Filling the air

Since 2018 the chief conductor has been Luigi Gaggero. He came to Ukraine as a performing percussionist around 2012, and was impressed by the quiet attention of the audience, listening like to a spiritual message ("geistige Botschaft").
~Wikipedia

For Music Monday, the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra with Carol of the Bells and Prayer for Ukraine:

The Conductor

With an orchestra you are building citizens, better citizens for the community.
~Gustavo Dudamel

Cellist by Róbert Berény

Happy Poetry Friday! I am "away from my desk" but I'm scheduling a poem that my daughter Ariana wrote for her future mother-in-law's retirement. As a music professor, Sara created a thriving orchestra program after having started with only five students.

The Conductor
by Ariana Yeatts-Lonske
For Sara Edgerton

Sometimes she beckons a great sea swell.

Sometimes she places a pebble on top of a wall.

Sometimes she slices through slabs of marble.

Sometimes she captains a ship through choppy waters.

Sometimes she offers a single peony.

Sometimes she flicks red drops of paint.

Sometimes she closes a chest of gold.

Sometimes she opens a door to the light.

*

33 years ago, Sara walked across a field
and found five panes of glass.

She picked one up and held it to the sun,
saw a cathedral.

Only she could see it.

Last night we stood inside it.
Who says the world has lost all its beauty?

No one who has been here.
No one who has heard this.

******************

Jone Rush MacCulloch has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Jone!

Swan Knight

A knight is sworn to valor...His blade defends the helpless...His wrath undoes the wicked.
– George R.R. Martin

For Art Thursday, a terracotta sculpture of a knight with a swan helmet by my daughter Elena. The "copper" on top is where the knight's beloved has rubbed it:

Sweet babies

Compassion is a piece of vocabulary that could change us if we truly let it sink into the standards to which we hold ourselves and others.
~Krista Tippett

First Steps by Jean-François Millet

For Wellness Wednesday, a minute of sweetness:



More Krista Tippett quotes:
* Kindness is an everyday byproduct of all the great virtues.
* The things that go wrong for you have a lot of potential to become part of your gift to the world.

Celebrating the aged queen

On the face of this aged queen of our cathedrals, by the side of a wrinkle, one always finds a scar.
~Victor Hugo

Notre-Dame's largest and oldest bell, cast in 1686

For Music Monday, a bit of the Notre-Dame Cathedral reopening celebration. Daniel Lozakovich sur "Aria de la 3ème Suite" de Bach and Pretty Yende with Amazing Grace (Dudamel conducting):

Say no to mask bans

Hagstone Art

Excerpts from a Substack piece by The Disabled Ginger re: "how the shooting death of Brian Thompson is being used to re-ignite interest in banning masks in New York City - a move which would be a devastating blow to the disabled community."

This idea that masks are driving criminal activity is incredibly harmful to disabled and high risk individuals who NEED to mask for their health. It promotes the spread of disease - and discourages people who are still Covid cautious from masking.

There’s also no evidence to suggest it stops crime - and studies have shown that sunglasses obscure identity more effectively, yet no one is trying to ban them...

How far we’ve fallen that people are more concerned with banning masks than guns.

Masks bans won’t stop crimes. All they will do is fuel hateful anti-mask rhetoric and make public spaces even less safe for disabled and high risk individuals...

I naively assumed that the same people who screamed about personal freedom and bodily autonomy would oppose these bans. After all - telling someone they’re not allowed to use a medical device is a clear violation of autonomy and freedom...Of course I was wrong. They celebrated these bans.

People were cheering for them and saying they can’t wait to “rip the masks off our faces”.

In June the North Carolina ban passed - albeit with a very narrow and problematic medical exemption added back in. The ‘exemption’ allows medical masks for the purpose of “avoiding spreading a communicable disease”. Whether you can mask to avoid catching a disease - or to protect yourself from pollen or wildfire smoke - remains a legal grey area.

Who makes the determination with respect to whether YOU are masking for legal reasons? The police. As you can imagine, this is incredibly scary for people - especially those who are marginalized. These bans give police an excuse to stop, search and potentially arrest someone who’s doing nothing more than trying to safeguard their health.

Soon after the North Carolina ban passed - we heard of a woman with stage four cancer who was harassed in a store because she wouldn’t remove her mask. Another patron yelled at her that she was a “liberal” and demanded she take it off. When she explained she had cancer - he coughed on her.

This is where mask bans lead.

Read the whole piece here.

