The Past

“The past is never dead. It's not even past.”
― William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

Practice

“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
― William Faulkner, Essays, Speeches & Public Letters

Courage

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
― William Faulkner

Never be Afraid...

“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.”
― William Faulkner

Read

“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.”
― William Faulkner

Faulkner

Time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.
William Faulkner

Dream

I dreamed about a square box of German Shepherd puppies. The top was open. The pups were packed in and alive, and they were the size of hamsters. I sniffed them and they smelled like cinnamon.

Alan Watts

If you make where you are going more important than where you are, there may be no point in going.
Alan Watts

Healthy, Unhealthy

"While I was running, some other thoughts on writing novels came to me. Sometimes people will ask me this: 'You live such a healthy life every day, Mr. Murakami, so don't you think you'll one day find yourself unable to write novels anymore?' People don't say this much when I'm abroad, but a lot of people in Japan seem to hold the view that writing novels is an unhealthy activity, that novelists are somewhat degenerate and have to live hazardous lives in order to write. There's a widely held view that by living an unhealthy lifestyle a writer can remove himself from the profane world and attain a kind of purity that has artistic value. This idea has taken shape over a long period of time. Movies and TV dramas perpetuate this stereotypical -- or, to put a positive spin on it, legendary -- figure of an artist.

Basically I agree with the view that writing novels is an unhealthy type of work. When we set off to write a novel, when we use writing to create a story, like it or not a kind of toxin that lies deep down in all humanity rises to the surface. All writers have come face-to-face with this toxin and, aware of the danger involved, discover a way to deal with it, because otherwise no creative activity in the real sense can take place. (Please excuse the strange analogy: with a fugu fish, the tastiest part is the portion near the poison -- this might be something similar to what I'm getting at.) No matter how you spin it, this isn't a healthy activity."
Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami

"First there came the action of running, and accompanying it there was this entity known as me. I run; therefore I am."
Haruki Murakami

Acquire a Void

"I just run. I run in void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void."
Haruki Murakami

Likes to be by Himself

“I’m the kind of person who likes to be by himself. To put a finer point on it, I’m the type of person who doesn’t find it painful to be alone. I find spending an hour or two every day running alone, not speaking to anyone, as well as four or five hours alone at my desk, to be neither difficult nor boring. I’ve had this tendency ever since I was young, when, given a choice, I much preferred reading books on my own or concentrating on listening to music over being with someone else. I could always think of things to do by myself.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Fully Alive

“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they’ll go to any length to live longer. But I don’t think that’s the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life—and for me, for writing as well. I believe many runners would agree.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

The Sky

“I look up at the sky, wondering if I'll catch a glimpse of kindness there, but I don't. All I see are indifferent summer clouds drifting over the Pacific. And they have nothing to say to me. Clouds are always taciturn. I probably shouldn't be looking up at them. What I should be looking at is inside of me. Like staring down into a deep well. Can I see kindness there? No, all I see is my own nature. My own individual, stubborn, uncooperative often self-centered nature that still doubts itself--that, when troubles occur, tries to find something funny, or something nearly funny, about the situation. I've carried this character around like an old suitcase, down a long, dusty path. I'm not carrying it because I like it. The contents are too heavy, and it looks crummy, fraying in spots. I've carried it with me because there was nothing else I was supposed to carry. Still, I guess I have grown attached to it. As you might expect.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Optional

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Keep On

“All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, my own nostalgic silence. And this is a pretty wonderful thing. No matter what anybody else says.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

The Question

“I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm running? I don't have a clue.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Can't do Without

“When I'm running I don't have to talk to anybody and don't have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can't do without.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Taking Time

“Sometimes taking time is actually a shortcut.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Inner Voice

“Being active every day makes it easier to hear that inner voice.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Fitness

I will try not to bore you with how MISERABLE I was feeling the past few weeks not having my fitness routine of lap swimming. It's been BUGGING ME and affecting my MIND in a horrible way. So today after a downtown Romeo walk I set out by myself. I walked all the way to Champlain Ave where I ran into Celeste and we walked to Celeste's house having a social distance visit along the way. Then I ran into P who told me that he and his family all had Covid 19 (for 5 weeks!) but they are all better now. Then I jogged home. I was surprised that I was able to sustain a steady jog the whole trip home (1.5 miles). I felt like myself again. It was just like swimming in terms of how it gave me back my optimism and mental space. AMEN! For me 95 percent of fitness and mental health is about leaving the premises. My whole life is in my house. I must leave my house for fitness.

