July 14th, 2022 → 6:36 am
“The prize of all-too-precious you.” — Sonnet 23
In Chapter 7 of Seeking Forgiveness, out this week, a LEGO minifigure becomes the wordless bond between Miles and Rachel.
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
June 25th, 2018 → 6:38 am
“Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form.” – King John
My son has left for summer camp (a 2-week overnight camp), and it is just so unnatural without him. His presence fills the house; his toys, his clothes, his smell… his laughter, his smiles, his questions… My son will return in two weeks, yet if his brief absence to this happy place is still so biting, I literally cannot imagine what the bereft parents at the U.S. border are going through right now.
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
June 15th, 2018 → 6:06 am
Congratulations North America, for winning the bid to host the 2026 World Cup!
May 20th, 2018 → 5:45 am
“Eternity was in [their] lips and eyes,
Bliss in [their] brows’ bent; none [their] parts so poor
But was a race of heaven.” – Antony and Cleopatra
Yes, I watched the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle yesterday. As it happens, my son woke up early too and we watched it together – that was fun! God bless the new couple, and may they enjoy years of happiness together.
May 18th, 2018 → 5:45 am
“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel.” – Hamlet
I made a new friend yesterday afternoon, and then met up with an old friend after work for coffee. A medium friend (what do you call someone who isn’t a new friend or an old friend, but a recent friend of 2-3 years??) I found out is leaving the United States at the end of summer and moving to the Netherlands; I don’t know when I’ll see her again. Friends come and friends go, they give pleasure and sadness, and if I could grasp some of them with hoops of steel, believe me, I would.
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
May 1st, 2018 → 6:20 am
“Beauty, truth and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclosed, in cinders lie.” – Phoenix and Turtle
It broke my heart to read about the letter a woman wrote to her husband, just before she was put on the trains to Auschwitz. It is amazing the letter survived the Holocaust at all; it is even more astonishing how love, it seems, can shine through anything.
April 22nd, 2018 → 6:44 am
“Look thou character.
Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged courage. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear’t that th’opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man…
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man.” – Hamlet
It’s Shakespeare’s birthday sometime this week (we don’t actually know the exact day), and in the interest of saluting the bard, I’m quoting some of his pithiest advice. There are some really good nuggets in there. Hard to pick a favorite, but… today maybe it’s… ‘Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.’
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other
March 14th, 2018 → 5:43 am
“I must have saffron to colour the warden pies; mace; dates, none–
that’s out of my note; nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger, but that
I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many of raisins o’th’ sun.” – Winter’s Tale
Happy Pi Day! It’s difficult to find Shakespeare quotes about math, so I decided to go with literal pies. A pie a day is about as good as pi every day.
February 12th, 2018 → 6:46 am
“Then westward ho!
Grace and good disposition attend your ladyship!” – Twelfth Night
‘Westward ho!’ was the cry of Thames watermen to attract westward bound passengers from London to Westminster. The phrase sounds so American to me, however. Westward ho, young man! Go West and make something of yourself!
I am not headed out West today, but I did finally return to my latest novel. Opened the dust-caked notes and began the long awaited edit of Draft #5. I purposely give myself space between drafts so as to let the material appear fresh again, but sometimes it’s hard. I’ve been wanting to get back to this for weeks now. I’m so excited!!
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
January 27th, 2018 → 6:45 am
“Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.” – Twelfth Night
The chocolate is on all the shelves and reminders that Valentine’s Day is coming up are everywhere. It’s making me contemplate the nature of the love in my life. We all love differently; we certainly all express it differently. God help us sometimes, for loving too much.