The thing with feathers . . .
Tuesday, April 7, 2026. It's Tiw's day . . . another lovely Spring day for Green Country. Forecasts for TulseyTown indicate a sunny day with some clouds along with moderate Southerlies and mid 70's.
Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining. – Anne Lamotte
Follow your own path rather than your parents’ fears or society’s expectations. Live truthfully. A wholesome life grounded in ethics, courage, and openness is possible. – Venerable Gotami, “ Why I became a nun at 23,” Tricycle, 2026.
Today is the birthdate of William Wordsworth, born in 1770 Cockermouth, England. The poet with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature and was one of its most central figures and important intellects.
Billie Holiday was born today in 1915 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The American jazz singer is considered one of – if not the – the greatest from the 1930s to the ’50s.
Francis Ford Coppola is 86 today. The American motion-picture director, writer, and producer was born in 1939 Detroit, Michigan.
I long for the day – coming sooner than later, I trust – that the mailbox isn't overflowing with necessary political harbingers.
Another surreal day in the second Trump administration. Heather Cox Richardson reflected in Letters From An American, posted last night for today.
The Iranians know Trump has actually lost his mind. – Robert Reich, Final Thought. 4.6.26
Across the United States, the landscape of local television news is undergoing a profound transformation that signals the start of its slow-death decline. The aim is a smothering of America with MAGA ideology.
The Twenty-Fifth Amendment is a fantasy dressed up as democracy’s savior. Believe me – considered and dropped in the first term, won't work now. Our only hope — at least right now — is an election that smothers the MAGA movement. So let’s get to work. – Miles Taylor, in Defiance.
Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
– Emily Dickenson. This poem is in the public domain.
The secret road of love . . .
Monday, April 6, 2026. It's the Moon's day . . . forecasts for Green Country and TulseyTown indicate ten days of upper 70's and low 80's with mainly sunny skies and moderate Southerlies. Rain chances are increasing over the weekend and next week.
Not merely figuratively: Your life and your love will always and forever have the final word.
Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.
Today is the birthday of Merle Haggard. The Kennedy Center honoree and multi-grammy award singer/songwriter was born in 1937, Oildale, California.
The master painter and architect of the Italian High Renaissance, Raphael, was born in 1483, Urbino, Duchy of Urbino [Italy].
The molecular biologist James Watson was born on this day in 1928, Chicago, Illinois. He and three others – should have been four – received the Nobel Prize for their work on the discovery of DNA.
For you: An hour long, enlightening discussion/interview with Ken Burns, courtesy of Gavin Newsome. The focus revolves around Mark Twain's advice: If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
The world could use more loving-kindness. We can do that.
Portrait [Machado]
. . .leftist blood moves through my body. . .
my poems rise from a calm and deep spring. . .
I am not one of the blue jays who sing so well. . .
I fall silent so as to separate
voices from echoes.
I listen among the voices
to one voice and only one.
I talk aways to the one
who walks along with me. . .
my soliloquies are discussions
with this friend, who taught me
the secret of loving human beings.
– Antonio Machado, “Portrait,” in the longer poem “Retrato” in Campos de Castilla, Renacimiento Madrid. 1912. [this translation by Robert Bly and edited by James Allen Bethel, in the anthology The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, Harper Collins. 1992.]
Bees in the garden . . .
Sunday, April 5, 2026. It's Sol's day . . . sunny, mild, easy Southerlies and low 70's makes the forecasts for Green Country and TulseyTown today.
In the mailbox this morning . . .
What the world calls work, I work hard not to do. – Rumi
Alan Watts once quipped, “A musician doesn’t play music to finish the song. Otherwise, the fastest musicians would be the best ones.” Similarly, a dancer doesn’t move to arrive at a particular spot on the floor. A musician plays music to play the music. A dancer dances to dance. The doing is the point. The inhabiting of the process, the losing of oneself in it - that’s the real thing. – Jeff Krasno, The Dirt Under My Fingernails, 4.4.26
Today is the birthdate of Thomas Hobbes, born in 1588 Westport, Wiltshire, England . Hobbes was an English philosopher, scientist, and historian, best known for his political philosophy, especially as articulated in his concept of the social contract.
Today is the Christian holiday of Easter Sunday, the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. The word “Easter” and most of the secular celebrations of the holiday come from pagan traditions.
The First Time
It must have felt much the same for most of us,
clumsy and messy and smelly and good . . .
– Ted Kooser, from “The First Time,” Rattle #91, Spring 2026.
Our love rarely seems to be returned in the mode that it is given. – David Whyte, “Unrequited.” Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words. Many Rivers Press, 2014.
Bees In the Garden: The Revolutionary Task of Interspirituality
Being present to the Mystery means being released from the bonds of the separate self. This kind of liberation is difficult when we think one religion alone contains the secrets of the universe and that we know what they are. . .Each of the world’s great religions has been rsponsible for some of the most horrendous violations in the history of so-called civilization. We are right to demand accountability. And yet it would be a mistake, I believe, to reject all faith traditions as a result of the misuse of power committed by the religious hierarchy. There are great storehouses of wisdom and beauty in the Holy Houses of the world’s religions.
– Mirabai Starr, “Bees In the Garden,” posted online 3.24.26 (substack) and originally printed for The Contemplative Journal at the University of Virginia.