A Contemplative Life

My Tears of Joy Quilt under which I was sitting this morning, feeling grateful for having sewn it.    I'm currently reading aloud Can't Be Done Alone: The Hawk Book Five . Two chapters in, I came across a couple of paragraphs that made me cry. Below sits the chapter in whole, but I've made those paragraphs bold, because as I read them, I realized some truths about our lives on this planet that don't seem to change, especially when set alongside mathematician Emmy Noether , who left Germany in 1933 after the Nazi government dismissed Jews from university positions, or Edith Eger , a Hungarian/American psychologist and Holocaust survivor. When dictators or those wishing to be dictators frame this or that segment of society as unworthy, they are hoping to instill intrinsic hatred to a degree so their followers will assume no one deserves love and respect. As Eger put it, guards at the concentration camps where she was imprisoned were 'brainwashed', their youths as...

Camilla Chicken from a couple days ago. Photo courtesy of my daughter. It's lovely to have family present; my eldest and the grandgirls are here for the week. My oldest granddaughter likes checking on the chickens, while youngest grandgirl treks about with Grandpa on trails. Meanwhile I've learned about KPOP Demon Hunters , how AI can produce gluten-free, dairy-free, iron-fortified, red-meat free meal plans in the blink of an eye, not batting an eye in also excising seafood, tofu, and coconut milk from said menus. Definitely twenty-first century living even tucked away on the North Coast. Rain has fallen, then was immediately sucked into the parched ground, more rain arriving today. Temperatures have been pleasant, sun shining even. The chickens weren't sure what to make of all the precipitation, and by last night my husband was wondering if Camilla, our largest and usually most confident pullet/nearly hen was experiencing a bit of an identity crisis. When he went to check ...

We went to France in 1999, but I can't find any pictures from the trip. Instead here's a 1999 shot from our British backyard. Okay so spoiler alert, but I think this scene from Home and Far Away is worth it. Meanwhile my right arm has been tingling for over twenty minutes; maybe the pinched nerve is better? Enjoy and happy Monday!   That morning it was only the women in the house, French spoken by two, but understood by all three. Chella also asked Sooz a few questions silently, but Sooz didn’t reveal much, other than yes she loved Richard, and no, she wasn’t sure how, when, or what they would tell Gilly. Sooz wasn’t even certain if she would sleep with Richard that night, though she then smirked inwardly, not wanting to be apart from him. She missed him greatly, but also feared how this new element of their relationship would develop. Then she sighed, seated in the front room, a fire crackling. Chella had gone to the porch, talking in their native language to Max as thoug...

Maybe how the moon appeared to Sooz. Photo from 2024. Thank goodness that despite an achy shoulder, I can still manage revisions, lol. Was just reading Chapter 21 from Home and Far Away , and I had to put a paragraph here. P.S.... If you want Sooz's backstory, get a copy of Far Away from Home: The Enran Chronicles Book Three . Don't worry about Books One and Two ; Book Three concerns Noth in another galaxy, and as he doesn't recall his past, those earlier segments won't be missed (Though if you want the whole ball of wax, go for it!). One of the joys about writing this particular series is while the books connect, certain ones can be read as standalones. Far Away from Home and Home and Far Away are like that, just saying, hehehe. Anyways, shameless plugs aside, more to matter is what Home and Far Away is truly about, that of love mattering more than anything, that people are worthy of said love regardless of their origins. Sooz is discovering that imminently, but w...