Constitutional grace . . .

Sunday, December 28, 2025.

It's Sol's day . . . Strong Northerlies bring falling temperatures throughout the day to TulseyTown today. A mix of clouds and sun. Morning high of 68F with temps falling sharply to near 40. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing an angel might come and sit on it. —Thomas Merton

He looks like a witness to me. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse.

Over the Christmas holiday, the Trump administration threw its weight against the U.S. Constitution in favor of Christian nationalist authoritarianism. – Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From An American.

Meditating on the life and teachings – of Jesus, Shantideva, Bodhidharma, and Francis of Assisi – are each and all valuable contributors to spiritual insights that bring me peace.

An evolving future . . .

Saturday, December 27, 2025. It's the Satyr's day . . . Forecasts for TulseyTown indicate near record high temperatures in the low 80's this afternoon

Today in 1831 Charles Darwin set sail on the HMS Beagle, beginning the voyage on which he would formulate his theory of evolution.

Now that Santa has no doubt retreated to wherever it is he goes to rest up from his everywhereallatonceallnightaroundtheworld journey, I thought it might be worth catching up on his history. Heather Cox Richardson posted an excellent account posted on Christmas day in her Letters From An American.

Interview with New York's soon to be (this Thursday) Mayor Zohran Mamdani with Robert Reich, posted yesterday.

We Speak of August

We don’t know what will happen

between one raindrop and the next,

yet we speak of August as if it were a contract

[…]

In the eastern sky the first star is out,

preparing for the long night of wishes.

[…]

— Valentina Gnup, the Rattle Poetry Prize “We Speak of August” in Rattle #34, Winter, 2010.

Holding hands . . .

Friday, December 26, 2025. It's Freya's day . . . light Northerlies, Sunny and near record highs this afternoon. Breezes return to Southerlies tonight.

May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation. – Br. David Steindl-Rast

I heard the bells on Christmas day.-- The poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – the story and the song.

Holidays can be tricky. Miribai and Willow offer perspective.

Today, the diarist, humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor David Sedaris is 69. He was born in 1956 near Binghamton, New York and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina

It's also Henry Miller's birthdate. The author of Tropic of Cancer was born in 1891 New York City.

In 1963 Beatlemania took root in the U.S. with the release of their single “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”

Seasons

For some there are no wrong seasons. – Mary Oliver

In those days when I thought my task

was to save everyone from themselves,

I gave you my best shot.

You batted it away like Wonder Woman

deflecting me into the ashcan of just

another ass-wipe man like him –

another disappointment. Still,

I guess my words were rather like

unwelcome weeds in your Spring garden.

From this distance now across time I trust

there has come a season when you were surprised

as was I to have found our peace.

– jab