BirchLane.net
November 2008
Sunday 30 (editing 21-30 on the 30th before it is 12/1)
Longing for The Light.
Only the action that is moved by love for the good at hand has the hope of being responsible and generous. Desire for the future produces words that cannot be stood by. But love makes language exact, because one loves only what one knows. One cannot love the future or anything in it, for nothing is known there.
Wendell Berry, from Standing By WordsSaturday 27.
Bruce's Kitchen. I am working on my Cookbook. And if I get the job I interviewed for on Friday, I hope to publish it and have it ready to give as Christmas presents this year.
Sockeye Salmon with Lemon, Dill and Cucumber; Spinach with Garlic and Mushrooms. Boston Lettuce Salad.Friday 28
Messenger from God. An old Russian proverb tells us every day is a messenger from God. I can't but help think this today; after my visit to a jewel here in the Pioneer Valley for a job interview--a place of learning, spirit, rare books.
Thursday 27
Thanksgiving. At each place-setting at the Thanksgiving Table at a Thanksgiving Dinner years ago, a 3 x 5 index card to which was attached five grains of corn; my sister, Michelle wrote:
In early New England at Thanksgiving time it was customary to place five grains of corn at every plate, a reminder of those stern days in the first winter when the food of the Pilgrims was so depleted that only five grains of corn were rationed to each individual at a time. The Pilgrims wanted their children to remember the sacrifices, the suffering, the hardships which made possible the settlement of free land. They did not want their descendants to forget that on the day on which their ration was reduced to five grains of corn only healthy colonists remained to nurse the sick, and nearly half their number lay in that windswept graveyard on the hill. The use of five grains of corn placed by each plate was a fitting reminder of a heroic past. Thanksgiving Day began early in the morning in the kitchen making a Thanksgiving Breakfast and a Thanksgiving Dinner. The preparations for the day began the night before with
Wednesday 26
Rare Books.
Go thy way, eat they bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart;
for God now accepteth they works.~Ecclesiastes 9:7
Tuesday 23
At Mittineague Park. It was raining (and cold) but I went to the park for a walk and to photograph the stone bridge.
Monday 24
Botanical Gardens.
In Westfield, Massachusetts Sunday 23
Attitude of Gratitude. We went to a new church today. The sermon message was all about gratitude.
Saturday 22
Antiquing.
In one store we found
Old desks and mirrorsFriday 21
Mystery. I was making dinner when the phone rang. I did not answer it.
When Susan left home
For the hospital
With here mother Mary
I put together
Our Thanksgiving
Menu and shopping
List:
Thursday 20
Inspiration. I started reading this book by Kirtsen Menger-Anderson tonight. I can't wait to pick it up again tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I continue to use this new software program, which helps me make new photos look like old photos:
Wednesday 19
Cherries.
Tuesday 18
Old Photos. When I was a freshman in college at Villanova University, I returned home for Christmas with a framed reproduction of
Monday 17
In The Moment. Today on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in an episode entitled, "World's Most Talented Kids," we saw an amazing violin performance:
Michael is a 13-year-old from Palm City, Florida, who says playing the violin is his passion in life. After reading A New Earth, an Oprah's Book Club selection, with his mom, he says he could feel its influence in his performances.
"It affects my violin playing so much because you have to be in the moment. You can't think about the future or the past when you play the violin," he says. "It's amazing."
Michael performs "Zigeunerweisen" by Pablo de Sarasate. "Wow," Oprah says. "The truth is, even if you don't listen to a lot of violin music, you can feel his passion and you know that was good."
Sunday 16
Church. We went to church today. A local congregational church. A beautiful old church. But not quite right for us. We enjoyed the minister, who talked about giving, but the few people in attendance were all grey-haired. Afterwards, in the afternoon, we went to birthday party--for a six-year-old.
Saturday 15
The Greenhouse in Mittineague Park.
