A toast: To the grass . . .

Wednesday, April 22, 2026. It's Odin' day … strong Southerlies continue to maintain cloudy skies over Green Country and TulseyTown and an afternoon in the low 70's.

Today is EARTH DAY.

The modern and postmodern selves largely live in a world of their own construction and react for or against human-made ideas. While calling ourselves intelligent, we’ve lost touch with the natural world. – Fr. Richard Rohr, “Soul and the Natural World,” Meditations, from The Center for Action and Meditation.

Given the staggering technological power we have acquired, stewardship is humanity’s de facto relationship to earth at this point. To work, stewardship needs to be based on the non-anthropocentric assumption of fundamental kinship between human and non-human, an assumption that must exist before question and argument, shaping experience and action: A vision, as we have begun to see, of Paleolithic and ancient Chinese cultures. Only that will allow us to value earth and its individual life-forms in and of themselves, to value their own self-realization as we do our own. – David Hinton , Wild Mind, Wild Earth: Our Place in the Sixth Extinction, Shambhala, 2022.

Mindful

Oh, good scholar, I say to myself / how can you help but grow wise / with such teachings as these –

the untrimmable light of the world / the ocean's shine / the prayers that are made of grass?

– Mary Oliver, “Mindful” in Why I Wake Up Early, Beacon Press, 2004.

There is an unmistakable feeling that the wheels are coming off the MAGA bus. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.

A rather impressive group share their birth's today.

One of the world’s most influential philosophers, Immanuel Kant, was born in 1724, Königsberg, Prussia [now Kaliningrad, Russia].

Vladimir Lenin born in 1870, Simbirsk, Russia.

Robert Oppenheimer was born in 1904, New York City.

Jack Nicholson is 89 today. Among the foremost film actors, he was born in 1937, Neptune, New Jersey,

And, yesterday was Patty LuPone's 77th Birthday. Born in 1949, Northport, New York. Without a doubt, one of Stephen Sondiheim's favorate intepreters, toasting “The Ladies Who Lunch,” on The Late Show.

Oozing with promise . . .

Tuesday, April 21, 2026. It's Tiw's day . . . Gusty Southerlies are to bring clouds to TulseyTown this afternoon. A cool 73º is in the forecast.

The longest reigning monarch in British history, Elizabeth II was born on this day in 1926, London, England.

It's the birthdate of Max Weber, born in 1864, Erfurt, Germany. The sociologist and political economist is best known for his thesis of the “Protestant ethic,” relating Protestantism to capitalism, and for his ideas on bureaucracy.

Novelist Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre) was born on this day in 1816 Thornton, Yorkshire, England.

And, today is also the birthdate of naturalist John Muir, born in 1838 Dunbar, Scotland. Earth Day is tomorrow.

Trump's aides have been keeping him out of the room as they receive Iran updates, simply telling him what was going on at important moments. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.

We're seeing only a fraction of Trump's corruption. He's “classifying” most of it. – Miles Taylor, Defiance, 4.20.26

These are potent times, oozing with promise for a revolution of our collective soul. Patriarchal structures are losing their 5,000-year-old grip on our spiritual imagination. In their place, timeless feminine wisdom is flowering, spreading its intoxicating fragrance and ripening into vital nourishment for people of all genders. This female-shaped transmission activates our connection with the earth as a beloved relative, reminds us that we belong to each other, and eradicates the very concept of otherness. – Mirabai Starr

A Walk

My eyes already touch the sunny hill,

going far ahead of the road I have begun.

So are we grasped by what we cannot grasp;

it has its inner light, even from a distance –

and we are changed, even if we do not reach it,

into something else, which, hardly sensing it,

we already are; a gesture waves us on answering our own

. . . but what we feel is the wind in our faces.

– Ranier Maria Rilke, Selected Poems by Ranier Maria Rilke, traslated by Robert Bly, Harper Collins Publishers,1981.

First the good news . . .

Monday, April 20, 2026

It's the Moon's day . . .Moderate Southerlies are to maintain sunny skies and upper 70's today in Green Country. A few clouds are likely this afternoon over TulseyTown.

Conscious navigation in The Way requires curiosity and courage, in that order, until you find yourself swimming with both at the same time.

Today is the birthdate of Joan Miró. The abstract/surrealist painter was born in 1893 Barcelona, Spain.

Jessica Lange is 77 today. The Triple Crown awarded actor was born in 1949 Cloquet, Minnesota.

And now the rest of the overstuffed mailbox...

Today in 2021 Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.

Sixteen years ago – in 2010 – an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig owned by British Petroleum—located in the Gulf of Mexico – created the largest marine oil spill in history. The rig was approximately 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

The Columbine High School shooting occurred today in 1999. The tragedy galvanized national attention around the issue of school violence in a way other incidents had not.

And, it was on this day in 1914 that the Ludlow Massacre occurred. It was the bloodiest event in labor history. Ludlow, Colorado, is just over the border between New Mexico and Colorado near Trinidad.

The news just keeps on coming. – Joyce Vance in Civil Discourse.

What can you do now? – Robert Reich, posted this morning on substack.

Mark your calendar: On May 1st across the country, workers are planning to call off, students are organizing walkouts, and families are committing to stop spending for the day to make one thing clear: this country does not belong to billionaires.

The biggest myths are the ones we believe about ourselves. We all live inside a self-created box of limitations, with the vastness of possibility just outside. The cure is courage combined with curiosity. We are all stronger, braver, and more capable than we may believe. All it takes is one small step. Prove to yourself you are more than you may have thought. – David Stewart