Disability-related stickers:
Fight for Disability Justice
Disability Rights are Human Rights
Make the World More Accessible
Cure Ableism
Not All Disabilities Are Visible
Certified Member Invisible Illness Club
It's Not A Miracle, I'm an Ambulatory Wheelchair User!
All of Us Are Different, None of Us Are Less

A second heartbeat

Tthere is evidence that altruistic behavior can lead to evolutionary benefits, such as increased survival rates among species. Altruism can also bring about a sense of purpose and meaning in life. By helping others, people can feel a sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing they are making a difference in the world.
~Sondra Rueter

I wrote a book about the Holocaust, which certainly made me cry while I did research but also taught me a few things about altruism. Why were some people altruistic in those frightening, harrowing times? What is the connection between bravery and altruism, you wonder (because I am surely circling around to talking about bravery). I think feeling brave is more likely to make you willing to do altruistic things. Wanting to do something altruistic can galvanize courage. One can feed the other. What do you think?

I decided to kick off my Brave year by collecting people's poems with an element of bravery in them and sharing them as a pdf. One poet will receive a $50 Bookshop gift card. Are you interested? I hope so!

What are the parameters? Please write a new poem, any length, which has a kernel of bravery in it, and send it to me by January 12th. Maximum of two. I will compile them by January 20th.

Today's poem is Thanksgiving Hymn by John Paul Davis.

John Paul Davis · Thanksgiving Hymn

You'll want to read or hear the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:

I saw someone fall from a bicycle
only to be surrounded by strangers,
one checking for wounds, another offering water,
a third testing the bike itself, the rest waiting
to see if they’d be needed, if there was any
way they could help. For decades
I did not say aloud the name of the hand
of love I could sometimes feel myself bumping
against as I clumsied & improvised
my way toward today, but all along it was a second
heartbeat in me, a breath underneath my breathing...

read the rest here

*******************

The Heroic Imagination Project ("We believe ordinary people can do extraordinary things.") has lesson plans and Heroism 101 articles, if you're interested.

A Word Edgewise has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Linda!

His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
~Charles Dickens

Some images from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol for Art Thursday. One more quote: I have always thought of Christmas time as...the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

Scrooge and the Ghost of Marley
by Arthur Rackham

Scrooge and the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come
by Arthur Rackham

Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge
Illustration by Fred Barnard (1846-1896)

Finch

Finch was started by 2 friends (Nino & Steph) who struggled with anxiety and depression and found self care challenging to stick with. They decided to build Finch with the mission to make self care fun and accessible after seeing many others share similar struggles.
~Finch FAQ

Hi y'all! For Wellness Wednesday, Finch, an app where you adopt a virtual bird that grows based on your self-care activities. My daughters like it so I decided to see if I could use it as a combined habit tracker instead of having multiple apps for various things, such as writing in my gratitude journal and giving my dogs their meds. (Since you can make your goals anything you want, not everything-- like giving my dogs their meds-- needs to be about self-care.)

I've been using it for a little over a week and so far, so good. It has some elements that I've tweaked.

I'm pretty sure I can add friends so if you want to try, let me know. It's free unless you decide to switch to Finch Plus.

Winter Charm

White the sheep that gave the wool,
Green the pastures where they fed,
Blue and scarlet side by side,
Bless the warp and bless the thread.

For Music Monday, Zambra:

One Little Word for 2025

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
~Francis Scott Key

My One Little Word for 2024 was "Open." Such a perfect word for this year...I really enjoyed being open to trying new things. When it came time to choose a word for 2025, I was reluctant to pack "Open" away so let's say I'm just adding it to my wordhoard instead.

My OLW for 2025 was pretty easy to pick, especially when I realized that what I fear most is being a coward (is that ironic? haha). It's a word that makes me feel better just thinking about it:

This week, I went to Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Awards in D.C. What an inspirationally brave group of people from all around the world. One winner reports on victims of terrorism-sponsored sexual violence. Grim work. This evening impressed upon me how vital it is to keep track of what is happening even if doing so doesn't stop it.

Another winner has been documenting war crimes in Ukraine and training journalists to record witness statements in a way that can be used in court. Her investigations helped lead to an arrest warrant for Putin by the International Criminal Court.

Michel Martin from Morning Edition read us the First Amendment. The very first one, even before the one about guns:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Ms. Martin talked about the importance of local newspapers. (Consider subscribing to yours!) She also talked about people's urge to not pay attention to the news. Russians had the same urge after Putin took over, she noted, but it didn't work out well for them ("you may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you!"). I think reading the news in limited amounts helps. Just enough that you stay informed but not defeated. That sweet spot can change depending on the day.

