Fantastic fog . . .
Tuesday, January 6, 2026. It's Tiw's day … a sunny day in TulseyTown. Forecasts indicate moderate Northerlies and mid 70's for the afternoon.
So, what is “mindfulness?” Mindfulness is the present moment ....a direct and wordless experience of presence. Mindfulness is not a thought, but rather attention itself. It is open-ness without agenda. Thoughts/words are “doing.” Like the words you are reading. Mindfulness is “being”–like the spaces between these words and the space remaining at the end of this sentence before the next one
below.
Higher education and the future markedly changed by Ai.
Sophie Strand and scientific animism. A fascinating read In Make Me Good Soil, posted yesterday 1.4.26
Trump's Venezuelan quagmire. – Robert Reich, online.1.4.25
Birthdays
Novelist Elizabeth Strout turns 70 today. She was born in 1956 Portland, Maine.
It's the birthdate of E.L. Doctorow. The novelist, editor, and professor was born on this day in 1931 the Bronx, New York.
It's also the birthdate of Carl Sandburg. The poet, historian, novelist, and folklorist was born in 1878, Galesburg, Illinois.
Fog
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
– “Fog,” published in Chicago Poems, Henry Holt and Company, 1916
And its the birthdate of composer Max Bruch. He was born in 1838, Cologne, Germany.
Josh Bell creates reality from a fantasy.
How dare we not . . .
Monday, January 5, 2026. It's the Moon's day . . . Strong Southerlies are in the forecasts for TulseyTown, bringing sunny skies and 70º this afternoon. The 70's are indicated to stay with us until turning cooler with good rain chances Thursday.
Spend some time today resting in the open space of wonder. Look at the world with childlike wonder. Try to see people and things as if for the very first time, like a one-year-old who has not yet learned the names of anything. When memory, judgment, and language loosen their grip, what is left?
Today marks the Twelfth Night. It’s the official end of the holiday season, which begins with All Hallows’ Eve. Though the origin of the Twelfth Night celebration dates back to the Roman Saturnalia, most of the traditional observances of the holiday that have survived date back to medieval England. It's all but absent in the U.S. except, perhaps, for attending a performance of Shakespeare's play or watching it streaming. The Church of England, Mother Church of the Anglican Communion, celebrates Twelfth Night on the 5th and refers to the night before Epiphany, the day when the nativity story tells us that the wise men visited the infant Jesus.
The creator of “The Method” for actors, Konstantin Stanislavsky, was born in 1863, Moscow, Russia .
Actors sharing today's birthdate: Robert Duvall is 95 today, born in 1931 San Diego, California; Bradley Cooper turns 51, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Diane Keaton was born in 1946, Los Angeles, California – she died this past October.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio took the administration’s message about its strikes on Venezuela to the Sunday talk shows. It did not go well. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.
Tomorrow marks the most shameful day in American history. – Robert Reich, 1.5.26
The week ahead. Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse, 1.5.26
The question isn’t, dare I say love, but how dare I not. – Bob Hicok, “The Naivete and Potential Embarrassment of Proposing an Empathy-Shaped Economy While Living in a K-Shaped Economy,” Rattle: Poets Respond, online 1.4.26
Coming together at the guest house.
Sunday, January 4, 2026. It's Sol's day . . . forecasts for TulseyTown indicate Southerlies and mostly cloudy conditions as a warming trend settles into the are all week. Mid 50's today, 70's mid week, turning cooler again by the weekend. Mornings continue cold.
Only when you do not strive for enlightenment will you have it. – Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, “Just Sit as Yourself.”
Today is the birth date of Sir Isaac Newton, born in 1643 Woolsthorpe, England.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is 83 today. The Pulitzer Prize biographer was born in 1943 Brooklyn, New York.
The French Educator Louis Braille was born on this day in 1809 Coupvray, France. Blind from birth he invented the Braille system of reading by touch.
Irish-American Jesuit Zen Master Robert Kennedy was one of the first American Catholic priests to be installed as a Zen teacher in the U.S. The documentary “Are We One” traces his 90-year interfaith journey. A most worthy hour.
. . . just when we need to come together, we see ourselves fracturing and retreating into our opposite corners of isolation, our little echo chambers, where we only hear what we want to hear, which often is the opposite of what we need to hear. – Fr. Richard Rohr, Falling Apart, Coming Together, in Meditations at the Center for Action and Contemplation. 1.4.26
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
Because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
-- Rumi