Prayer For My DaughterConsidering that, all hatred driven hence, The soul recovers radical innocence And learns at last that it is self-delighting, Self-appeasing, self-affrighting, And that its own sweet will is Heaven's will; She can, though every face should scowl And every windy quarter howl Or every bellows burst, be happy still.

And may her bridegroom bring her to a house Where all's accustomed, ceremonious; For arrogance and hatred are the wares Peddled in the thoroughfares. How but in custom and in ceremonyAre innocence and beauty born? Ceremony's a name for the rich horn, And custom for the spreading laurel tree.

[emphasis added above]

William Butler Yeats, 1865 - 1939Irish poet and dramatistWinner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1923

Sunday, November 28, 2010

For the last fifteen years or so, I have had a little tradition of making a set of cards for my mother, one for each of the four Sundays in Advent. Each year the design is different, with a new theme of some kind.

As my transitional ritual from Thanksgiving into Christmas, I always devote a few hours of the long weekend to getting the Advent cards ready and (hopefully) getting the first one in the mail in time for Sunday. Some years I fall a bit behind on that optimistic deadline; but as long as the first one arrives somewhere within the first week of the season, it's not hard to keep mailing the others out in a timely, weekly fashion.

This year, I had the idea to design them as Valentines, using red lace doilies, ribbons, and a handful of fancy little gift tags that I found on amazon, featuring sentiments that lend themselves nicely to the symbolism behind each candle on the Advent Wreath.

Week One, the Candle of HopeDispelling the Darkness:

We must never be afraid to go too far, for truth lies beyond."

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

~ both passages by Marcel Proust ~ This is the first year I ever thought of scanning the finished results of my little Advent Card Project into the computer -- perfect for saving and sharing. I hope you like!

"Our lives are filled with people who provoke us,
especially people we love.
They help us figure out our own shit
and why we are here.
And why are we here again? . . .
We don't know. . . .
We only sort of know. . . .
To live, love, help -- to decorate.
To sweep our huts and find some food."

from Grace (Eventually) Thoughts on Faith, 135
by Anne Lamott (b. 1954)
American writer and progressive political activist

And, of course, there's always Brian Andreas to capture the essence of the occasion. He is clearly in agreement with Lamott about the food:

REAL REASON
"There are things you do because they feel right
& they may make no sense
& they may make no money
& it may be the real reason we are here:
to love each other
& to eat each other's cooking
& say it was good."

And full of humorous advice for the long weekend:

PRETEND VISITOR
"We stood out on the porch before we went inside
& she told me her secret.
Pretend you're just visiting, she said.
That way you'll forget that they're family."

SUCCESSFUL HOLIDAY
Rules for a successful holiday:
1. Get together with the family
2. Relive old times
3. Get out before it blows

P.S. Just for the record, I actually wish I saw more of my family, not less! By the way, Aaron and I were wondering about his lips & Di's teeth in the family portrait above! How did we come up with those features? All I can think of is that maybe it was around Halloween & they were wearing those wax lips & fangs that we used to buy! Ha!

P.P.S. It's true that some of the above passages appeared on this blog last year (June 2009 and November 2009), but I think they are solid enough for a repeat -- and just so appropriate for Thanksgiving that I couldn't resist posting them again this weekend.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

For that free Grace bringing us past great risks& thro' great griefs surviving to this feastsober & still, with the children unborn and born,among brave friends, Lord, we stand again in debtand find ourselves in the glad position: Gratitude.

We praise our ancestors who delivered us herewithin warm walls all safe, aware of music,likely toward ample & attractive meatwith whatever accompanimentKate in her kind ingenuity has seen fit to devise,

and we hope - across the most strange year to come - continually to do them and You not sufficient honourbut such as we become able to deviseout of decent or joyful conscience & thanksgiving.Yippee! Bless then, as Thou wilt, this wilderness board.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When you reassemble your fragmentary self and grow with the calm of a tree.