Time for a brave poem! Who else but Alberto Ríos?

excerpts from
A Sustainable Courage
by Alberto Ríos

When I pick up my newspaper, it weighs 50 lbs.—
It's full of problems, people arguing, dying, disasters.
Picking up that paper is an act of courage.
Facing that paper only begins our day, begins our wondering
Where to go next...

Much has been asked of us, and much we have freely given.
We know that yesterday has made us and tomorrow will receive us,
No matter what. But have we earned our way?
When we give water to each other, will we replace it, too?

When we breathe the air, will we keep it clean? Every day,
What we do extends us, me to you, you to me, neighbor to neighbor,
All of us in action. All of us affected. We have learned—
And learning is everything—that even the smallest act matters.

******************

I'm planning on "studying" courageous people in 2025, which will consist of keeping a notebook with brief info about brave people throughout history. I thought about putting the info on here, but it seemed like it might make it too crowded so instead I will email the info to a "Brave People" list. If you want to receive sporadic messages from me, email tabatha at tabathayeatts dot com.

The Apples in my Orchard has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Carol!

The Snow Queen

When we get to the end of the story, you will know more than you do now...
~Hans Christian Andersen

For Art Thursday, illustrations from The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen:

Stories from Hans Andersen with illustrations by Edmund Dulac

Andersens Märchen - Schneekönigin
illustration by Nikolay Karazin

Fairy tales and stories
illustration by Hans Tegner

Connections and Comfort (revisited)

How good it feels to be fed!
~Janet Reich Elsbach

Revisiting a Wellness Wednesday post from January 2019:

You might not be surprised to hear that I asked for a number of books for Christmas. One of them was Extra Helping: Recipes for Caring, Connecting, and Building Community One Dish at a Time by Janet Reich Elsbach. I like "reading" cookbooks no matter what they are, but this one is especially meant to be read. Elsbach writes comforting commentary before each section, which covers cooking for people who have had babies, moved, been sick, or lost someone, plus "food for cheer, distraction, and celebration," "food for a crowd," and "food for lunch boxes and care packages." I marked "Life is Upside-Down Cake" as something I'd like to try myself (is it okay to make something for yourself out of a cookbook like this? Let's say it is.)

Another thing that caught my eye (but I don't have plans to make any time soon, knock on wood) is a koliva, a Greek dish eaten at memorials, such as on the ninth day after a death. Elsbach was brought one after her sister died, and she says that the food gifts from that time "made indelible impressions." "Each one was a strand in the rope that tethered me to the land of the living and together they eventually pulled me to my feet again, altered but upright." A beautifully-put reason to try to be present when someone is in need.

Elsbach notes that it's best not to say, "If there's anything I can do, just let me know" because often nothing comes of that. If you can, offer to bring a meal on a certain day, or ask if they need anything from the store, or if they need a ride somewhere, or if they could use having their library books returned, or what-have-you. I know I have said that generic statement before but in the future, I will try to be more specific.

Back to kolivas. Elsbach explains:
"Seeds, sweetness, and spices were beautifully arranged in the bowl she presented, adorned with blossoms though it was deep winter. The notion, she said, is to take in the seeds in the name of the departed. Once consumed, you carry on the spirit of that person, whom you offer eternal life through your continued existence, I reckon, until someone eats a koliva for you, and on, and on."

Very poetic, isn't it? Here's a recipe:
Greek Kolyva (Koliva) Wheat Berry Memorial Food

A bowl of koliva by Goran Andjelic

In the celebratory chapter, Elsbach talks about making teeny cakes. She says, "Making a teeny cake is far less daunting for the maker than a grand creation that is destined to serve a crowd, and even if the thing turns out ever so slightly wonky, it is likely to charm." I think she's right, and will certainly make one sometime. Yesterday, we had a cupcakes for my older daughter's birthday. To meet her dietary restrictions, it had to be gluten-free and low-histamine. I used King Arthur gluten-free muffin mix (she knows the amount of sugar in it is doable for her) and added blueberries and coconut milk, and made a vanilla frosting with toasted coconut. It was tasty enough to want to eat even if you didn't have a bunch of dietary constraints.

Food restrictions can pose a daunting dilemma, but I encourage you and salute you in your efforts.

Is there a dish you always bring for special occasions like births, deaths, moves?

Keep on a-walkin'

This music was like an instrument, like holding a tool in your hand.
Bernice Johnson Reagon

Good morning! For Music Monday, Sweet Honey in the Rock.



Misc links:
* 'Hold the line': Nobel laureate says Americans should learn from the Philippines’ experience
* Ronan Farrow explains how your phone could be used to spy on you
* When is a photo an act of resistance?