Friday 14
Chunky Guacamole with Cumin. Recipe is here:
Thursday 13
Mustard Seeds. Last week I read a book entitled "Mustard Seeds" by Lynn Coulter (which made me think of my old friend, Tara Dillard, the nationally recognized horticulturist, author and garden designer of Stone Mountain, Ga. who was one of my first friends via BirchLane) Tonight, searching for another inspirational book to read, I find a book that was a Christmas gift for Susan. The book is entitled "Heaven in a Wild Flower" and the first of four chapters is about the mustard plant. The author, Joan Winmill Brown, writes:
Flowers are often mentioned in the Bible. There are four that are special to me. The mustard flower is my symbol of faith; the rose of Sharon gives me the assurance of God's love; the anemone, called the "lily of the filed," deepens my reality of His peace; and, finally, the heavenly blue flax flower brings me the joy of our Lord's promise of eternal life. ......Jesus compared the mystery of the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard...
"...which a man took and planted in his
field. Though it is the smallest of all
your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the
largest of garden plants and becomes a
tree, so that the birds of the air come
and perch in its branches."
~Matthew 13:31-32Last night I read a story from my brother's new book, "North Arrow". He wrote about how our mother taught us to pray and our dad taught us how to catch. And today I saw a dad playing catch; it was a family Thanksgiving game on the food network. And reading and watching I felt a sense of melancholy, remembering those games of catch with my dad, my brother, my son and daughter. The last time my dad visited for a holiday dinner, I don't remember playing catch, though; we walked. But I see children in the driveway playing basketball.
This is the river, the river of change and to every season there is a purpose. Watch my words. Watch my thoughts. In the beginning there was the word.
Colder today. And damp. I went to Mittineague Park. The walk in the park is, I think, my new pilgrimage; in the way I walked daily to the Lower Mill Pond I have found here a new spiritual home and have found here in this new pilgrimage, a prayer of Thanksgiving. Last week leaves still fluttering in the trees and the week before a blaze of reds and oranges in the landscape. And today the landscape striped of that brightness, a jigsaw puzzle that has fallen apart, like a board game tossed into the air, the pieces slowly falling, softly falling down, now blanketing the earth, rotting. And this place, this rock wall in the woods, this path in the woods, it seems a secret place, a place of prayer, a place of Thanksgiving. It is here I walk with my dad. And give thanks.
Wednesday 12
Environment.
You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars; and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you.
– Thomas Traherne
In our relationship with the environment, the real power does not lie in the hands of technologists or politicians or directors of multinational corporations. It is individuals like you and me who make the final decisions about what is bought and sold in the stores, how much carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere, and what is dumped into the sea. Each of us can begin to heal the environment right away by changing our daily habits.
And beyond that, there is another area which deserves our immediate attention: the world within. For each of us has an entire world within, an internal environment as real as the one we see around us. This internal environment has a powerful effect on the external environment: the way we think affects the way we treat the earth. When we purify this inner environment, we are not only making ourselves more secure and fulfilled, but we are also making an important contribution to the health of Mother Earth.
~Eknath Easwaran, "Thought for the Day"
Tuesday 11
Cross. I am thinking about the novel I just finished reading ; "Man in the Dark" by Paul Auster. My brother writes about the book and Paul Auster at Rain Taxi.
Monday 10
Floating Dragon.
Sunday 09
Baptism. We drove to Walpole, Massachusetts today to witness the baptism of Griffin. Afterwards, there was a party. At the baptism I thought about my children, Danielle and Daryl, and my father.
Saturday 08
A Bridge.
On Dec. 12, Helen Frankenthaler will celebrate her 80th birthday. To honor her as one of America's great artists of the past half century, New York's Knoedler & Co. on Thursday opened "Frankenthaler at Eighty: Six Decades," a mini-retrospective of major paintings spanning the artist's entire career. Her breakthrough painting, the work that established her artistic identity and announced the arrival of a major artist, is "Mountains and Sea" (1952), currently touring in an exhibition of Abstract Expressionist painting. "Mountains and Sea" has long been recognized as an icon of American art -- a bridge between past and future that changed the course of abstract art, and her own work, by means of an essentially new technique. It is a painting of mesmerizing beauty, a marvel of modern landscape painting.
Friday 07
Birch Trees.
Thursday 06
Motion.
Wednesday 05
The Bridge.
Tuesday 04
Election Day.
Monday 03
Ordinary Things.
(insert poem)
Sunday 02
Morning Prayer.
If the only prayer you say in your life
is thank you, that would suffice.Saturday 01
Meditation.
.jpg)
