Sometimes in our house, when it's quiet, if you don't make a sound, you can catch one of these little creatures at work, doing my dishes for me........
Disturb her and she'll flit out that window before you can blink.
Friday, October 25, 2019
Sunday, October 20, 2019
DELIGHT IN DISORDER
- Robert Herrick
A sweet disorder in the dress.
Kindles in clothes a wantonness:
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction:
An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher:
A cuff neglectful and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly:
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat:
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see wild civility:
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.
- Robert Herrick
A sweet disorder in the dress.
Kindles in clothes a wantonness:
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction:
An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher:
A cuff neglectful and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly:
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat:
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see wild civility:
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.
Monday, October 14, 2019
i thank You God for most this amazing
e.e.cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitable earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any - lifted from the no
of all nothing - human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
e.e.cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitable earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any - lifted from the no
of all nothing - human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Sunday, October 13, 2019
I'm taking an online course on Aristotle's Ethics. Fascinating! Here are the notes I scribbled down during the first lecture:
NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS, Lecture 1 - Book 1, Chap 1 & 2
The goal of every choice is some good.
Character (Greek) charese - etching
We need to ask what is good and how to be it.
"The good is that at which all things aim." Every art, inquiry, action and choice.
- Art is that which is produced. Designed and executed with skill and purpose.
- Inquiry is methodical investigation.
- Action is praxis - practice.
- Choice - prohiresis (?) Choice is the basis of human freedom. Your choices are very important and they make you what you are.
Every time you make a choice, it etches a mark on your soul and makes you what you are.
Every thing done aims at SOME good.
All things aim at THE good.
There's a contrast between Good and Beautiful.
And there's a contrast between Some and The.
Ends are purposes. Check the ultimate good of an action, not just the immediate one.
Beautiful is the highest form of good.
Read Thomas Aquinas's commentary on Nichomachean Ethics.
It is beautiful to say that all of our actions, taken together, aim at THE good.
There is a hierarchy of the good. The first 20 lines of the book direct us to start looking at the universe vertically. The Good, the Better, the Beautiful.
Read The Discarded Image, by C.S. Lewis.
The Beautiful is the good that is chosen for its own sake (not a means to something else). Hence, the highest form of good.
NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS, Lecture 1 - Book 1, Chap 1 & 2
The goal of every choice is some good.
Character (Greek) charese - etching
We need to ask what is good and how to be it.
"The good is that at which all things aim." Every art, inquiry, action and choice.
- Art is that which is produced. Designed and executed with skill and purpose.
- Inquiry is methodical investigation.
- Action is praxis - practice.
- Choice - prohiresis (?) Choice is the basis of human freedom. Your choices are very important and they make you what you are.
Every time you make a choice, it etches a mark on your soul and makes you what you are.
Every thing done aims at SOME good.
All things aim at THE good.
There's a contrast between Good and Beautiful.
And there's a contrast between Some and The.
Ends are purposes. Check the ultimate good of an action, not just the immediate one.
Beautiful is the highest form of good.
Read Thomas Aquinas's commentary on Nichomachean Ethics.
It is beautiful to say that all of our actions, taken together, aim at THE good.
There is a hierarchy of the good. The first 20 lines of the book direct us to start looking at the universe vertically. The Good, the Better, the Beautiful.
Read The Discarded Image, by C.S. Lewis.
The Beautiful is the good that is chosen for its own sake (not a means to something else). Hence, the highest form of good.
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Friday, October 11, 2019
"One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing
And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky
But till that morning, there ain't nothin' can harm you
With daddy and mammy standin' by...."
My nearly three-year-old grand baby wakes up singing EVERY morning. From her room I can hear her pouring out her heart in song. The roosters and birds can't even begin to compete with that. The sweetest sound in the world.......
And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky
But till that morning, there ain't nothin' can harm you
With daddy and mammy standin' by...."
My nearly three-year-old grand baby wakes up singing EVERY morning. From her room I can hear her pouring out her heart in song. The roosters and birds can't even begin to compete with that. The sweetest sound in the world.......