Beato

A quote from Mary Morgaine Squire today for Wellness Wednesday:

Most people associate beatitudes with the well-known Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus gives a series of blessings to the kind and underprivileged sector of the population...

“Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be filled.”

etc….

But the concept and the word itself is a living noun, and I wonder why it became frozen in time. All of us are capable of giving and receiving great blessings.

Did you know that the term Beat Generation coined by Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac and others was inspired by beatitude?

Kerouac wrote, “Beat doesn’t mean tired, or bushed, so much as it means beato, the Italian for beatific: to be in a state of beatitude, like Saint Francis, trying to love all life, trying to be utterly sincere with everyone, practicing endurance, kindness, cultivating joy of heart.”

Squire wrote her own Earth Beatitudes, which include "Blessed are the rays of the sun, for they shine upon earth no matter how dark we become...Blessed are the ones who creep and crawl, for they weave the balance into life’s web. Blessed are the trees, for they are the pillars of shelter and sustenance...and Blessed are the earth stewards, for they devote their lives to protecting all of this." She suggests taking time to weave our gratitude into a beatitude. I'll drop that seed in my brain and see what grows.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Marley

Won't you help to sing
these songs of freedom?
~Bob Marley

For Music Monday, Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley:

Very bananas

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
~Unknown

Happy Poetry Friday! I've been reading A Whale of a Time (365 children's poems, selected by Lou Peacock), which is where I spotted today's poem. I was already a fan of Wendy Cope and this one is so much fun.

by Ellen Isham Schutt

The Uncertainty of the Poet
by Wendy Cope

I am a poet.
I am very fond of bananas.

I am bananas.
I am very fond of a poet.

I am a poet of bananas.
I am very fond.

A fond poet of ‘I am, I am’ –
Very bananas.

read the rest here

*********************

There is no such thing as a Godforsaken town has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Ruth!

Hong Kong

We long to have a home where civil freedoms are respected, where our children will not be subject to mass surveillance, abuse of human rights, political censorship and mass incarceration.
~Joshua Wong

Saluting the bravery of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong today. I wish I had good news about them, but the long work continues.

Protest artwork referencing Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830)
A Yang for Studio Incendo CC BY 4.0

From 2020:



From a January 3, 2022 article:

Democracy is over in Hong Kong, in other words, and has been for some time now. What Beijing is currently in is a mop-up mode, as it looks to take the vice it has built around the city-state and spin the tightening lever...

Cantopop star and prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Denise Ho was arrested at her home on Wednesday morning by the city’s national security police.

From November 18, 2024: 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are sentenced to jail in city’s biggest national security trial

"Among those handed sentences on Tuesday was Joshua Wong, a former student leader and poster child of the city’s once thriving pro-democracy movement, who shouted 'I love Hong Kong' before he left the dock." CNN

The flip side of unfairness is pure grace

Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.
~Alan Alda

Another Wellness Wednesday rerun today!

Here is an excerpt from a blog post by Mari Andrew, talking about her time as a hospital chaplain: "It’s Unfair and It Doesn’t Make Sense":

The way our culture of offering is set up, the whole-hearted feel like they have something of worth to say to the broken-hearted, the denizens of the healthy think they know more than the sick. Around those who are in pain, people suddenly assume the role of expert: “I suggest feeling your feelings. Be grateful for the good in your life.” Why do the perfectly-fine presume they have tools for the suffering? My supervisor reminded me, “The patients are your teachers. You don’t know more than they do. Other way around.”

It was so hard not to offer anything. I’ve been through enough that I know I shouldn’t try to find a bright side, or explain away the pain, or say “I know how you feel,” but it was extremely uncomfortable to sit with someone my age who was dying, or with the family member of someone who just got very bad news. I was in the position of helping them, and I thought that help meant I had to offer something. I had to leave them with a nugget, a mantra, something brilliant to soothe and uplift them.

But it doesn’t work that way.

read the whole thing here

(With thanks to Ariana.)

Knocking upon your door

The world is round so that friendship may encircle it.
~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

For Music Monday, a song from me to you. James Taylor:

Two poems by Cassian

[Nina] Cassian travelled to the United States as a visiting professor for creative writing at New York University in 1985. During her stay in America, a friend of hers, Gheorghe Ursu, was arrested and subsequently beaten to death by the Securitate for possessing a diary. The diary contained several of Cassian's poems which satirized the Communist regime and the authorities thought to be inflammatory. Hence, she decided to remain in the US.
~Wikipedia entry on Nina Cassian

Happy Poetry Friday, all! Poems by Romanian poet Nina Cassian today.

