Perfectly imperfect . . .
Wednesday, July 30, 2025. It's Odin's day . . . TulseyTown's heat eases
There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. – Leonard Cohen
Yesterday
Poet Stanley Kunitz was born in 1905 Worcester, Massachusetts.
Don Marquis was born in 1878 Walnut, Illinois. The novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. He created the famous characters Archy and Mehitabel.
“Publishing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.” ― Don Marquis.
Today
Emily Brontë was born in 1818 Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the sister of Anne and Charlotte Brontë.
Sculptor Henry Moore was born on this day in 1898, Castleford,Yorkshire, England
Buddy Guy is 89 today. The blues guitarist was born in 1936 Lettsworth, Louisiana.
Kate Bush turns 67 today. The English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer was born in 1958, Bexleyheath, Kent, England. Hear about the deal she wants to make at the very end of today’s entries.
It's Christopher Nolan's 55th birthday. The British film director and writer was born today in 1970, London, England.
And, the U.S.'s first national health insurance program – Medicare and Medicade – came into law on this day with President Lyndon Johnson's signature on the Social Security Act of 1965.
It is in the process of embracing our imperfections that we find our truest gifts – Brené Brown in Meditations, The Center for Action and Contemplation, 7.29.25
The Layers
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
[...]
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
“Live in the layers,
not on the litter.”
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.
– Stanley Kunitz, The Layers, From The Collected Poems by Stanley Kunitz .W. W. Norton, 1978.
The keys to wonder . . .
Tuesday, July 29, 2025. It's Tiw's day . . . The first real temperature 100º mark of the season visits TulseyTown today, just in time to enter the dog-days of an Okieland August.
“If there were no God, there would be no atheists.” – G.K. Chesterton
Today is the birth date of Alexis de Tocqueville. The political scientist, historian, and politician (Democracy in America ) was born in 1805, Paris.
Ken Burns turns 72 today. The film documentarian was born in 1953, Brooklyn, New York.
Hemingway days are under way in Key West.
Ernest Hemingway was born a week ago yesterday in 1899 Oak Park, Illinois.
Be intentional: flex your wonder muscles.
Sociocultural Air-Conditioning Dictates.
A haiku written in a 104º breezeless Sunday afternoon
In the winter's cold
one can always wear more layers.
Ask a mountaineer.
– jab
O that loony moon . . .
Monday, July 28, 2025. It's the Moon's day … and a silver sliver of her may shine over head after dark and near the west horizon late evening before midnight. Forecasts indicate 100+º for the next three days near TulseyTown. Hot, humid, Southerlies. Thursday, a break.
The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance, beginning with yourself as the magnificent being as you were created and continue to be, and extending to all beings everywhere. Make of your practice a continuous stream. – Jaan Chah, “Make Your Practice a Continuous Stream”
Today is the birthdate of poet John Ashbery. Born in 1927 in Rochester, New York, in his career he received nearly every major American award for poetry.
It's also the birthday of poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, born in 1844 Stratford, near London.
Do you have one of those to-do lists that never gets done? You check off two boxes and three more spring up in their place. They collide and compete for prominence, sending your nervous system into a continuous low-level state of fight or flight. Where is Spirit in all this? What happened to your image of yourself as the serene yogi meditating on the mountaintop?
There is no mountaintop. There is no yogi. There is only beautiful you—taking out the compost and changing the tire, paying your internet bill and submitting your business plan. The to-do list is written in a secret code. If you look closely, you'll see the divine name forming in the smoke rising from the very thing you didn't get done. Spirit is everywhere, permeating everything.-- Marabai Starr
The Loon On Oak-Head Pond
cries for three days, in the gray mist,
cries for the north it hopes it can find.
[...]
you come every afternoon, and wait to hear it.
you sit a long time, quiet, under the thick pines,
in the silence that follows,
as though it were your own twilight,
as though it were your own vanishing song.
– Mary Oliver, The Loon On Oak-Head Pond, House of Light, Beacon Press. 1992.