See the little mouse in the above painting by popular bird artist, Charley Harper? At first, it looks like another leaf, but the title provides a hint. Likewise, the owl in this poem by John Haines preys upon mice but is a friend and silent companion to the narrator. The eerie, prophetic tone here is similar to that of "Listening in October" (mentioned recently). If the Owl Calls Again
at dusk
from the island in the river,
and it's not too cold,

I'll wait for the moon
to rise,
then take wing and glide
to meet him.

We will not speak,
but hooded against the frost
soar above
the alder flats, searching
with tawny eyes.

And then we'll sit
in the shadowy spruce
and pick the bones
of careless mice,

while the long moon drifts
toward Asia
and the river mutters
in its icy bed.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Both Peg and Jan shared these photos with accompanying comments about remembering this attitude more often.

Peg: "I wish I had more of that young attitude in my adult life!"

Jan: There's something to be said about girls and their young confidence. It helps me to look at these photos and to pull the energy from them. My adult self is not near so self-assured and could use a lesson from these young things."

Thursday, November 11, 2010

"Though I have been trained as a soldier, and participated in many battles, there never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a court, recognized by all nations, will settle international differences."

Ulysses S. Grant, 1822 - 1885Commanding General of the United States Army, 1864 to 186518th President of the United States, 1869 - 1877# 2.I first came across the following poem just a few days after the 9 / 11 disaster, and it seemed almost uncannily appropriate in a backward - looking kind of way. It is the third section of a longer sequence entitled "Wartime Child" by Liverpool poet Adrian Henri, one of the more-quoted authors on this blog.

BlackoutIt doesn't seem the same place after dark.In the Park they've taken away the railings*to make guns. As soon as the sun's gone downthe whole town seems changed: it's strange,you can't tell where the pavement is.Auntie Margaret fell over someone's bikethe other night. Only a pale blue lightfrom cars. Of course, you can see the stars.We saw one once Dad said was Mars.When there's a moon the barrage balloonsshine like silver. So that the Germanswon't know where they are, there's no nameson the stations. We can't tell, either.It smells of steam and soldiers sleepon kitbags. Sometimes the Yanks give uschewing-gum. Mum says all the shopsused to be lit up, just like you see themin America on the cinema.It must be nice with all the lights.

*My mother-in-law Rosanne Bristow McCartney, raised in a small village outside of Liverpool, once explained to me that after all the gates and railings in the Liverpool neighborhoods had been confiscated by the army, it was discovered that they were the wrong metal to use for ammunition, so piles of beautiful old iron work were just scrapped. The homeowners never got their pieces back and just had to build up wooden replacements instead. More fruitless loss. More waste.

*Though I could swear that Karen is always singing "Noon," in their printed matter, the Carpenters themselves refer to this song sometimes as "Noon" sometimes as "Moon." If anyone knows why the duplicity, please tell!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

" . . . hour after hour in the wind and weather . . . the small hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in the dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection."

Friday, November 5, 2010

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the word, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

"The mass of humankind will never have any ardent zeal for seeing things as they are; very inadequate ideas will always satisfy them. On these inadequate ideas reposes, and must repose, the general practice of the world. That is as much as saying that if you set yourself to see things as they are, you will find yourself one of a very small circle; but it is only by this small circle resolutely doing its own work that adequate ideas will ever get current at all. The rush and roar of practical life will always have a dizzying and attracting effect upon the most collected spectators, and tend to draw them into its vortex . . . But it is only by remaining collected, and refusing to lend himself to the point of view of the practical man, that the critic can do the practical man any service; and it is only by the greatest sincerity in pursuing his own course, and by at last convincing even the practical man of his sincerity, that he can escape misunderstandings which perpetually threaten him."

#5. "It is not only the leader of men, statesman, philosopher, or poet, that owes this duty to mankind. Every rustic who delivers in the village ale-house his slow, infrequent sentences, may help to kill or keep alive the fatal superstitions which clog his race. Every hard-worked wife of an artisan may transmit to her children beliefs which shall knit society together, or rend it in pieces. No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that we believe. ~ William Clifford

Shortly before he died, my grandfather taught me a very important lesson about trusting and sharing when it comes to family heirlooms. It was Christmastime 1982 when he offered me the 1913 photograph of his brother Sam, who was killed in WWI. Knowing this to be one of his most treasured possessions, I said, "I don't want to take it if you're not ready to part with it."