Preston and Lucy

Nina Cassian: "I switched to literature for children because it was the only field where metaphors were still allowed, where imagination was tolerated and assonance was permitted." (How bad was it in Romania? "A 2006 commission estimated the number of direct victims of the Communist repression at two million people." But Nina Cassian was still writing secret anti-Communist poems, up until she left.)

Morning Exercises
by Nina Cassian

I wake up and say: I'm through.
It's my first thought at dawn.
What a nice way to start the day
with such a murderous thought.

God, take pity on me
-- is the second thought, and then
I get out of bed
and live as if
nothing had been said.

translated by Brenda Walker and Andrea Deletant

***************

A Man
by Nina Cassian

While fighting for his country, he lost an arm
and was suddenly afraid:
'From now on, I shall only be able to do
things by halves.

I shall reap half a harvest.
I shall be able to play either the tune
or the accompaniment on the piano,
but never both parts together.
I shall be able to bang with only one fist
on doors, and worst of all
I shall only be able to half hold
my love close to me.
There will be things I cannot do at all,
applaud for example,
at shows where everyone applauds.'

From that moment on, he set himself to do
everything with twice as much enthusiasm.
And where the arm had been torn away
a wing grew.

translated by Roy MacGregor-Hastie

***************

Karen Edmisten has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Karen!

Addendum: An important message from a country with a terrible prime minister:

Shamsia Hassani

Art changes people's minds and people change the world.
~Shamsia Hassani

For Art Thursday, Afghani graffiti artist Shamsia Hassani:

Hassani’s distinctive style of graffiti – featuring a young woman with closed eyes – appeared on many walls in the Afghan capital, a symbol of social change, empowerment and peace. Much of her work has also been erased.

The artists who have fled Afghanistan remain undeterred and have been creating new work, even in the refugee camps. The ArtLords collective continues to create new pieces in exile and hopes soon to put on an exhibition of works by displaced artists.

“The Taliban can whitewash all our work in Kabul, but we will always have our paint and our brush. We will fight back with that,” says Muhajir.
~Richi Kumar for The Guardian

Buy prints
Artful Resistance: How Afghan Women are Wielding Art Against the Taliban

Quote Journal

I decided to repost some Wellness Wednesday posts. We all need to pump up our wellness.

No quotes needed up here today.
~me

Unfolding

Today for Wellness Wednesday, I'm thinking about keeping quote journals. Do you already save quotes or poems that have special meaning for you? Words that you might find solace in, or just thoughts that you want to return to? I started keeping quotes in high school. I still have my first pocket journal around somewhere, and I still remember some of the quotes I chose back then. Here are a few that I've saved more recently:

A book is a heart that only beats in the chest of another.
~Rebecca Solnit

Spring has returned.
The Earth is like a child that knows poems.
~Rainer Maria Rilke

Ontologically, chocolate raises profoundly disturbing questions: Does not chocolate offer natural revelation of the goodness of the Creator just as chilies disclose a divine sense of humor? Is the human born with an innate longing for chocolate? Does the notion of chocolate preclude the concept of free will?
~David Augsburger

Because you were born into this particular era doesn’t mean it has to be the limit of your experience. Move about in time, go places. Why restrict your circle of acquaintances to only those who occupy the same stage we call the present?
~David McCullough

Our culture is deeply invested in the concepts of inspiration, having big dreams, innate talent, and luck. These four concepts have one thing in common: they require no work. Success in any field requires work. The arts require hours, days, years...
~Julianna Baggott

Pens and their marks

You can be way more creative in a kids’ book. Kids take whatever you tell them as ground-zero. I could say to a kid: “Once upon a time there was a world made entirely out of kites. The people were kites, the trees were kites, and all of the buildings and rivers and mountains were kites too.”

And a kid would be like, “Yes. And then what happened?” No hesitation. That’s priceless.
-Marcus Ewert

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people.
~Henry Miller

An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.
~G.K. Chesterton

English bacteriologist Amalia Fleming spent years working on a problem.
When asked why she refused to quit, she answered, "There is an end even to failures." She did finally figure it out.

Pollinating the Stars by Elena Y

Some resources:
* Free Printable Journal pages
* Wikiquote
* Quote Investigator
* Me, being a little cranky about misattributed quotes (Full disclosure: I don't always check to make sure either. I try to think for a minute about whether it sounds like something the person would say, and if I am hesitant, I look it up.)
* Inspiring Quotes for Art Journaling

Lesson from Mrs. Roback

When all is said and done the only thing you'll have left is your character.
~Vince Gill

I don't know how long I will leave these posts up, but I know there's a community of you who are checking these out so this is for you. Since the election, I keep thinking about an experiment my fourth grade teacher did with our class. It was a rough experiment, not one that would have been done in more recent times (I think?).

