July 8th 2014

Getting & Spending

Do you ever go out and buy something
just for a momentary thrill?  And then
after you get it home you realize that you
really don't need it--don't really want it.

It happens to everyone sooner or later.

Although there are special people for 

whom material needs are last on their list

of needs. 

For instance, every time they

buy a book, they give a book away.

We need to learn their secret for letting go.

In 1802 the poet William Wordsworth wrote
a sonnet about getting and spending:

"The World Is Too Much With Us"

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending , we lay waste our powers.

Did you buy something today that has left you 

uneasy?  

  

Monday July 7th 2014

THE OCEAN

Today in the coastal town of  Newport Beach. CA.
a lifeguard is being remembered.  Ben Carlson, 32,
died in the line of duty, trying to rescue a swimmer.

 

"Murmuring they move, as when old ocean roarsAnd heaves huge surges to the trembling shores . . ."

                                                                    from The Iliad 

Sara Teasdale often wrote of the ocean in her lyric poems:

"The cold and sparkling silver of the sea
We two will pass through death and ages lengthen
Before you hear that sound again with me."

                                 R.I.P.

Remembering Ben Carlson with gratitude -- 

Sunday July 6 2014

Little Saint 

In 1902 a young girl refused the 

sexual advances of her 18-year-old neighbor

Alessandro and he stabbed her 14 times. 

The next day on July 6th Maria Goretti

forgave Alesandro before she died.

Maria was proclaimed a saint (worthy

of Heaven) in 1950. Her mother and the

repentant Alessandro were both present

for the ceremony in Rome.

Today she is seen as a special helper to

those who have been raped.

This day is rich with birth days: 

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso,

was born on July 6, 1935. He is

recognized around the world as a 

man of peace. In 2011 he asked to be

removed from political power, thus ending

the tradition of the Dalai Lama as the

temporal head of Tibet. 

Also (in no special order) 

Happy Birthday! 

Frida Kahlo 1907-1954

George W. Bush  1946-

Marc Chagall 1887-1985

Detail from Green Violinist

by Marc Chagall 1923-24.

Saints, artists, politicians and

peacemakers -- all God's children.

Saturday, July 5th 2014

Howard Nemerov

A Formalist poet, Nemerov was said to have
"a quiet intelligent voice brooding lyrically on
the strange beauty and tragic loneliness of life."

Howard Nemerov died of cancer on July 5, 1991.

Poet, essayist and fiction writer, Nemerov also served
as Poet Laureate. He won a Pulitzer Prize and the National
Book Award.
His younger sister was the photographer Diane Arbus.

"Leaves litter the lawn today, that yesterday
   Had spread aloft their fluttering fans of light."  

                                   -Howard Nemerov
                                       "The Consent"

And . . .
Happy Birthday Chuck Close! The famous painter of
photo-realism was born this day in 1940.

Friday, July 4th 2014

America The Beautiful

America, The Beautiful Lyrics
by Katharine Lee Bates - 1913


O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine!

O Beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

 USA Flag Site (copy)

Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929) first wrote 

America The Beautiful  as a poem.

Later, Samuel A. Ward composed the music.

Today if we look around us, we can still see

spacious skies, waves of grain, and purple mountains.

God has shed his grace on us.

Peace!

Thursday July 3rd 2014

LAND & HOME

The Star-Spangled Banner became our
national anthem in 1931.

"Land of the free and home of the brave."

At "the dawn's early light" and 

throughout each day  

let us be grateful. 

Happy Birthday U.S.A. !

Wednesday, July 2nd 2014

Becoming

  Born into the Light

One of a Kind -- unique

Beautifully Formed

Embracing Others

Do you see really see yourself . . .
You are unique, one of a kind, beautifully made --