My grandfather responded with words that I shall never forget: "Well, Honey Girl, if I give it to you, I'm not parting with it." As I left his house that December night to return to college, he wished me a Happy New Year and said, "You're a quarter of a century old now, Kitti Girl. You must make your own decisions." That was the last time I saw him. I should have got on a Greyhound Bus and gone to visit him over Spring Break; I regret to say that I did not.

I used to think that one day, if I had a son, I would name him after this favorite grandfather. As it turned out, however, I married a man with the last name of "McCartney" and decided that it would not be fair to name a child "Paul McCartney," thus saddling him with the task of repeatedly denying that his parents had named him after one of the Beatles. Also, as it turns out, my husband Gerry, hails from Liverpool, though he claims no relation to the famous Paul, other than to say that they are related "by talent"!

Still, despite this quandary of surname, I was reluctant to relinquish my plan to honor my grandfather with a namesake. Our first son already carried the family name of "William," so Gerry and I settled on naming our second son after Great Uncle Sam, whose memory my grandfather had cherished all his life. I feel sure that having a great-grandson named Sam would suit him every bit as much as having one named Paul. Here is the picture that my grandfather passed on to me, and that I in turn will pass on to my son, Samuel Jerome McCartney:

"About the picture of your Uncle Sam: it was taken close to Barnsdall, Oklahoma, about this time of year 1913. He lacked a little over two months of his 21st birthday. We were both working on a booster station there and I had my 18th birthday while there. He lived five years after that. He was killed July 31, 1918 in what is known as the Aisne - Marne Battle. Aisne - Marne are two rivers running parallel to each other, and the battle was about 30 miles northeast of Paris. There is a National Cemetery of the same name, and Sam was originally buried there but was brought home two years later and buried at Niotaze. He looks like a little boy in that picture, but he was much of a little man. Never weighed as much as 150 until he went to the Army."

Click below to hear
the inimitable Johnny Cash (1932 - 2003)
or Robert Service himself (1874 - 1958)
recite "The Cremation of Sam McGee"

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

"And when your children's children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. You will never be alone."

Monday, November 1, 2010

I came across this touching verse a few years ago but have been unable to confirm its title or source. If anyone has further information, please advise. In the meantime, I think it's the perfect poem for All Saints Day:

In every heart is kept a shrine
To the beloved dead
To whom we raise the summer wine
And break our daily bread.
Live each day fully, o'er and o'er,
As if each were the end,
Until death knocks upon the door,
Our quiet and faithful friend.

I hope you have a moment on this All Saints Day to watch my friend Diane's beautiful video in honor of her friend Dave. Click here to view A Tribute to Dave Cady, set to the music of Warreb Zevon's tender ballad, "Keep Me In Your Heart":

Keep Me In Your Heart
Shadows are falling and I'm running out of breath
Keep me in your heart for awhile

If I leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less
Keep me in your heart for awhile

When you get up in the morning and you see that crazy sun
Keep me in your heart for awhile

There's a train leaving nightly called when all is said and done
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sometimes when you're doing simple things
around the house
Maybe you'll think of me and smile

You know I'm tied to you like the buttons on
your blouse
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Hold me in your thoughts, take me to your dreams
Touch me as I fall into view
When the winter comes keep the fires lit
And I will be right next to you

About Me

Married to Gerry McCartney, Two Sons, Two Cats, Ph.D. in English
(Modern British Fiction; Univ. of Notre Dame), author of Created In Our Image: The Miniature Body of the Doll; one of six sibs, including a twin
brother.

HOLIDAY FASHION TIP

"The only way to atone for being occasionally a little overdressed is by being always absolutely over-educated." --Oscar Wilde

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QUOTIDIAN

Photo by Dagmar Murray Chicago February 2009 [Click Photo for Info]

"It is out of the dailiness of life that one is driven into the deepest recesses of the self."

~ Stanley Kunitz

Elizabeth Bishop was "aware of the small-

ness and dignity of human observation."