In the morning, my teacher told us that kids with a certain eye color would be in charge. They could do whatever they wanted to the other kids. It was stuff along the lines of getting them to sharpen their pencils, tie their shoes, generally being bossy, saying things. I don't remember the details, what exactly was said to me or what I said. I think blue-eyed kids were in charge first. I remember being scared.

Halfway through the day, the teacher had things switch and the brown-eyed kids were in charge. She wanted everyone to have a chance to be afraid. I remember being relieved when it was our turn to be jerks -- she hadn't told us at the beginning that we would be switching, so the kids at the beginning didn't hold back.

My teacher wanted us all to see how it felt and how unfair it was. The people who could do whatever they wanted clearly weren't better than everyone else (although I think she told them that they were when it was their turn to be in charge!). Overall, I thought it was a pretty terrible day.

What I keep thinking about is how much some of the kids enjoyed it.

Black and white together, women and men together...

Made up my mind and I won't turn around
~The Staple Singers

For Music Monday, Bonnie Raitt and Andra Day perform "We Shall Not Be Moved" and "Freedom Highway" to honor Mavis Staples during the Kennedy Center Honors (2016):

Rebecca Solnit

The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
~GK Chesterson

Do you read The Guardian? It is pretty great. Here's an excerpt of a piece by Rebecca Solnit, who is also pretty great:

There are other kinds of resistance that mean making your own life and your own mind an independent republic in which the pursuit of truth, human rights, kindness and empathy, the preservation of history and memory, of being an example of someone living by values other than the values – if they deserve such a term – of the cruelty, greed, and dishonesty of Donald Trump and the circle around him. This does not overthrow the regime, but it does mean being someone who has not been conquered by it, and it invites others who have not been or who can throw off the shackles to join you.

Finding community, and building and strengthening relationships, with people you trust and agree with about these moral and political issues is also important; it will strengthen you and give you people to act with when it is time to act.

Whatever the weather

Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.
~Brené Brown

Hello, all. What can I say about this week? I was overly confident that people would walk away from a vindictive criminal but for a surprising number of people, bad behavior is a feature, not a bug. Other folks really believed all the "immigrants, immigrants!" nonsense and some believed, mindboggingly enough, that a person who keeps bankrupting his businesses and has no rational economic policy would do better with the economy.*

I have been thinking about what I can learn from Black Joy:

Black Joy is finding the positive nourishment within self and others that is a safe and healing place. It is a way of resting the body, mind, and spirit in response to the traumatic, devastating and life-altering racialized experiences that Black people continue to encounter. So, bring on the Joy.

Though some of us don't have racialized experiences, we must hold grief and joy at the same time. What choice do we have? One foot in front of the other.

This week's poem:

Whether the weather
Author Unknown

Whether the weather be fine
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.

********************

Merely Day by Day has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Cathy!

Addendum from Waging NonViolence: 10 Things to Do If Trump Wins (Thanks, JoAnn!)

* A quote from Ruth Ben-Ghiat: "In keeping with the power of psychological conditioning through propaganda, millions voted for Republicans because they were led to believe that the economy was terrible, inflation was rampant, and America was going down the drain due to Democratic governance. In reality, as The Economist stated just a few weeks before the election, the American economy was 'bigger and better than ever' and 'the envy of the world.'”

Some people who were convinced by the disinformation will read those quotes from The Economist and say "What do they know?" despite their specialty being, in fact, economies.

Persisting

The art of love is largely the art of persistence.
~Albert Ellis

I had a fashion-related post lined up, but the election made that feel inappropriate so instead we have an expression I've seen around lately: The horrors persist, but so do I. It's vastly disappointing that people would voluntarily choose to bring on the horrors, but here we are. (On Etsy, you can find this saying on everything from stickers to mugs to shirts.)

If you're ready now

I know a place
Ah, ain't nobody cryin'
Ain't nobody worried
Ain't no smiling faces
Lying to the races
~Alvertis Isbell

For Music Monday, I'll Take You There by The Staple Singers, which was ranked #276 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.



The first version I heard, which does feature Mavis Staples, was by BeBe and CeCe Winans:

Trying

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.
~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Would you like to send a poem and a gift to a poetry friend by mid-December (or just send a poem) (or just receive a poem or poem and a gift)? We have multiple options for the Holiday Poem Swap 2024! How quickly can you sign up? Registration will be ending Sunday November 3rd! Email me (tabatha at tabathayeatts dot com).

logo by Elena

I've been trying to remain calm while continually praying that our country does not choose misogyny, white supremacy, and fascism. I wish I could feel confident that it was out of the question. What are American values? We're about to find out.

