Isabelle Maria Netto

( dedicated to my precious niece who turned 4 on the 8th of October 2008 )



Dearest Darling Belle,

Its amazing how time has flown!

I remember the call from your all excited grandma announcing your arrival as clearly as if it were a moment ago...

Baby girl ! she exclaimed...

I giggled to myself and said…”I told you so…”

I hurried off to Chinatown…where I insisted on a dozen yellow roses with a purple ribbon...



WOW…

……those were my first thoughts as I laid eyes on you the very first time.

All bundled up..and sound asleep, you were perfection personified.

With your eye lashes that curled perfectly…and your fingers that were long and slender ..

“oh, she’s going to be amazing with the piano!”

( now that has rang true , hasn’t it Bella darling ?!)




Bella darling…

Thank you for being the sunshine of our family….and that sunshine you shall always be.

St. Augustine

Beside St. John the Apostle, St. Augustine of Hippo is the saint that has always intrigued me…. His work, all as immensely passionate they are as intellectual.

One of my favorite excerpt's from his confessions :


“ Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved You !

And behold, You were within me and I was outside, and there I sought for You,
And in my deformity I rushed head-long into the well formed things that You have made.

You were with me, and I was not with You.

Those outer beauties held me far from You, yet if they had not been in You, they would not have existed at all.

You called and cried out to me and broke open my deafness;
You shone forth upon me, and you scattered my blindness;
You breathed fragrance, and I drew in my breath and
I now pant for You : I tasted , and I hunger and thirst ;

You touched me , and I burned for Your peace.”