~David Kalstone

"Why shouldn't we, so generally addicted to the gigantic, at last have some small works of art, some short poems, short pieces of music [. . .] some intimate, low-voiced, and delicate things in our mostly huge and roaring, glaring world?~Elizabeth Bishop

"Ordinary Things: It's hardest to love the ordinary things, she said, but you get lots of opportunities to practice."

"Let us not take it for granted that life exists more fully in what is commonly thought big than in what is commonly thought small."

and

"Down, down into the midst of ordinary things."~Virginia Woolf, British novelist(1882 - 1941)

" . . . the skills of the ordinary, dutiful choring that made up most of every life, and was so much the worth and the pride of that life, by local reckoning."~Marilynne Robinson,

American novelist(b. 1943)from her novel Home, 61

"The big ideas huddlein the jar together.You spread them overthe black bread of day after dayand swallow them."~Quinton Duval, American Poet(1948 - 2010)

"I made a list of things I haveto remember and a listof things I want to forget,but I see they are the same list."~Linda Pastan, American Poet(b 1932)

"Don't sweat the small stuff, and its all small stuff. That's absurd. Lots of small stuff is really big. . . . The essence of the season lies in figuring out what small stuff is passing minutiae and what is enduring memory. Come to think of it, that may well be the essence of everything."~Anna Quindlen, American writer(b 1953)

Simple Words At Parting

but worlds are madeof hello and goodbye:glad sorry or both(big little and all)

from 73 POEMSby e.e. cummings

The few simple wordsat parting, that meanso much to him whostays, to him who goes

from the novel Wattby Samuel Beckett

in this beautythe car stops . . .and one of you looks back . . .you may touch one another's lips,or notit hardly makes any difference,so beautiful is desire

from the poem "Desire"by Lee Perron

Mary sighed, for the feeling again came over her that it was very flat to be left alone.

Mournful is't to say farewell,though for few brief hours we part; in that absence who can tell what may come to wring the heart.~Anon. quoted in Mary Barton, chap 17

from the novel Mary Bartonby Elizabeth Gaskell

. . . so much depends,she thought, upon distance:whether people are near usor far from us.

from To the Lighthouseby Virginia Woolf

Why Write?

“We write to taste lifetwice, in the momentand in retrospection.”~ Anais Nin

"In fact, I didn't expect thatanybody would be interestedin my kind of writing.I was interested, andthis was for me enough.~I. B. Singer

"Possibly the book may not sell,but that is nothing --it was written for love."~Mark Twain

"I am just going to writebecause I cannot help it."~Charlotte Bronte

"It is not often thatsomeone comes alongwho is a true friendand a good writer.Charlotte was both."

from Charlotte's Web~ E. B. White"A writer -- and, I believe, generally all persons --must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art."~Jorge Luis BorgesArgentine writer (1899-1986)

"When you are very honest with yourself, and brave enough, you can express yourself fully. Whatever people may think,it is all right. Just be yourself. That is actual practice, your actual life." ~Suzuki Roshi

"How do I know what I thinktill I see what I say."~E. M. Forster

"If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors, or mounted policemen."~Dashiell Hammett

THE PRICE OF EXPERIENCE

You have learned something.That always feels at firstas if you have lost something."

by George Bernard Shaw

In much wisdom is much grief:and those who increase knowledgeincrease sorrow.

from Ecclesiastes 1: 18

What is the price of experience?Do you buy if for a song --Or wisdom for a dancein the street?No. It is bought with the priceof all that you have:your heart,your home,your children.

by William Blake

The naive ecstasies of her girlhood had longsince departed -- the price paid for experienceand self-possession and a true vision of things.

by Arnold Bennettfrom The Old Wives' Tale

I want them to know that I cannot ever feelabout the world the way I might have felthad they never come near me.

by Mary Gordonfrom the story "Violation"in Temporary Shelter

Really wanting to work up to 3 dimensions, but not sure it'll be as fun as everyone says. It's hard to trust anyone who's already doing it, he said. They never remember what they lost to get there.