While I go fix myself a soothing cup of tea, here's a warmhearted poem by Sheree Fitch:

Do Your Best Under the Circumstances
Sheree Fitch

There is no land of perfect, child.
There is no sea of ease.
There is no candy apple trail.
There’s broccoli and peas.

There is no suit of armour, child.
There’s arrows and there’s pain.
But when your heart is broken, child...

read the rest here

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Reverie has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Patricia!

Nut-crack night

On November first was Samhain ("summer's end").
~Ruth Edna Kelley

A nutty picture for Art Thursday. What does Halloween have to do with nuts? If you're trying to choose between suitors, apparently Halloween Night is the time to find out who's best. All you need are nuts and a fire. (Details below!)

Still Life with Mice
by Lodewik Susi

A bit of Halloween lore from The Book of Hallowe'en by Ruth Edna Kelley, A. M., originally published in 1919.

In the north of England Hallowe'en was called "nut-crack" and "snap-apple night." It was celebrated by "young people and sweethearts."

A variation of the nut test is, naming two for two lovers before they are put before[Pg 91] the fire to roast. The unfaithful lover's nut cracks and jumps away, the loyal burns with a steady ardent flame to ashes. "Two hazel-nuts I threw into the flame, And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name. This with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd, That in a flame of brightest color blaz'd; As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow, For 't was thy nut that did so brightly glow."

Gay: The Spell.

If they jump toward each other, they will be rivals. If one of the nuts has been named for the girl and burns quietly with a lover's nut, they will live happily together. If they are restless, there is trouble ahead.

"These glowing nuts are emblems true Of what in human life we view; The ill-matched couple fret and fume, And thus in strife themselves consume, Or from each other wildly start And with a noise forever part. But see the happy, happy pair Of genuine love and truth sincere; With mutual fondness, while they burn[Pg 92] Still to each other kindly turn: And as the vital sparks decay, Together gently sink away. Till, life's fierce ordeal being past, Their mingled ashes rest at last."

Graydon: On Nuts Burning, Allhallows Eve.

'Cause it felt so good

Just stop and realize just what is true. What else can you do?
Just follow the rules and keep your eyes on the road that's ahead of you.
~Little Feat

For Music Monday, Little Feat. Did I listen to this album a million times when it came out? Why, yes.



Also, Let It Roll
Halloween music

The right conditions

Maples are such sociable trees ... They're always rustling and whispering to you.
~Lucy Maud Montgomery

Happy Poetry Friday! When I was looking for quotes, I also found this delightful one:
I remember it as October days are always remembered, cloudless, maple-flavored, the air gold and so clean it quivers.
~Leif Enger

It's been very gold today. *happy sigh* I am a fan of October. We have two tree-related poems this week.

letter to my father
by Sara Eddy

I’ve been walking around with a knot
in my belly all week for no reason.
There’s nothing wrong, no big turmoil.

But I feel everything, a web of open nerves
zapping to the tune of every little thing.
We finally had winter this week, after many...

read the rest here

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Whenever you see a tree
By Padma Venkatraman
Think
how many long years
this tree waited as a seed
for an animal or bird or wind or rain
to maybe carry it to maybe the right spot
where again it waited months for seasons to change

read the rest here

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Beyond Literacy Link has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Carol!

Molten

"A singer can shatter glass with the proper high note, he said," "but the simplest way to break glass is simply to drop it on the floor.'"
~Anne Rice

For Art Thursday, Glass Blowers of Murano by Charles Frederic Ulrich. Have you watched the tv series that's a glass blowing competition (I can't remember the name! Arg)? It impressed upon me how dangerous glass blowing can be, although this painting looks very relaxed.

Glass Blowers of Murano
by Charles Frederic Ulrich

Photogravure (by Goupil & Co.) based on the 1886 painting by American artist Charles Frederic Ulrich

Orange-colored day

You’re a part of the season, no more and no less
~Liana Flores

For Music Monday, a song Ariana introduced me to during my visit. Liana Flores:

We can make a house called tomorrow

It's sobering to realize that there's a huge chunk of the U.S. voting population that doesn't think of sexual assault as something horrendous enough to disqualify a presidential candidate.
~Ana Kasparian

by Jogesh Chandra Seal

Happy Poetry Friday! How great is it to have poetry friends who will take up a meaningful challenge with you? Here's a post from 2020 full of poems about hand-marked paper ballots.