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
from THE DAILY STOIC
According to the philosopher Blaise Pascal, at the root of most human activity is a desire to escape boredom and self-awareness. We go to elaborate measures, he said, to avoid even a few minutes of quiet. It was true even of the people you think had all the reasons to be happy and content.
"A king is surrounded by people,” Pascal wrote, “whose only thought is to divert him and stop him thinking about himself, because, king though he is, he becomes unhappy as soon as he thinks about himself."
It’s an observation that puts Marcus Aurelius in an even more impressive light. Think about it: Marcus Aurelius was surrounded by servants and sycophants, people who wanted favors and people who feared him. He had unlimited wealth but endless responsibility. And what did he do with this? Did he throw himself endlessly into the diversion and distraction these blessings and curses offered?
No. Instead, he made sure to carve out time to sit quietly by himself with his journals. He probed his own mind on a regular basis. He thought of himself--not egotistically--but with an eye towards noticing his own failings. He questioned himself. He questioned the world around him. He refused to be distracted. He refused to give into temptation.
People in his own time probably thought he was a bit dour. They wondered why he did not enjoy all the trappings of wealth and power like his predecessors. What they missed, what’s so easy to miss today in our own blessed lives, is that the true path to happiness is not through externals. It’s found within. It’s found in the stillness. In the quiet. With yourself.
Monday, October 7, 2019
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Eddie Robinson (baseball)
| Eddie Robinson | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| First baseman | |||
| Born: December 15, 1920 Paris, Texas | |||
| |||
| MLB debut | |||
| September 9, 1942, for the Cleveland Indians | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 15, 1957, for the Baltimore Orioles | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .268 | ||
| Home runs | 172 | ||
| Runs batted in | 723 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
William Edward Robinson (born December 15, 1920) is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman, scout, coach and front office executive of the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s who, during a 13-year playing career (1942; 1946–57), was on the roster of seven of the eight American League teams then in existence (with Red Sox as the sole exception). He is the author of an autobiography, published in 2011, titled Lucky Me: My Sixty-five Years in Baseball.[1] He is also the last surviving member of the 1943 "Navy World Series".[2]
Robinson is the last living person to win the World Series with the Cleveland Indians,[3] as well as the oldest living player to play on a World Series-winning team and the oldest living member of the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Philadelphia/Kansas City Athletics, and Washington Senators.[4]
We had the honor of serving this fine gentleman and his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and grandsons, for his 64th anniversary, last night in our restaurant. Oldest living player for the Yankees (and several other teams, but the Yanks are the ones that count - haha). He batted DiMaggio in. Respect.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
So my goal these days is to decrease my cyber footprint. How's that sound, Mr. Gore? That is now a thing. I want to decrease the amount of life I live online and increase the amount I experience through my senses and with the people in front of me. Especially that. The ads say that nothing connects us like the internet, but that's a lie. Nothing isolates us like the internet. Yes, used properly it can be beneficial, like morphine. But like many highly addictive drugs, it's very hard to use it properly. And not enough people are approaching it like a highly addictive drug.
I have freed myself from Facebook, and I've now decreased the number of Lexulous games I play from 40 to 15. May take it down to ten, just retaining the few friends I have made playing it.
I want my phone to no longer be the thing that promises me relief from boredom and loneliness. That's it in a nutshell.
So I ask myself, in a slight panic, what is there?? What do I go to early in the morning, for amusement and quiet thought, and things to think about? ........ And I remember my mother when I was very small. Remember getting up early, because that's what little children do, and looking for my mother, until I found her out on the back step in the hushed and dewy back yard full of fruit trees, with her cup of coffee and her pen and notepad. I was allowed to stay with her as long as I didn't budge or make a sound.
And I remember myself before the internet. I too started my days alone in the dark of early morning. With five kids in the house, the only time you're guaranteed quiet is in the "empty, silent, dewy, cobwebby hours", as C.S. Lewis put it. With my coffee, pen, and notepad.
To that I shall return.