Running

“Long distance running is meditation. When I finish a long run, it’s like my brain has been washed. All the stress and negative thoughts are left somewhere on those long kilometers. At the end, the illusions of the past and future are removed from my mind, and it is set back to zero, so I feel I am totally in the present moment, reset, and ready to restart my life afresh.”
― Robert Black

You Listen, You Look

“Once, Picasso was asked what his paintings meant. He said, “Do you ever know what the birds are singing? You don’t. But you listen to them anyway.” So, sometimes with art, it is important just to look.”
— Marina Abramović

Billy Porter

I found my way to writing to an artist workbook called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. She speaks of training yourself to wake up every morning and write three pages longhand of whatever comes to your mind. Being introduced to that book, over 20 years ago, really changed my life. I still do [the morning pages] every day; it gets everything out — right at the top of the day. All the anxiety, all the fear, all the mess – it comes out and then it cracks open and leads you to wherever it is that you're supposed to be inside your creativity. I never wrote until I started The Artist's Way, so I would say: Start there.
-Billy Porter
Article

Map of their Psyche

“All artists’ work is autobiographical. Any writer’s work is a map of their psyche. You can really see what their concerns are, what their obsessions are, and what interests them.”
— Kim Addonizio

Iris Murdoch

“What I needed with all my starved and silent soul was just that particular way of shouting back at the world.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea

Addonizio

Poetry is not a means to an end, but a continuing engagement with being alive.
Kim Addonizio

Kim Addonizio

“I’m so lucky to have a writing career and I feel like even if I were only getting published in some little places, I would still be writing. It’s what I love to do. It’s what puts me in the zone. A life without writing would make me miserable.”
― Kim Addonizio

Michael Pollan

The ego typically perceives the world as if there’s a single subject – you – while everything else is an object. This sort of egotism, I think, is at the heart of our environmental crisis – our ability to objectify nature and see ourselves as standing outside of it. Once you objectify something, it becomes a thing you can use for your own purposes, that you can exploit.
Michael Pollan

Joel Grey

These are hard times, for sure, and in hard times I, like so many others, have always turned to the theater for comfort. Where do we turn now?

Article

Back into Your Body

“Stress puts us up in our head, and we forget about the rest of our bodies,” she says. “Try 10 minutes of qi gong — movements that help you practice mindfulness — or use stretches and yoga poses to bring your awareness back into your body.”
source

You'll see some bad things

“You'll see some bad things, but if you didn't see them, they'd still be happening.”
― Paula Fox, The Slave Dancer

Dream

I dreamed people were squirting Bailey's Irish cream and other liquors inside their face masks and then wearing them.

Stories

“Literature is the province of imagination, and stories, in whatever guise, are meditations on life.”
― Paula Fox

Imagination

“Imagination is conjunctive and unifying; the sour, habitual wars of the self are disjunctive and separating.

When I begin a story at my desk, the window to my back, the path is not there. As I start to walk, I make the path.”
― Paula Fox

Iron Grip

“Families hold each other in an iron grip of definition. One must break the grip, somehow.”
― Paula Fox, The Widow's Children

Not Dead Enough

My mother died a few years ago but as I said to my husband, "I thought it would be over when she died. But what I've discovered is she's dead but not dead enough." The effects of her bad behavior continue to live on in the next generation.