Ouch: Voting Machine by Maggie Smith

Lastly, I'm returning to Alberto Rios, who knows what to say:

A House Called Tomorrow
by Alberto Ríos

You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen—
You are a hundred wild centuries

And fifteen, bringing with you
In every breath and in every step

Everyone who has come before you,
All the yous that you have been,

The mothers of your mother,
The fathers of your father.

If someone in your family tree was trouble,
A hundred were not:

The bad do not win—not finally,
No matter how loud they are...

read the rest here

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I'm visiting Ariana and Matthew this week but hope to make the rounds anyway, maybe a little late.

Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Matt!

Noodle Soup

Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance.
~Francoise Sagan

For Music Monday, Four80East:

Radiant

The meadows are yellow with buttercups, and the birds fly out of the gold.
~George Augustus Moore

photo by William Warby

Happy Poetry Friday! Today's poem is by Wendy Stern, whose poetry has an archive at the Buddhist Poetry Review.

Vision
by Wendy Stern

If all you see is cityness,
Heavy cement, paving stones,
Concretised un-breathing,
Can you still notice out of the far corner of your eye
That solo flying buttercup,
Rooted in the crusty soil,
There between the cracks,
Amid the greyness, the bleakness,
All radiant yellowness?

Life,
No matter what,
Survival,
No matter where.

All radiant yellowness.

Wendy was a Buddhist and poet who lived in Bristol, in the west of England. For many years she was completely bedridden, and her poetry therefore came from an unusual perspective. Writing poetry was Wendy’s passion and her only form of creativity and self-expression. Her work was produced without the capacity to look at text, to write or to use a laptop. Dictating the poems and then editing them aurally took an immense amount of energy and concentration. Wendy passed away on April 8, 2015. -Buddhist Poetry Review

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Jama's Alphabet Soup has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Jama!

Fionn and Áillen

[Áillen] would burn Tara [the seat of the High King of Ireland] to the ground every year at Samhain [Oct 31/Nov 1] with his fiery breath after lulling all the inhabitants to sleep with his music. This only ended with the arrival of Fionn mac Cumhaill, who inhaled the poison from his spear to keep himself awake and slew Áillen.
~The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn

Now that's a hero, right? Inhaled his own poison to stay awake! For Art Thursday, Fionn mac Cumhaill fighting "The Burner" Áillen. According to Irish History.com:

Fionn Mac Cumhaill, born as Demne, was the son of Cumhaill, the leader of the Fianna, and Muirne, the daughter of the druid Tadg mac Nuadat. Fearing for the child’s safety due to Cumhaill’s death in battle and the enmity of his enemies, Muirne entrusted her son to be raised in secrecy by the druidess Bodhmall and the warrior Liath Luachra.

The name Fionn, meaning “fair” or “bright,” was given to Demne after he killed a dangerous supernatural creature known as Aillen mac Midgna, who had terrorized the people of Tara for years. With his newfound fame, Demne adopted the name Fionn Mac Cumhaill, honoring his father and signifying his bright future as a great hero.

Both of these images seem to be from the same book, but they are quite different. I thought the second one was Áillen because it seemed like there was fire coming out of the creature's mouth but maybe not? What do you think?

Fionn fighting Áillen
illustration by Beatrice Elvery in Violet Russell's Heroes of the Dawn (1914)

illustration to a collection of tales from Irish mythology
Beatrice Elvery, 1914

Orla Gartland

La-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-la
I, I wouldn't trust me either
~Orla Gartland, Backseat Driver

For Music Monday, Irish singer, songwriter, and musician Orla Gartland with "Late to the Party" and "Backseat Driver":

We will be spirals and domes

“And if anyone knows anything about anything,” said Bear to himself, “it’s Owl who knows something about something.”
~Winnie the Pooh

Happy Poetry Friday! Glad you're here. It's National Poetry Day in the U.K. (on Oct 3rd) so huzzah for that!

One morning this week when I walked outside with my dogs, we startled an owl. It flew away but not too far, so I got a good look at it. How thrilled was I? Exceedingly! I told my neighbor, who said he'd seen that owl a couple of times before and he shared this picture:

by Nathan B.

He took this photo out his window! I have been looking for our owl ever since. When I was searching for an owl poem, I found this gorgeous one about starlings. It could make a good mentor poem! What if humans could move like a pod of whales or a caravan of camels? (You can find animal group names here.)

Murmuration
Emily Schulten

If we move with the fluidity of starlings,
like a puddle of clippings in the air that shape-
shifts but never falls hard to the ground,

if we sense enough of each other to know
in which direction to fly away from being
preyed upon, but never from one another,

in swirls and with the unshakable faith
that wherever we turn we will be synchronal,
miming in a language only our bodies

comprehend the intention of our design...

read the rest here

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