"Love Affair" When having a love affair with death, one cannot have a love affair with life, sweet brother. It's not our fault if the rose loses her innocence As it isn't our fault if ours was taken away. The sun may refuse to shine but it's there Your gentle beauty and joy may be covered by hurt and tiredness, But it's there, And in there, your Divine Self lives, And in there, there's eternal life, And for all that it's worth, It's the best love affair I ever had. "Breathing" I receive the golden light I say yes To the burden and the smile I say yes To the freedom and the pain I say yes To the brave and the coward I say yes To the embrace and the letting go I say yes As night arrives I say thank you for the day As day emerges I say thank you for the night With every and each breath I say yes Breathing and love: two keys for physical, emotional, and spiritual survival for us all. Without one we pass on from this realm, without the other we have passed on yet remain within this realm. Rev. Luis Caldeira's debut collection of meditations, poems, sighs, and songs journeys into the essence of what it means to be human as it evocatively explores the nooks and crannies of our consciousness. Thought provoking and emotionally resonant, it breathes life into all it touches, evoking feelings of warmth, connection, inspiration, and communion. A stunning collection filled with the power of faith and love, Caldeira eschews New Age self-help guides' problem-and-solution methodology to instead create emotional connection and inner peace through imagery, metaphor, and spiritual enlightenment. Each addition to the collection adds a thread of subtlety and nuance, overlapping in the creation of a tapestry depicting a beautiful image of the human experience. Including the reverence for inspiration in "Muse," the need to believe not our eyes but our hearts in "Sight," the falling away of self that leads to the ultimate ability to be a positive light in "Morning Prayer," and the reminder that He is not in buildings or places sanctioned by man but within ourselves in "The Eternal Seeker," Caldeira's verse brings to life the truths of our spiritual beings with clarity, hope, and elation. Sharing his spiritual struggles, joys, and enlightenments, Rev. Caldeira courageously bears his soul in an autobiographic work that is nothing short of a revelation. In its pages there is solace, inspiration, and the reminder that we are never alone in our path or our experiences, that we are indeed connected on a deeper, more fundamental level than the ephemeral of our earthly world. A wondrous call to all readers to find their own places of communion with the Beloved, Listening to Silence: Poems, Prayers, and Supplications contains the quiet power of life and the breadth of vision of His love.