From StoryPeople:by Brian Andreas

Little Book of Forgiveness

When you are trying to decide whether someone deserves your forgiveness, you are asking the wrong question. Ask instead whether you deserve to be someone who consistently forgives. (17)

The most efficient forgiveness answers attack just as it happens, neither by condoning nor opposing it, but by staunchly offering correction of its senselessness. (26)

When did you decide that you had the power to ruin your whole life? How do you know how much healing is possible? Are you in charge of all creation? Are you calling all the shots? (40)

Never forget that to forgive yourself is to release trapped energy that could be doing good work in the world. Thus, to judge and condemn yourself is a form of selfishness. Self - prosecution is never noble; it does no one a service. (41)

If your first attempts at self - forgiveness seem to change nothing in the way you feel, you are impatient for magic. Like an incantation, the steps of forgiving yourself may need many solemn repetitions before a door in your mind opens to real change. The change happens within you but comes from beyond you; you are only the Magician's helper. (44)

Don't be fooled by the subtlety of some self - punishments, and do not mistake what is habitual for what is natural. Brooding, resenting, feeling bored, and frequently reviewing your laundry list of grumbles may seem like innocent reactions to a cruel world. In fact these are all ways in which your attention wanders from the purpose of healing, the only worthwhile work in the world. (45)

Ultimately, forgiveness means letting go of this world, a darkened, fractured glass through which we see love only dimly. As our frightened grip on all that is temporary relaxes, we will increasingly find our authentic strength in that which is timeless, boundless, inexhaustible, and omnipresent. (76)

from D. Patrick Miller's A Little Book of Forgiveness:Challenges and Meditations forAnyone with Something to Forgive (1994)

Forgiveness

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. ~ Gandhi

"Then I realized something: That last thought had brought no sting with it. Closing Sohrab's door, I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night" (359).~ Khaled Hosseini

“In fact, not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die”~ Anne Lamott

"Forgiveness means giving up all hope of having had a better past."~ Anne Lamott

And similarly: "Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past."~ Lily Tomlin

“Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person's throat."~ William P. Young

Forgive & Forget?

"He kisses my fingers; he thinks we have all been cured. He believes in amnesia, he will never mention it again. It should hurt less each time."

Margaret Atwoodfrom the story "Under Glass

"Was this easy?May this be washed in Lethe, and forgotten?"

William Shakespearefrom Henry IV, Part 2

A Course in Miracles

Can't say that I'm entirely sure what all of these mean, but since this title -- A Course in Miracles -- has appeared several times in my recent reading, I decided to take a look. Here are a few thoughts gleaned from the Preface and Chapter 1.

"The body appears to be largely
self-motivated and independent,
yet it actually responds only
to the intentions of the mind."

"Forgiveness . . . reflects the
law of Heaven that giving and
receiving are the same."

"Forgiveness is the means by
which we will remember" [our
forgotten reality of oneness
with Heaven].

"Miracles are natural.
When they do not occur
something has gone wrong."

"Miracles . . . supply a lack;
they are performed by those who
temporarily have more for those
who temporarily have less."

"Each day should be devoted to
miracles. The purpose of time
is to enable you to learn how
to use time constructively.
It is thus a teaching device
and a means to an end. Time
will cease when it is no longer
useful in facilitating learning."

"Miracles . . . reflect the laws
of eternity, not of time."

"The miracle is the only device
at your immediate disposal
for controlling time."

BUILT-IN SHIT DETECTOR

"Martha was a touchstone. She had an unfailing shit detector. She did not pick up every truth, but she picked up every lie. . . . One could trust Martha to challenge one's lies and yet not to deny one's reality. That made Martha very rare. . . . Martha laughed the braying laugh she used whenever her shit detector was working."

from The Woman's Roomby Marilyn French

"You can fool too many of the people too much of the time."

from "The Owl Who Was God"by James Thurber

"There is no lie that contains no part of truth."

from "The Summer Belvedere"by Tennessee Williams

"It makes me boil, it really does!"

from A Christmas Memory

by Truman Capote

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."

--Laurence J. Peter

"The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are right."

