Kissing the dragon's nose . . .

In Tew's Day's mailbox . . . several birth date reminders:

Today in 1901 Chicago, Walt Disney was born; Richard Wayne Penniman – Little Richard – was born today in 1932, Macon, Georgia.

And, yesterday was the 148th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke's birth. The poet was born in 1875 Prague.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. . . .

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Everything Almost

It's Sol's day . . .

Today is the birth anniversary of at least two notable creatives and one remarkable event: Jean-Luc Godard, the film director (Breathless) was born on today's date in 1930 Paris, France; the writer (Heart of Darkness) Joseph Conrad was born in 1857 Berdyczew, Poland; and tonight on this date, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire premiered on Broadway, starring Jessica Tandy , Kim Hunter, and Marlon Brando

Also in the mailbox this sun-filled morning . . .

When awe and wonder are absent from our life, we build our religion on laws and rituals, trying to manufacture some moment of awe. It works occasionally, I guess. – Richard Rohr

Once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive…But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. – Haruki Murakami

The earth will outlive us. We really don't have to keep killing ourselves . . .

And, Anne Lamott still knows almost everything . . .

Well Schooled

I did not receive my MFA in poetry from anywhere.

I found Hiram's voice on the ground resting under a big rock.

A quaking Aspen surrounded her above a crippled creek

below a billion-year-old October sun.

– jb

One fine day

It's a Satyr's day . . .

And, today is the 100th anniversary of Maria Callas' birth. The soprano was born in 1923 Brooklyn, NY Listen to her extraordinary voice on this recording of “un bel di” from Puccini's Madam Butterfly

“Food as medicine,” may be the biggest dietary news since the discovery of vitamins.

From the Book of Time

I am thinking; maybe

just looking and listening

is the real work.

– Mary Oliver, The Leaf and the Cloud, Da Capo Press (2001)