I see, of course, the hypocrisy of posting on my blog the evils of the internet. And yes, I will keep my blog, whether anyone reads it or not. I have things to say, and this is a place to share what I come up with. But not the only place. I will expand my learning and sharing further in the real world. To my poetry circle, I will add public readings and acting classes and classes on writing, and practice drawing. I will share here what I come up with there. And in my notebook early in the morning.
Greetings and love to all my readers! Love from Texas to Canada, Portugal, France, England, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, South Africa, and all other parts. I'm delighted that you find the things I post interesting. And while not many comment here, if anyone's interested in conversation (one-on-one, not FB style) my email address is mariahkruz@gmail.com. Let's live outside the Box, and come into it only to share our observations.
I have freed myself from Facebook, and I've now decreased the number of Lexulous games I play from 40 to 15. May take it down to ten, just retaining the few friends I have made playing it.
I want my phone to no longer be the thing that promises me relief from boredom and loneliness. That's it in a nutshell.
So I ask myself, in a slight panic, what is there?? What do I go to early in the morning, for amusement and quiet thought, and things to think about? ........ And I remember my mother when I was very small. Remember getting up early, because that's what little children do, and looking for my mother, until I found her out on the back step in the hushed and dewy back yard full of fruit trees, with her cup of coffee and her pen and notepad. I was allowed to stay with her as long as I didn't budge or make a sound.
And I remember myself before the internet. I too started my days alone in the dark of early morning. With five kids in the house, the only time you're guaranteed quiet is in the "empty, silent, dewy, cobwebby hours", as C.S. Lewis put it. With my coffee, pen, and notepad.
To that I shall return.
I see, of course, the hypocrisy of posting on my blog the evils of the internet. And yes, I will keep my blog, whether anyone reads it or not. I have things to say, and this is a place to share what I come up with. But not the only place. I will expand my learning and sharing further in the real world. To my poetry circle, I will add public readings and acting classes and classes on writing, and practice drawing. I will share here what I come up with there. And in my notebook early in the morning.
Greetings and love to all my readers! Love from Texas to Canada, Portugal, France, England, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, South Africa, and all other parts. I'm delighted that you find the things I post interesting. And while not many comment here, if anyone's interested in conversation (one-on-one, not FB style) my email address is mariahkruz@gmail.com. Let's live outside the Box, and come into it only to share our observations.
HOPE
- Phillip Booth
Old spirit, in and beyond me,
keep and extend me. Amid strangers,
friends, great trees and big seas breaking,
let love move me. Let me hear the whole music,
see clear, reach deep. Open me to find due words,
that I may shape them into plowshares of my own making.
After such luck, however late, give me to give to
the oldest dance....Then to good sleep,
and - if it happens - glad waking.
- Phillip Booth
Old spirit, in and beyond me,
keep and extend me. Amid strangers,
friends, great trees and big seas breaking,
let love move me. Let me hear the whole music,
see clear, reach deep. Open me to find due words,
that I may shape them into plowshares of my own making.
After such luck, however late, give me to give to
the oldest dance....Then to good sleep,
and - if it happens - glad waking.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Early every morning I recite my rhymes -
Poetry and passages I've captured over time.
I daily keep them fresh, and they keep me company -
Old friends I speak to, and they speak to me.
On my front porch, the trees and herbs and flowers
I regale with incantations for close to half and hour.
In that magical solitude I put on quite a show,
Making mighty pronouncements, or confessions shy and low.
But now and then I go inside for a moment or two,
To cut a slice of bread or pour the morning brew.
I keep up the chatter, but to a patter under my breath I switch,
And the baby sees me going about, muttering like a witch.
Poetry and passages I've captured over time.
I daily keep them fresh, and they keep me company -
Old friends I speak to, and they speak to me.
On my front porch, the trees and herbs and flowers
I regale with incantations for close to half and hour.
In that magical solitude I put on quite a show,
Making mighty pronouncements, or confessions shy and low.
But now and then I go inside for a moment or two,
To cut a slice of bread or pour the morning brew.
I keep up the chatter, but to a patter under my breath I switch,
And the baby sees me going about, muttering like a witch.