A cue ball hits the rack . . .
Tuesday, November 11, 2025. It's Tiw's day . . . Moderate to strong Southerlies return to TulseyTown today, bringing a mix of sun and clouds and a warming trend to the end of the week. 70º today, 80's by Saturday.
Think on it: As we are all interconnected, each gesture of love, of kindness is shared with all beings in each moment throughout this day. Fear separates. Love unites.
News of the terms of the deal to end the shutdown hit the country rather like a cue ball hitting a rack: lots of balls started to move in wildly different directions. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.
Today is Armistice Day – now called Veterans day in the U.S. – recognizing the signing of the peace treaty that ended World War One. The day was was marked with the burial of unknown soldiers in tombs in Paris and London, and a similar ceremony was held at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, in 1921.
And, today marks the birthdays of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, born in 1821 Moscow, and Kurt Vonnegut, who was born in 1922 Indianapolis, Indiana.
Enlightenment is an accident. We learn from our blunders, misunderstandings, doubts, and misgivings. Mistakes arise naturally when we embrace don’t-know mind. Even though we don’t know where we are within the process of awakening, or where we are going, or how to get there, we remain curious. And curiosity is the spark that fires our attention and vitalizes our commitment to the [meditation] path. – Zen Master Taigen Leighton.
The First Three Words
Insight is not the goal, rather
the beginning.
We enter the world aware,
curious, absent the first three words
that shape our journey: mama,
dada, and … no ...
When we later, sooner would be bester,
begin to seek all those enlightenment
attributes we've been promised,
we come from a place of forgetfulness:
We are already and have been
thus far forever living in an unaware world –
aware. — jab
Could a bird guide us home?
Monday, November 10, 2025. It's the Moon's day … Easy Northerlies and sunny skies are in the forecasts for TulseyTown. After a hard morning freeze, temperatures will be much like yesterday in the mid 40's, rising throughout the week reaching the 80's by weekend before turning back to Fall. Wind-chill in the 30's will yield to real temps starting around Noon. The breezes are to shift to Southerlies in the evening.
The overnight news from Joyce Vance posted this morning on Civil Discourse.
The Week Ahead. – Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse, for 11.10.25
Trump continues to try to starve Americans. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.
When historians look back on this dark time, I don’t think they’ll see the end of what we value in America. More likely, they’ll see the beginning. – Robert Reich, Sunday Thought, 11.9.25
We are social animals, not truth-seeking ones. - Samuel McKee, in How the Light Gets In, 11.4.25
Birthdays and such . . .
Neil Gaiman is 65 today. The fantasy/science fiction/humor author and screenwriter was born in 1960, Portchester, Hampshire, England
The Welsh actor Richard Burton was born on this day in1925, Pontrhydyfen, Wales.
And, Sesame Street, the American educational television series for children debuted today in 1969 on the National Educational Television network, an entity that became the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) a year later.
The Yes Bird
Alone flying east into the sun
not yet risen
into a welcoming sky.
We, the bird and I
share the hope of the day.
The promise of light.
I said to Roshi,
“Inside there is a yes and a no.”
He said, “Follow the yes.”
I think the bird was
following the
yes.
– jab
Quite a woman . . .
Sunday, November 9, 2025. It's Sol's day … Forecasts for Tulsey Town indicate Strong Northerlies with wind chills in the 30's throughout the day, with real temperatures in the mid 40's. A cloudy morning is to give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. A hard freeze is predicted by tomorrow morning.
The Monarch's are migrating.
Believer, follower, or no, it's in the popular culture : The planet Mercury turns retrograde today (until the 29th). Generally speaking – so it is said – be especially careful with agreements and contracts, and ensure clear communication. You may need to revise things once Mercury is direct again. Murphy's Law may be present.
Today is the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht: “The night of broken glass” in 1938 throughout Nazi Germany.
On this day in 1989, the leader of the East German Communist Party made a quiet announcement that the Berlin Wall would be opened for “private trips abroad.” Within days, millions of East Germans flooded into West Berlin, and citizens began to pull the wall to pieces.
Belief in God is on the rise among young people in the West. As many seek meaning beyond digital life and consumer culture, old theologies are in vogue. But Iris Murdoch warned against seeing religious faith as the only route to a spiritual life...her answer was to reintroduce transcendence without reintroducing theism. Against both nihilism and moral relativism, she insists on the existence of the Good—The Good, though impersonal, demands humility, patience, and unselfing—the virtues once cultivated by religion. – Miles Leeson, “Transcendence without theism,” at iai news, 10.20.2025
In his teachings, and in the Sermon on the Mount in particular, Yeshua, by putting the picture in the largest possible frame, called into question all smaller frames and invited his hearers into a radical transformation of consciousness. Many were not ready for it—nor are many of us today. – Richard Rohr, Meditation, The Center for Action and Contemplation, 11.02.25
What we missed in Sunday School. – Elias Chacour, in Meditation, The Center for Action and Contemplation, 11.7.25
Two poets birthdays: The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in 1914, Swansea, Wales, and Anne Sexton was born today in 1928 Newton, Massachusetts.
Her Kind
I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night
…
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.
– Anne Sexton, “Her Kind,” From The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton, Houghton Mifflin Company. 1981.