when I asked the age-worn question,

[00:59.51]“So, what do you do?”

[01:01.37]“I chase sunsets,” she replied. I was a goner.

[01:06.40]I’m not sure if that was the exact moment when I fell in love,

[01:11.21]but it was, at least, the start of my descent.

[01:15.16]Cut to our honeymoon and one of my favorite settings in the world

[01:19.64]—Ireland, the Emerald Isle.

[01:22.60]One day we were traveling from the city of Galway toward the Ring of Kerry.

[01:28.50]Late in the afternoon we discovered that a boat up ahead

[01:33.20]could ferry us across a tributary and save some four hours’ driving time.

[01:38.89]I made for the last launch, a mere ten minutes and eighteen kilometers away.

[01:44.92]With luck, and no livestock crossings, we would just make it.

[01:50.05]All of a sudden Bonnie called out, “Stop!”

[01:53.12]Dutifully, I pulled over.

[01:55.52]Bonnie pointed to the sky.

[01:57.72]It was the sunset.

[01:59.79]Not just any sunset.

[02:01.77]This clearly was a masterpiece.

[02:04.61]Getting out, we drank deep of a heavenly show of amber and golden hues,

[02:10.63]rose finger clouds painting the broad canvas of sky.

[02:15.66]The bridge would wait another day.

[02:18.28]The Ring of Kerry wasn’t going anywhere.

[02:21.89]Bonnie and I inhaled the magnificent sunset like ambrosia.

[02:27.14]Sunsets, and sunrises for that matter, are gifts served up in plentiful procession.

[02:35.25]It’s one of life’s ways of taking a simple pause, marking the day.

[02:40.61]If we’re too busy, caught in the whirlwind of our own manufacturing, we miss the magic.

[02:47.39]What is required in order to drink the heady miracle of morning or evening light

[02:53.73]is a consciousness of how we use the time allotted to us each day.

[02:59.59]Pausing for a moment, we willingly open our spirits to the gifts of the universe.

[03:06.43]These are indeed the gifts that help make life this good.

[00:32.60]blazing fire in my heart and senses.

[00:35.66]When shall I be able to pass every minute near you,

[00:39.61]with nothing to do but to love you

[00:42.34]and nothing to think of but the pleasure of telling you of it and giving you proof of it?

[00:48.36]I loved you some time ago; since then I feel that I love you a thousand times better.

[00:54.59]Ever since I have known you I adore you more every day.

[00:59.41]That proves how wrong is that saying of La Bruyere “Love comes all of a sudden.”

[01:05.97]Ah, let me see some of your faults;

[01:09.91]be less beautiful,less graceful, less tender,less good.

[01:15.16]But never be jealous and never shed tears.

[01:19.21]Your tears send me out of my mind... they set my very blood on fire.

[01:24.68]Believe me that it is utterly impossible for me to have a single thought that is not yours,

[01:33.00]a single fancy that is not submissive to your will.

[01:36.28]Rest well. Restore your health.

[01:40.00]Come back to me and then at any rate before we die we ought to be able to say:

[01:45.91]“We were happy for so very many days!”

[01:49.84]Millions of kisses even to your dog.