Thursday, presents as an idealized summer’s day. Rainfall has been sufficient here, though late summer is often dry.

As is my custom the last hour or so I’ve been situated at Starbucks. Several cups of flavorful, hot coffee, reading, and satisfying conversation filled the time. I continue to read Rediscovery of Awe by Kirk Schneider, Phd, and I am nearing the conclusion. A fragment of Whitman’s celebrated poem was featured by Schneider. I have a copy of Leaves of Grass. Now I feel motivated to read Walt Whitman start to finish. I suspect he is a kindred soul!

Great is goodness;
I do not know what it is
any more than I know what health is…
but I know it is great.
Great is wickedness…
I find that I often admire it just as much as I admire goodness:
Do you call that a paradox?
It certainly is a paradox.

The eternal equilibrium of things is great,
and the eternal overthrow of things is great,
and there is another paradox.
Great is life…
and the real and mystical…wherever and whoever.
Great is death…

Sure as life holds all parts together,
death holds all parts together;
Sure as the stars return again after they merge in the light;
death is great as life.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Shall we attend to a lyrical reminder of how special it is to be alive? Make Your Own Kind of Music by Cass Elliot.

*Our year 2026 is a fire horse year.

The Chinese zodiac system combines 12 animal signs with the 10 heavenly stems, or 10 symbols that represent the five elements, each in yin and yang forms. As the animal signs and elements rotate together year by year, every zodiac year is assigned an animal and element.

Once every 60 years, the fire horse is created by pairing the horse with the fire element.

The last fire horse was in 1966, when China’s Cultural Revolution began, a time of political and social upheaval.  – The Guardian