Category Archives: LOVE

Eternal Flow of Modes

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“Minds are won through love and nobility rather than force
Happiness is virtue itself rather than its reward
Hope and fear are intertwined, and
Excellent things are both rare and difficult”
Baruch Espinosa

Reading has been part of my daily life as far back as I can remember. Tracking what I read began in 2015 when I discovered Good Reads. This online database website that allows you to track what you’ve read, what you’d like to read and also review the books you’ve read.

Each year I set a goal to read a number of books. It’s a lofty goal but surprisingly because of Good Reads, I’m able to reach my goal.

I read a diverse subject matter of books because of my wide variety of interests and unbridled curiosity. I’m always nosing into something new I find exciting. Recently, because of all the terrible and horrific news on tv, I’m reading more than watching tv. I tape all my news shows and movies so I can watch them commercial free at my leisure. This has allowed me to spend more time reading and also writing my current work of fiction.

One area I have not read a lot about is Philosophy. One man in particular has caught my attention, Baruch Espinosa. He was born in 1632 and died in 1677 and was of Portuguese-Jewish origin and lived in the Dutch Republic. Espinosa’s philosophy addressed a multitude of areas such as philosophical discourse, metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science.

In one of his writings he wrote about: “What if death is not the end? It might not be the end that you want, but what if death is not the end of your story?” According to Espinosa’s monism, there might be more to your postmortem existence than you might think.

Espinosa argued that the entire universe is just one substance. He wrote how what if your body and all of your thoughts are part of this substance. How everything is part of an eternal, infinite substance. But everything that we interact with, all of the objects and all of the people that we meet are simply modes. Modes are temporary configurations of the underlying reality.

What if, you are just a particular configuration at this moment in time? Eventually, you will move on to a different mode, because we are just waves in an ocean, briefly visible above the whole. And one day, our waves will fade back again into the sea.

Likewise, you are just a fleeting moment of the infinite. You are a temporary manifestation of the one substance. Eventually, your mind and your body will disintegrate and you will rejoin the great ocean. But your substance will not vanish; it will just transform.

Espinosa invites us to see the world from the perspective of eternity, and from this view, the distinctions we make between others and ourselves, between life and death, are just illusions born of our limited perspective. And so you are not just a human. You are the universe momentarily expressed as you.

Mind blowing thoughts from a man’s theory that one day, you will rejoin the infinite substance — not as a loss, but as part of a vast ocean of the eternal flow of modes.

Shine On

Batman Shelf

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“Patience and tenacity are worth more
than twice their weight of cleverness.” 
Thomas Henry Huxley

If you are lucky to be the parent of a son born in the mid-1980’s, you remember how much they admired Super Hero’s. From Batman to Superman the costumes, pjs and action figures were scattered around their bedroom. My little boy was no different. However, he wanted a display shelf that would show off his most prized Super Hero possessions; a display shelf only fitting for a museum.

After searching relentlessly for months for a Batman style shelf and not finding one, I did what I do when I can’t find exactly what I want. I design and build it myself.

First I designed and figured out the dimensions for the shelf and made a paper template of the exact size and shape. Never having constructed a custom shelf before, I attempted to enlist my talented woodworking husband. My husband was a masterful carpenter; with his power and hand tools always ready in the garage for his magisterial skilled hands. His designs always clean and beautiful, to match the potential of the wood for the task at hand.

Hubby was very busy at the time, but was confident I could build it myself, so he set up his Dewalt table mounted jigsaw for me to cut the wood. He patiently taught me how to use the jigsaw with some scrap pieces of wood. His final instructions were to practice for a few hours until he returned before cutting the beautiful poplar wood I bought for the project.

After 20 minutes of practice, I decided I was skilled enough to cut the final pieces needed for my shelf. Needless to say, hubby was not happy with me when he returned and saw what I had done. Mostly he was angry because I might have lost a digit or two. I can’t say I remember every detail, but I do remember an argument ensued, with wood flying everywhere in the garage. After he calmed down, he was impressed with my little Batman shelf I had created. In fact, he even helped me sand and smooth the edges before I spray painted it glossy jet black.

When my son returned from his father’s house that weekend, I had already mounted the shelf on a wall in his bedroom. He was so impressed he didn’t believe his mom had build the shelf and not bought it somewhere.

To this day, when my son needs help locating something he desires, he calls me to find it for him. So far, I’ve always been able to come through for him. He admires his mom’s patience and tenacity when it comes to getting a job done. And he will always remember and appreciate the time I made his dream Batman Shelf.

Shine On

Bittersweet Song

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“Bittersweet song
Memories gone
Bittersweet song
Remembering you”
J R Malmquist

The music and lyrics I create always come from the heart. This song I just wrote and created is no different.

I continue to add songs to my Dragonfly album and here’s one I just uploaded for your listening pleasure titled, Bittersweet Song.

