Open to wonder . . .

Sunday, January 11, 2026. It's Sol's day . . . Northerlies make for cold mornings this week. Sunshine and upper 40's this afternoon in TulseyTown.

How do you open the heart? Start to love that which you can love, and just keep expanding. You love a tree, you love a river, you love a leaf, you love a flower, you love a cat, you love a human. Go deeper and deeper into that love, until you love that which is the source of the light behind all of it. – Ram Dass

The American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton was born on this day in1755 Charlestown on the island of Nevis, British West Indies.

“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature by the hand of the divinity itself and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.” – Alexander Hamilton, “The Farmer Refuted,” (pamphlet) February, 1775, in New York.

Our power, our courage.-- Robert Reich, Sunday Thought, 1.11.26

Science often affirms what were for centuries the highly suspect intuitions of the Scriptures and mystics. We now take it for granted that everything in the universe is deeply connected and linked, even light itself, which interestingly is the first act of creation. – Fr. Richard Rohr, “A Brilliant Start,” in Meditations, The Center for Action and Contemplation, 1.11.26

Maybe the essence of faith is dumb childlike wonder. – Garrison Keillor, Watching the Ball Drop, 1.7.26

Wonder

This is the season of gift giving. It is also the season of wonder. They seem to go hand in hand

I hold my cup with both my two hands

blessed with the sensations of touch

taste, warmth and the gifts returned

from blessings offered to all beings

and to all things forever past,

infinitely present, eternally future.

Here there is no fear. Love

makes of the cold my friend,

water feeds my soul

ignorant of its innocence

saying “yes” to everything

wondering about my sense of wonder

at my blessings. — jab

Red tape and wild horses . . .

Saturday, January 10, 2026. It's the Satyr's day . . . Moderate Northerlies make for a chilly day for TulseyTown. While skies are forecast to be sunny, they'll be accomanied by low 50's and an all day wind chill in the 40's.

All our laws and rules to protect coral reefs now stand in the way of radical action to save them from heat death. – Irus Braverman, “ Red tape on a blue planet,” in Aeon, 1.10.25

Today in 1949 RCA introduced the 45-rpm record. It became the standard format for rock and roll and changed an entire generation, and consequently, the world.

Poet Philip Levine was born on this day in 1928 Detroit, Michigan.

And, Dorianne Laux is 75 today. The poet/professor was born in 1952 Augusta, Maine.

Wild Horses

Mustangs were bred for stamina, little knock-kneed

engines. InThe Misfits they were bred for dog food.

Marilyn Monroe was even more beautiful in black and white.

– Dorianne Laux, read and listen to her reading “Wild Horses,” Poetry Magazine, 2022.

Too close

Friday, January 9, 2026. It's Frigg's (Freya's) day . . . Easy Northerlies bring January weather to TulseyTown today. Forecasts indicate a sunny afternoon in the mid 50's.

Spend a few minutes each day with your “don't know” mind.

Renee Good is dead, and she shouldn’t be. Regardless of the changes in the House and Senate between now, the midterms, and thieir consecuences a year from now … nothing will help Renee Good. The warning signs were all there, and remain. But Trump and his administration doesn’t care. Ask the people around you who support Donald Trump if this is what they voted for. Before you lose the right to speak out loud … or get shot for asking. – Joyce Vance. in Civil Discourse.

The one step over the line. – in Letters From An American, by Heathe Cox Richardson.

Today is the birthdate of Simone de Beauvoir. The philosopher, novelist, feminist, public intellectual and activist, and one of the major figures in existentialism in post-war France, was born in 1908 Paris. Regarding her, Gloria Steinem said: “If any single human being can be credited with inspiring the woman’s movement, it’s Simone de Beauvoir.

Suddenly the star is no longer singular. – Sopie Strand, “Star-breaking,” in Make Me Good Soil, 1.9.26

Too Close-up.

Something's gone wrong with my eyeglasses.

Or my eyes. One or the other or both.

For the past several years there has been

a slow progression such that

my cock-eyed optimism has been

reduced to an astigmatic angst in

the myopia of this moment.

– jab