Happy Thanksgiving

      I don't know about you, but this very unusual year of 2020 with all its challenges has taught me a lot about being grateful.  I want to take the time to say how I grateful I am that you are reading this blog and for those who have ordered The Gemini Bond.  On this day of thanks, I thank you for sharing your time with me here.  I am blessed.

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A Terrific Book, Part 2

      Last week I was praising the book Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, edited by Jane Hirshfield.  I'd like to share a quote that really spoke to me.  It talks about how we could benefit from everything we do, everything we encounter, in order to grow spiritually.  It's by the first published poet in the American colonies, Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672).

"There is no object that we see, no action that we do, no good that we enjoy, no evil that we feel or fear, but we may make some spiritual advantage of all."

     Well said. 

A Terrific Book

      Sometimes I like to browse through my bookshelves at home, since browsing at a bookstore is not a great idea these days, and picked up one that I've had there for quite a while.  It's good to renew acquaintances with old friends, books or otherwise.

     Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women is a terrific compilation of spiritual writing from nearly every tradition.  What I like the best is that the editor, the poet and translator Jane Hirshfield, included selections that speak directly from the writer's heart.  These aren't poems that were created to please someone else or some religious tradition.  Each word has been felt and lived.

     In these days of introspection and getting back to our true natures, this book presents voices that can still guide us.  A wonderful book to have on your bookshelf . . . or bedside table.

                                              

A Wonderful Quote for Today

 A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained.  It can afford to extend a helping hand to others.  It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.  (Jimmy Carter)

 

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A Thought for Today

 Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren't for those who don't look like us or don't sound like us or don't pray like we do, that's an old playbook.  It's as old as time.  And in a healthy democracy it doesn't work.  Our antibodies kick in, and people of goodwill from across the political spectrum call out the bigots and the fearmongers, and work to compromise and get things done and promote the better angels of our nature.  (Barack Obama)

 

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