Taking my brain
Back to memory lane 
Thinking about you 
Warms me to my core

Once every minute with you 
Was never too long
Every kiss from you 
Was like a bittersweet song

Once every embrace with you 
Was like a blanket of love
Warming my heart
To the depths of my soul 

Bittersweet song
Memories gone
Bittersweet song
Remembering you 

Once you said 
I will never hurt you
But now you say I’m sorry 
I never meant to harm you

I forgave you 
For what happened
But I will never forget 
What you did

People that are hurt
Well they hurt people
I understand that 
Perfectly now

Bittersweet song
Memories gone
Bittersweet song
Remembering you 

Bittersweet song

Wrote and created by J R Malmquist
September 20, 2026

Shine On

A Champion For Women

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“”The truth will set you free
But first it will piss you off.” 
Gloria Steinem

Last Wednesday, September 2, 2026 the World lost another passionate talented and intelligent woman. Gloria Steinem, the American journalist and political activist who became the face for feminism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died at age 92.

Born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, Gloria Marie Steinem inherited an activist tradition. Her grandmother served as chair of the educational committee of the National Women Suffrage Association and also helped rescue members of her family, who were Jewish, from Germany during the mid-1930s.

Steinem graduated from Smith College and moved to New York in 1960, where she was often sexualized and dismissed while searching for reporting jobs in a male-dominated journalism industry. “We need a reporter, not a pretty girl,” she says she was told by an editor at Life Magazine.

By 1962, one of her first articles was published in Esquire Magazine, an exploration of birth control and shifting sexual beliefs among college students. Themes that would continue to appear in her later work.

Gloria’s near century on earth were years well lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end. Steinem was a feminist icon who spent the better part of a century advocating for women’s rights in the workplace, especially equal pay for women as well as the right to abortion and sex education.

Her name and face became synonymous with the fight for women’s rights. She continued to be a vocal proponent of feminism and other liberal causes; like anti-war activism well into her 90s. She devoted her life to the pursuit of equality and political change. She worked tirelessly for over 70 years to ensure each generation built upon the work of the previous one.

I will be forever grateful for her many accomplishments helping woman. She fought so I could choose whatever I wanted to do with my life rather than be confined by traditional gender roles. Something she said that I have lived by is:
“Do what you love so much that you forget what time it is when you’re doing it.”

She changed women’s lives by opening up possibilities we never imagined. “Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.” As she also stated: “Women are not a special interest group; they are half the population.”

She lit a torch many years ago. It is now our responsibility to keep that torch lifted and lit into the future.

Rest in peace Gloria. You will be missed as a champion for woman.

Shine On

Dolly Parton, We’ll Always Love You

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“Songwriting is my way of channeling
My feelings and my thoughts.
Not just mine, but the things I see
But also the people I care about.
My head would explode if
I didn’t get some of that stuff out.”
Dolly Parton

Today is just not as sparkly. It’s a sad day for the entire World. We lost a woman who gave us joy and happiness beyond belief. Dolly Parton died at age 80 and in those 80 years, she gave so much of herself to the World. 

She gave us beautiful music. Music is the only art form that has the capacity to touch everyone and Dolly truly touched everyone with her lyrics and songs. Parton composed over 3,000 songs, including one of my all time favorites, “I Will Always Love You”, a two-time U.S. country chart-topper and an international hit. She made over $10M in royalties from the 1992 Whitney Houston hit. She generously used that money to invest in a Nashville strip mall in a historic Black community, affectionately referring to the property as, “the house that Whitney built”.

She gave us wonderful movies to remember her by. She gave us literature for young readers who didn’t have the means to buy books, donating over 300 million books to children. She contributed millions of dollars to charity including the development of the COVID vaccine during the pandemic. 

In August 1974, I was just a teenager when I heard on the radio, Dolly Parton’s song, Love Is Like a Butterfly. The song was written and recorded by Dolly and was the first single and title track from her album, “Love Is Like a Butterfly”. It was her fourth number one hit on the country charts as a solo artist.

Her Butterfly song stayed with me all these years because of my love of butterflies. Point of fact, it touched me so much that on March 14, 2026, I created a video for my Instagram account highlighting this song. National Learn About Butterflies Day is celebrated every March 14th encouraging us to look for a blur of color as butterflies begin migrating across the country.

Her music and movies I have loved and enjoyed all my life. My poetry and music I’ve created is highly influenced by her own music and style of singing.

She always wrote from the heart. I admired her most for her strength, honesty, humor, free spirit, humbleness, dedication to her husband for over 60 years, her beauty, and her classiness. Not to mention, she was tenacious when it came to her beliefs and dreams.

Too often we don’t realize what we have until it’s gone. Today around the world, millions of people will no doubt be grieving from the loss of a true iconic treasure, Dolly Parton. We’ll always love you.

Shine On

Here’s my favorite Dolly YouTube video from September 19, 1979 Tonight Show.