Look not mournfully into the past; it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow As mentioned in the recent post on Horatio Spafford, many creatives use their writing as an outlet for their grief. […]
Life and Lyrics of Longfellow Read More »
Wise men come to see a child of greater wisdom and honor divine. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich In almost every manger I’ve ever viewed, I have seen baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, farm animals, and … wise men. How many wise men? Always three. Why do we think there were three–no more, no less? And what
About Those Wise Men Read More »
To all who mourn he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. Isaiah 61:3 All of us have had some sort of emotional pain, some much worse than others. Even those who have dodged gut-wrenching and life-changing losses have certainly observed a friend’s suffering.
To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. ~Johannes A. Gaertner This will be an abbreviated post because you have a full to-do list ranging from preparing a Thanksgiving feast to consuming said feast to digesting it in a supine position.
Gratitude For the Sake of All That’s Healthy Read More »
Any family tree produces some lemons, some nuts and a few bad apples. ~Unknown If you don’t see the truth in this, your family may be an outlier. Anyway, as with the fruit and vegetable oddities mentioned in my November 7th post, food group classifications can be wildly diverse. And so it is with the
Fascinating Family Trees Read More »
People think dreams aren’t real just because they aren’t made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes. ~ Neil Gaiman I agree with Mr. Gaiman to some extent. Dreams are real; we do have them. Whether they are possible to execute
Dream a Little Dream, But Why? Read More »
Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. Mark Twain He wasn’t wrong, according to Brittanica. Cauliflower and cabbage are in the same family. Further, cauliflower is considered to be a domesticated version of cabbage. That conjures visions of cabbage heads marauding among the scallions, but I digress. While thousands of families consume what
A Potpourri of Naming Oddities Read More »
I’ve always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed. ~ David Benioff, City of Thieves Generally speaking, I drift off to sleep shortly after my head hits the pillow. But
What Does Sound Have to Do with Sleep? Read More »
God has a plan for all of us, but He expects us to do our share of the work. Minnie Pearl I grew up in a household that loved country music, so I am familiar with Minnie Pearl, her hat with the price tag hanging down, and her HOW-DEE! She was always entertaining and sometimes
How-dee! Lessons from Minnie Pearl Read More »
I was never very picky about accepting only talented or extra-talented people. That was never my priority. It was always to discover if I saw a possibility for improvement. Those are the cases that make you feel that what you are doing is rewarding, when you see the progress the student is making because of
The History & Beauty of Strings Read More »
For fog was merely a cloud that wasn’t too smitten with itself to visit terra firma. ~Jan Karon The most memorable fog bank I recall was also the most terrifying. My daughter and I were driving down I-55 from St. Louis to West Tennessee on a cold December day. We really should have stayed put
Fog – A Thing That Lacks Substance, And Yet … Read More »
Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go. ~ Anthony Bourdain We derive much of who we are from our environment, and what we eat is as much a part of that
Food and Drink in my Sweet Tennessee Read More »
The etymologist finds the deadest words to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson So many topics lack appeal until we gather sufficient detail to capture our attention. As an example, I attended the Indianapolis 500 about 30 years ago. The 50° temps, the near-constant drizzle and the quarter
Phrase Origins, Etymologically Speaking Read More »
I realise there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go. ~ Jeffrey McDaniel In His extreme wisdom, God planned nature to sprout, grow, let go, and start over. Some of us humans have a hard time with that, and a small percentage find it almost impossible. Why is that?
The Challenge of Letting Go Read More »
Echoes of life call to me,like sparks of hope in the darkness.Times of play and freedom …The trees we would climb,higher and higher towards the sky,releasing our dreams towards the heavens.~ Susan L. Marshall, All the Hope We Carry I have written about memories a couple of times before. The last one was in August of
Times of Play and Freedom Read More »
Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better. ~ Richard Paul That’s a bit of a convoluted quote, but it was the best I could do. The one I used in January of 2024 was much better, as it cautioned you–and me–to learn a little at a
The Value of Critical Thinking Read More »
We . . . go out into the Waste Land of Experts, each knowing so much about so little that he can neither be contradicted nor is worth contradicting. ~ G.M. Young, Victorian England: Portrait of an Age And with that, I will admit to a few things. I am often intrigued by questions that make others
Characters, the Special Kind Read More »
Who you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes? ~Attributed to Groucho Marx In December of 2022, I published a post about Foley art, which is a process by which studios create background sounds for television shows or movies. Listeners think they recognize the sounds as footsteps or thunder, for example. However, it’s all fake.
You Can’t Believe Your Lying Eyes Read More »
In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. ~Opening line of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, 1916 I think I am not alone in my preference to absorb history
History As A Story Read More »
You may not be disturbed by the upheaval of the English language, but those of us who love words (logophiles) are. Let’s look at two that create confusion.
WATERFALL OR CASCADE? TOMĀTO, TOMĂTO? Read More »
Every moment has infinite potential. Every new moment contains for you possibilities that you can’t possibly imagine. Every day is a blank page that you could fill with the most beautiful drawings.~ John C. Parkin Ok. I’ll cop to a bait-and-switch this week. Normally I have a target topic as soon as I finish a
You hear about adrenaline, how it spurs you on and gives you uncanny strength, but there’s a flip side. The feeling is heady, out of control. It heightens your senses to the point of paralysis. You have to harness the power or it’ll choke you down. ~ Harlan Coben, Tell No One As with many physical
Adrenaline Rush – the Good & the Bad Read More »
Take a look if you’ve ever wondered why cookies are called biscuits in England. And why, if you ask for chips across the pond, they won’t be crunchy.
Pudding, Biscuits, and Chips Read More »
Luz’s manner of speaking made it clear that she had no idea what she might say next. It wasn’t that she made things up, strictly speaking–only that facts were merely a point of departure for her.~ Daniel Alarcón Based on multiple conversations with a variety of people, I have come to the conclusion that some
As a Manner of Speaking Read More »