While visiting the Lost Coast last month, I met a young man who counts learning foreign languages as one of his main passions. Gabe is a friend of my cousin Warren. In addition to speaking several languages, Gabe also makes a mean Mexican Pesto, which is wholly different from my Mexican Pesto. Gabe's Mexican Pesto is hot, hot, hot. He showed us how to make it one evening after dinner. Serrano peppers, roasted. Dried Thai hot peppers, roasted. Garlic. Olive oil. Salt. Intense. The mere thought of it makes my mouth water.
While Gabe was bravely dicing piping hot peppers, he shared a Spanish saying with me. Due to my foreign language handicap, I have absolutely no idea what the phrase is, but I got the gist of it: The heart cannot miss what the eyes have not seen.
(Please, if you're familiar with Spanish sayings, and you know this saying, by all means, fill me in!)
I can't remember exactly how or why this phrase came up. It might have had something to do with our conversation about not touching one's eyes after chopping hot peppers. But the phrase as I remember it keeps flowing through my mind. It is simple, honest and true.
The heart cannot miss what the eyes have not seen.
Or how about this:
The heart cannot miss what the hands have not touched.
The heart cannot miss what the tongue has not tasted (mmmmm, Mexican Pesto).
The heart cannot miss what the ears have not heard.
The heart cannot miss what the nose has not smelled (OK, maybe that's stretching it a little, but just wait 'til you smell Thai hot peppers being roasted).
Life is truly an experience for the senses. Let not our hearts miss out on any of it.
Glad I can be the first to post.. if I hurry typing my thoughts! Gabe's pesto is constantly on my mind-what else do I out it on? Gabe cooked for us last November in Hawaii. The he came to our house for the pesto, but we ran out of it too soon. He made a large batch while at the Lost Coast, but alas it half gone! Hope to make a new batch soon!
ReplyDeleteLove
Dad
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ReplyDeleteI meant to PUT not out
ReplyDeleteYou are so, so right!
ReplyDeleteyou are so right about all the things that matter.
ReplyDeletexo
so so true.
ReplyDeleteMy 2 years of High School Russian language are of no use here, but I'd guess it's the equivalent of how can you miss what you haven't known?.
ReplyDeleteIt sure sounds better in Spanish.
El corazón no puede faltar lo que no han visto los ojos.
ReplyDeleteOjos que no ven corazon que no siente, it means that what eyes doesnt see doesnt hurt your heart. you say that when you did something that is better to keep unknow for the good of the others. ;p is very popular here in Spain.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed so much your blog. And please forgive my english!
My flickr is flipping to French too! How weird! I'm getting French emails from them too! It's been happening for the last couple of months. I keep logging in and clicking English at the bottom to flip it back!..but it doesn't seem to stick.
ReplyDeleteWe say something very similar: What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over.
ReplyDeleteHere, here!!
ReplyDelete:)
It is strange, a little, isn't it? that life is better when there is something to grieve over. No joy without sorrow.
ReplyDeleteWe have a saying around here that we use a lot, from my husband's Spanish grandmother. The verb tenses seem wrong in it, but this is how he interpreted it from her:
ReplyDeleteEl que va a Sevilla, perdio su silla.
He who goes to Seville loses his seat. Sounds better in Spanish. It's the perfect thing to say when someone gets up and you take his or her spot!
And now I'm adopting ojos que no ven corazon no siente. I'm sort of a language freak, and that phrase is a beauty.
Lost Coast?! That's my neck of the woods; you probably drove right by my exit. :) I like the expression, but I started thinking about the spiritual longing we all have inside. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." ~ Apostle Paul
ReplyDeleteLove the quote. It also reminds me how our quest for "more" is so fueled by what we see in magazines, on TV, etc. If we just knew what we and our neighbors had, we'd probably feel we were perfectly fine.
ReplyDeleteYour photo reminds me of when we went to Jamaica. The restaurant cooked with open flame at your table. Ahhh.. the eyes remember, and the heart misses.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the quotation from LePetit Prince:
ReplyDelete"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."
¡¡ Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente !!!!
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