roots in the sky
the bare tree turns
an upside down day
Haiku by Jane Reichhold
November Haiku
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Fine Art Friday, J. Clark
These days I feel richer than a Rockefeller. Blessing upon blessing has drenched me until I’m quite in danger of drowning in goodness and mercy. ‘All this, and heaven too?’ is a refrain that echoes throughout the day. Elizabeth Barrett Browning stated it perfectly: “Earth’s crammed with heaven.”
To the extent that the medium of the web can be used destructively and for evil
purposes is as much as it can be redeemed and used to build, fortify,
strengthen and embellish.
I have been exposed to wonderful new
authors, delicious menus and recipes, arresting quotes, beautiful art,
thoughtful musings, penetrating commentary, thought-provoking analysis,
and old-fashioned friendship in my sojourn through the sites.
In 2006 I have filled three journals with quotes, thoughts, comments –
many from my trips around the web-block, made some scrumptious dishes,
been inspired by you to stretch and grow, continued online discussions
around our own dinner table, listened to achingly beautiful music, put
more time into planning my reading, and acquired stacks of books!
Thank you for the information; thank you for the inspiration; and thank
you for the anticipation of more in the future.
Norman Rockwell, Freedom From Want
Now with thanksgiving we bring on this day
Our praise to the Father, who formed us of clay,
Whose breath of creation, our spirits to fill,
Refashioned our loving to live by His will.
Now with thanksgiving we bring in this place
Acclaim to the Spirit, who guides us in grace
Unto the Redeemer, whose sacrifice shown
Provides us a pattern of love for our own.
May our hosannas returning above
Bring joy to the One who has brought us our love,
May we to each other in gratitude give
New psalms of thanksgiving in lives that we live.
Borghild Jacobson, alt.
Tune Slane (same as Be Thou My Vision)
Rambling about Poetry When I Should Be Making Pies
I just had an Aha! moment: the daily email from Writer’s Almanac ended with this George Eliot quote:
“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life,
it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat,
and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.”
~ George Eliot
~ George Eliot
So that’s where she got the title of her book! She is Suzanne U. Clark and her book is entitled The Roar on the Other Side, A Guide for Student Poets. And it’s one of those wonderful books that I dipped into when it first arrived and one of those wonderful books which eventually was left languishing on my shelf. [Janie, we’re doing a Winter Reading Challenge, right? This book will be on my list.]
How do you feel about poetry? My father loved poetry, absolutely adored it. When he was dying of pancreatic cancer, one of his students visited him in the hospital and they exchanged lines of poetry in the fashion of Marianne and Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility.
I’ve been lukewarm about poetry until about ten years ago. Now the reading of a poem is part of our daily morning routine. We’ve read our way through a few anthologies and have several poetry collections in our queue. One of the bennies of a modest familiarity of general poetry is that when an allusion or outright reference to a poem is dropped in literature, we usually catch it. Additionally, I think the daily drip, drip of words crafted together will infuse into us a sense of their beauty.
Please! Some days the poems are dogs. My son and I both roll our eyes and mumble what-ev-er. Some days I’m delighted and my son is tolerant. On occasion, however, the words hit their mark and arrest us both.
Write. Think. Learn.
My wonderful sister-in-law alerted me to a Q and A from November 3, 2006 Aspen Institute with David McCullough here. When I heard these words, I stopped what I was doing and transcribed his spoken words on writing and thinking:
“The old expression of working your thoughts out on paper […] We’ve all had the experience of sitting down to write a term paper, or an essay, or a report; and in the process of writing we come up with an idea we didn’t know we had.
And, the mere act of writing focuses the brain in a way nothing else does. That’s why all courses in college and high school ought to require writing, not just English courses. Young people ought to be required to write all the time and be judged, be graded, at how well they are expressing themselves.
So when our leaders are not working their thoughts out on paper — that’s a disadvantage for them. And their words ar so often being provided by other people. And the words being provided by other people aren’t just the words–it’s the ideas being provided by other people.
It’s thinking! That’s what writing is! That’s why it’s so hard. It’s thinking.
I don’t know, you have this all the time, people say to me, ‘How much of your time is spent writing and how much of your time is spent doing research?’ Perfectly good question.
Nobody ever says, ‘How much time do you spend thinking?’ And the thinking is often the most important part of it.”
Adapting McCullough’s thoughts and borrowing from Mental Multi-vitamin:
Write. Think. Learn.
Good Stuff
A lovely amazon.com box came today.
As I opened it and lovingly handled the books, feeling the covers, looking at illustrations, I realized how profoundly I am edified by my cyber buddies.
