Sentimental Journey**

This is starting off to be quiet a sappy week. I just got an Amazon package in the mail and ripped into a CD I had purchased. Of course, I always have to read the “Thank Yous” from the artist first, and as I did, I started crying. Yes, picture me sitting here in my cubicle, eating my Lean Cuisine and sobbing over a short and sweet CD thank you list.

1. No, it wasn’t a thank you to me.
2. And no, I don’t always read them just because I’m expecting an artist to someday make such a public declaration to me...although that would be lovely. A bit random but wonderful just the same!

I was in tears because the artist (also known as Chris Rice) said the following thank you to:

"Elizabeth Barrett Browning for letting the words escape.”

[OK, this is sad. I’m tearing up again.]

Not all of you may know this, but Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote incredible poems of the Victorian Era. She had poor health most of her life and was confined to a bed for years, and yet her poems are filled with such passion, such vivid expressions of feeling and life. I'm a big fan.

Another writer of that time, Robert Browning, loved her work so much that he started corresponding with the authoress. They courted in secret due to the irrational views of her father, who basically disinherited his children one by one as they married. Eventually, the couple eloped and moved to Italy. I love that story. Elizabeth later wrote the Sonnets from the Portuguese and dedicated it her husband Robert Browning, and those are my favorites. Here is one of them, which is also one of the most famous, Sonnet 44...

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Isn't that just amazing?

So today as I was reading the CD insert, I was touched that there actually exists another man out there (besides Robert Browning) who loved her work. [sigh!] So touched that I started crying and then laughing about my tears.

Crying because I didn’t know that such a man existed.
Laughing because I turn to mush over one line.
Crying because I don’t know this man.
Laughing because I'm even thinking about this.
Crying because I feel pathetic.
Laughing because this is what hope looks like these days.

It's all good, Mel. Just breathe.

**I didn't dare listen to the CD at work. I was already a basketcase. So tonight, I listened on my laptop as I caught up with my emails and did some writing. And I was fine until track number 9 got me. TOTALLY got me sobbing. It (Let the Words Escape) was inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. WOW! Good stuff for this obviously-sentimental-girl today. Thanks, Chris!