December 21st. The dark outside is palpable reminder. Today is the shortest day of the year. The tilt of the earth’s axis away from the sun is at an oblique angle in the northern hemisphere. Is the dark evil, the diminished light an omen? On the other hand might we celebrate this interlude, pause…
Midweek. A few days remain until Christmas. The to-do list is short. To live is to act, to do. It is good to have a list, the illusion of control. I believe there is no control, that all is at “the mercy” of the state of things that immediately preceded this moment. Still there…
Tuesday morning and it is mid-December. Winter is settling in. The temperature is in the teens. That the season arrives as expected anchors my sense of well being. We utterly depend upon Nature. Yes, I am “of Nature” and there is nothing “higher” that I can say of myself. I have the benefit of…
Solstice in Truro Joshua Weiner Teaching term done, I keep my laptop shut A chill in the air runs under weak June sun Chickadee warbler catbird waxwing— Morning migrant songs drowned by bulldozer next door The backing up beeping a constant one note feed From far off, boundless tides crest onto restless sand How…
Sunday morning is dark by cloud cover. The asphalt intersection at State and 3rd is a gray sheen with last night’s rain. On my way this morning I captured a photograph of the Christmas display in front of the old courthouse. An old maple, regal in summer, the bare branches now framing strings of…
Rän Qiu asked Zhongni, saying,‘Can it be knownhow it was before heaven and earth?’ The reply was,‘It can. It was the same of old as now… [Zhongni] Was that which was produced before Heaven and Earth a thing?That which made things and gave to each its character was not itself a thing.Things came forth…
Musing about possible topics for this post. When I read this poem by Lori Levy, it seemed this was more than enough to pass on. The lines are a reminder that ordinary life is a smorgasbord of delightful details. Often what I lack, is sufficient inner calm to notice the play of everything going…
The forger of swords for the Minister of War had reached the age of eighty, and had not lost a hair’s-breadth of his ability. The Minister said to him, ‘You are indeed skillful, Sir. Have you any method that makes you so?’ The man said, ‘Your servant has (always) kept to his work. When…
‘Men’s life between heaven and earth is like a white colt’s passing a crevice, and suddenly disappearing. As with a plunge and an effort they all come forth; easily and quietly they all enter again. By a transformation they live, and by another transformation they die. Living things are made sad (by death), and…
St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, St. Nick is a Saint that continues to have a defined function. Not being raised Catholic, praying to any saint strikes me as strange, an out of sync movement in the symphony of survival. On the other hand perhaps my secular point of view is out of tune. I cannot…