--Mark Twain

Gems from "Experience"

"So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect . . . It takes a good deal of time to eat or to sleep, or to earn a hundred dollars, and a very little time to entertain a hope and an insight which becomes the light of our life."

"The years teach muchwhich the days never know."

"From the mountainyou see the mountain."

"To fill the hour, -- that is happiness."

"To live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom."

"Five minutes of today are worthas much to me, as five minutesin the next millennium."

Let us treat the men and womenwell: treat them as if they werereal: perhaps they are."

"The great gifts arenot got by analysis.Everything goodis on the highway."

"People forget that it is the eye which makes the horizon."The true romance whichthe world exists to realize,will be the transformationof genius into practical power."

from Ralph Waldo Emerson'sessay, "Experience," 1844

Nothing To Live Against

Helpful insights fromMargaret Atwood'sTrue Stories

from True Romances #3

friend 1: " . . . what am I going to do, now that he's left me and I have nothing to live for?"

friend 2: "Who told you it has to be for anything? . . . were you living for him when he was there?"

friend 1: " No . . . I was living in spite of him, I was living against him."

friend 2: "Then you should say, I have nothing to live against."

friend 1: "It's the same thing, isn't it?"

friend 2: "No."

from True Romances #2

"A long time ago I was desperately in love. Desperately is what I mean, in fact you could leave out the love and still get a good picture."

Favorites from Sappho

#2
We shall enjoy it
As for him who finds
fault, may silliness
and sorrow take him!

#28
For her sake
We ask you
to come now

O Graces
O rosy-armed
perfection:

God's daughters

#59
I said, Sappho
Enough! Why
try to move
a hard heart?

#60
You may forget but
Let me tell you
this: someone in
some future time
will think of us

#69
This way, that way
I do not know
what to do: I
am of two minds

#73
Yes, it is pretty
But come, dear, need
you pride yourself
that much on a ring?

#76
Sappho, when some fool
Explodes rage
in your breast
hold back that
yapping tongue!

#79
Really . . .
My disposition
is not at all
spiteful: I have
a childlike heart.

A charm against fear

As heaven and earth are not afraid,and never suffer loss or harm,Even so, my spirit, be not afraid.

As day and night are not afraid,nor ever suffer loss or harm,Even so, my spirit, be not afraid.

As sun and moon are not afraid,nor ever suffer loss or harm,Even so my spirit, be not afraid.

As truth and falsehood have no fear,nor ever suffer loss or harm,Even so, my spirit, be not afraid.

As what has been and what shall be fear not,nor ever suffer loss or harm,Even so, my spirit, be not afraid.

Hymn XV, from the Atharva Veda

And

from Brian Andreas / StoryPeople:

busy workAt a certain point,feeling afraidis a bad habitfrom when you thoughtbeing afraidwould somehowhelp.Here’s the thingyou should know:it doesn’t.Feel free to stopany time.

&

outside voiceA lot of stuff changes once you figure outthe voices you hear in your head haveno idea what they’re talking about.If they knew anything at all aboutthe world, they’d stop in amazementbecause why waste all that timetalking when you could be spinningaround & around laughing &soaking it all in?

And

from Tennessee Williams:

“The world is a violent and mercurial — it will have its way with you. We are saved only by love — love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent; being a writer; being a painter; being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.”

Antidotes for Fretfulness

All shall be well
and all shall be well
and all manner of things
shall be well.

--Dame Juliana of Norwich
14th Century Mystic
(1342 - 1416)

"I wish for you
some new love
at lovely things,
some new forgetfulness
at teasing things,
some higher pride
in the praising things,
some sweeter peace
from the hurrying things,
and some closer fence
from the worrying things."

--John Ruskin
English art critic
(1819 - 1900)

"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsover things are just, whatsover things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue andif there be any praise,think on these things."

Philippians 4: 8

Not Even On My Radar

One day last summer I received a thumbs up from my darling niece Amy when we apparently, at a 4-way stop, annoyed another driver, who expressed an opinion of my driving by honking. Amy, bless her heart, was outraged on my behalf. I assured her, "Oh, not to worry; that's not even on my radar," and we proceeded on our way.