Every single book was a result of a blog writer who quoted, noted, shared, and recommended.
I was feeling very left out when I read so many references to Wendell Berry and had not a clue who he was and what he had written. Jayber Crow seems to have taken the world of classical homeschooling by storm. I went to our local library and checked out two collections of Wendell Berry’s short stories. Short stories seemed perfect for this moment in life: I’m in a girlfriend’s wedding this Saturday and my son will be getting married in less than a month. At the same time I checked out David McCullough’s biography of Teddy Roosevelt, Mornings on Horseback. McCullough could write about rice pudding and I’d read it, but TR is just too great a subject.
It near killed me to read several Berry short stories without a highlighter or pencil in my hand. After Patti mentioned reading McCollough’s book multiple times, I was certain I needed to purchase and mark up my own copy.
My wonderful husband has enjoyed the few Wendell Berry short stories I’ve read aloud to him, but he has dibs on Dorothy Sayer’s book. That’s fine: I’m not sure when we’ll have time to read but it is glorious to have such fine books to anticipate. This Wikipedia article says this about Berry:
His nonfiction
serves as a long defense of the life in which he finds value. According
to Berry, this good life includes: sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, the Gospels, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, stewardship of Creation, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle frugality, reverence, peacemaking, and the interconnectedness of life.
serves as a long defense of the life in which he finds value. According
to Berry, this good life includes: sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, the Gospels, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, stewardship of Creation, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle frugality, reverence, peacemaking, and the interconnectedness of life.
Bring it on!
The Art and Joy of Penny Pinching
Dear reader, I’m about to share one of my favorite frugal tips.
This is the week to elevate grocery shopping to an art form. Groceries stores around the country are enticing you to spend money with them by selling turkeys at a loss. Play the game! Fill your freezer! I will purchase a year’s worth of turkeys (4-6) this week at 23¢ a pound. Staples like chicken broth, olives, sugar, and flour are usually greatly reduced. I plan to spend more time studying the ads and shopping; more money on groceries this week, but, oh!, the joy of bargain purchases is exhilirating. I am my father’s daughter, eh Danny?
Monday Marriage Quote
Albert Anker, artist
“I suppose it was that in courtship everything is regarded as provisional and preliminary; and the smallest sample of virtue or accomplishment is taken to guarantee delightful stores which the broad leisure of marriage will reveal. But the door-sill of marriage once crossed, expectation is concentrated on the present. Having once embarked on your marital voyage, it is impossible not to be aware that you make no way and that the sea is not within sight – that, in fact, you are exploring an enclosed basin.” ~ George Eliot in Middlemarch
A Minor Rant
Picture by deviantART.
We have lost a sense of reverence and respect in our culture.
Silence is an endangered species.
People seem to be allergic to quiet.
Friday evening my husband and I went to the symphony and sat in front of folks who talked through large portions of the music. They did not whisper. They did not pass a note. They talked in normal conversational tones. Their need to comment on the music overrode any sense of respect for the musicians and the fellow patrons. How rude!
Saturday afternoon I attended the funeral of a lovely 96-year old woman. Sitting in the sanctuary, listening to the organ prelude could have been a lovely time of reflection and prayer, were it not for the two women near the back who conversed in loud voices that carried across the room. They were oblivious to the turned heads, the furrowed brows, the hairy eyeballs, the multiple mute pleas to be quiet. What would have been appropriate for the grocery aisle was so wrong before a gathering to honor the deceased. It wasn’t fitting. It was a time to keep silence, a time to bow the head, a time to contemplate our own mortality.
“The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.”
~ Baruch Spinoza
End of rant.
Fine Art Friday – Vermeer
View of Delft Jan Vermeer c. 1660
Hey! Did you know that Vermeer was friends with Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the inventor of the miscroscope? You can learn about Leeuwenhoek in the book Microbe Hunters. Click on Search Inside and you can read most of Leeuwenhoek’s story.
We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, who opened up a world previously unseen. With his microscope microbes were discovered, which brought great advances in science, health and hygiene.
We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jan Vermeer, who preserved on canvas the world seen in this lush landscape. I’m glad he included the dark clouds. Vermeer and Leeuwenhoek: oh! to be a mouse in their pockets and hear their conversations!
[Note: Thank you for your prayers yesterday. My father in-law was flown to a metropolitan area because of heart problems. He didn’t have a heart attack, but had serious symptoms and a stress test concerned his local physician. He’s young (70), active and in great physical shape; this came as a great shock. No procedures are necessary and he’s on his way home.]
A Living Pencil 