A river runs through the snow . . .
Tuesday, December 23, 2025. It's Tiw's day … Easy Southerlies are forecasted to replace the mild morning fog with sunny skies and mid 70's this afternoon in TulseyTown. And my friend Chris sent me a note that said “The warmth of Christmas week will be physical this year, what with temperatures near 80º!”
Today is the birth date of Norman Maclean. The author (A River Runs Through It) was born in 1902 Clarinda, Iowa and grew up in Montana.
It's the birthday of Robert Bly. The poet in my top five was born in 1926 Lac qui Parle County near Madison, Minnesota. His poems are to be heard by his readings. The difference from the page to the ear is significant.
The hole in the street. – Jeff Krasno, Training the Unconscious. 12.20.25
As I drive my parents home through the snow
their frailty hesitates on the edge of a mountainside.
I call over the cliff
only snow answers.
They talk quietly
of hauling water of eating an orange
of a grandchild's photograph left behind last night.
When they open the door of their house they disappear.
And the oak when it falls in the forest who hears it through miles and miles of silence?
They sit so close to each other as if pressed together by the snow.
– Robert Bly, “As I drive my parents home through the snow,” The Light Around the Body, Harper and Row, 1967.
One fine day none slept . . .
Monday, December 22, 2025. It's the Moon's day . . . Forecasts for TulseyTown indicate gusty Southerlies and a major warming trend. A cloudy morning followed by a sunny afternoon and upper 50's. Near 80º Christmas Eve Wednesday and Christmas day.
The ugly facts. – Robert Reich, Sunday Thought. 12.21.25
[W]ith their disregard for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, they are also treating voters, especially their own MAGA voters who stood behind Trump because he promised to release the Epstein files, with outright contempt. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.
Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas had his 81st birthday yesterday. He was born in 1944 Hollywood.
Ralph Fiennes is 63 today. The multi-award laureate stage and film actor was born in 1962, Ipswich, Suffolk, England)
Today in 1965 the film Doctor Zhivago premiered in theatres. Directed by David Lean, the movie received both mixed reviews and was the biggest box-office holder of its era.
Poet Kenneth Rexroth was born today in 1905 South Bend, Indiana.
It's the birthday of Edwin Arlington Robinson. The prolific poet was born in 1869 Head Tide, Maine.
And, composer Giacomo Puccini was born on this day in 1858 Lucca, Tuscany.
One fine day was followed by a night when none slept.
Winter's path to heaven . . .
Sunday, December 21, 2025. It's Sol's day … the Winter Solstice is upon us – the shortest day and longest night of the year and return of the light. The new season usered in at 9:03 a.m. Central Time. Moderate Easterlies bring a warming trend to TulseyTown this week. Today in the upper 50's. The week ahead featuring 70's and mostly clear skies.
Cultures around the world have celebrated the solstice since ancient times. From the Roman feast of Saturnalia to the pre-Christian festival of Norse jól or Juul observed in Scandinavia, our ancestors honored the first day of winter in many ways.
Yin and Yang form the basis of much of Asian philosophies. According to this school of wisdom, one cannot exist without the other. These two seemingly opposite forces are intimately connected and complementary. Lao Tsu said the two arise mutually and are inseperable. Yin, he said, is the “mother of the ten-thousand things,” while Yang is committed to the duality of naming. We need times of darkness, quiet, stillness, healing, and rest, as much as we need activity, noise, and light. The sight of darkness, the feeling of Winter's cold are gifts of Yin. The name “solstice” and its placement on the calendar written by Yang.
Our meditation practice pulls both ways. From one perspective, it is a discreet activity, something we do. From another perspective, one that tends to emerge more clearly with time, it seems less something we do and more something we are.
Said Mrs. Blake of the poet:
I miss my husband's company –
he is so often in paradise.
Of course! the path to heaven
doesn't lie down in flat miles.
It's in the imagination
with which we perceive this world
and the gestures which
honor it.
– Mary Oliver, in House of Light, Beacon Press, 1990.