One Step

“Nobody has the power to take two steps together; you can take only one step at a time.”
― Osho

Illusions

“With me, illusions are bound to be shattered. I am here to shatter all illusions. Yes, it will irritate you, it will annoy you - that's my way of functioning and working. I will sabotage you from your very roots! Unless you are totally destroyed as a mind, there is no hope for you.”
― Osho

Don't Let the Past

“That is the simple secret of happiness. Whatever you are doing, don’t let past move your mind; don’t let future disturb you. Because the past is no more, and the future is not yet. To live in the memories, to live in the imagination, is to live in the non-existential. And when you are living in the non-existential, you are missing that which is existential. Naturally you will be miserable, because you will miss your whole life.”
― Osho

Imperfect

“I love this world because it is imperfect. It is imperfect, and that's why it is growing; if it was perfect it would have been dead. Growth is possible only if there is imperfection. I would like you to remember again and again, I am imperfect, the whole universe is imperfect, and to love this imperfection, to rejoice in this imperfection is my whole message.”
― Osho

The Capacity to be Alone

“The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it's not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of another person--without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.”
― Osho

By Walking

“One thing: you have to walk, and create the way by your walking; you will not find a ready-made path. It is not so cheap, to reach to the ultimate realization of truth. You will have to create the path by walking yourself; the path is not ready-made, lying there and waiting for you. It is just like the sky: the birds fly, but they don't leave any footprints. You cannot follow them; there are no footprints left behind.”
― Osho

Listen

“Listen to your being. It is continuously giving you hints; it is a still, small voice. It does not shout at you, that is true. And if you are a little silent you will start feeling your way. Be the person you are. Never try to be another, and you will become mature. Maturity is accepting the responsibility of being oneself, whatsoever the cost. Risking all to be oneself, that's what maturity is all about.”
― Osho

There is a Way to be Sane

“I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process.

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.”
― Osho

Life Begins

“Life begins where fear ends.”
― Osho Bhagwam Shree Rajneesh

Sadness gives depth

“Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That's its balance.”
― Osho Rajneesh, Everyday Osho: 365 Daily Meditations for the Here and Now

Experience

“Experience life in all possible ways --
good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light,
summer-winter. Experience all the dualities.
Don't be afraid of experience, because
the more experience you have, the more
mature you become.”
― Osho

Osho

“Don't seek, don't search, don't ask, don't knock, don't demand ― relax.
If you relax it comes, if you relax it is there. If you relax, you start vibrating with it.”

― Osho

Cause and Effect

When my friend Rob's child was a toddler he was worried that his boy might get too close to the wood burning stove. So Rob constructed a chicken wire fence to be a protective barrier for his son. Immediately the boy wandered over and got ensnared by the fence and got burned. "I was so worried about him getting hurt that the barrier caused the damage. Had I let him learn how hot it was he would have been better off," Rob said. I always think of this story as a metaphor for things I've tried to do. When I go out of my way to prevent getting burned I often cause it.

Suffer for a While

“There are transitions in life whether we want them or not. You get older. You lose jobs and loves and people. The story of your life may change dramatically, tragically, or so quietly you don´t even notice. It´s never any fun, but it can´t be avoided. Sometimes you just have to walk into the cold dark water of the unfamiliar and suffer for a while. You have to go slow, breathe, don´t stop, get your head under, and then wait. And soon you get used to it. Soon the pain is gone and you have forgotten it because you are swimming, way out here where it´s hard and where you were scared to go, swimming sleekly through the new.”
― John Hodgman

Maine

“Maine is not a death cult. I mean, it is, but it's a slow one. It creeps in like the tide, and without your even noticing, the ground around you is swallowed by water until it's gone.”
― John Hodgman, Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches

do us the favor of ending

“Stories make sense when so much around us is senseless, and perhaps what makes them most comforting is that while life goes on and pain goes on, stories do us the favor of ending.”
― John Hodgman

“Stories hold power because they convey the illusion that life has purpose and direction. Where God is absent from the lives of all but the most blessed, the writer, of all people, replaces that ordering principle. Stories make sense when so much around us is senseless, and perhaps what makes them most comforting is that, while life goes on and pain goes on, stories do us the favor of ending.”
― John Hodgman

John Hodgman

Don’t concentrate on becoming a better humor writer, just concentrate on being the best writer you can become. If you’re funny, the work will end up being funny. And if you’re not funny, the work will still end up being good. Concentrate on being the most honest writer you can be, and let everything else follow—because it will.

JOHN HODGMAN

If you Write...

“If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write for yourself, you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted that you will wish that you were dead.”
― Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation

Merton

“To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.”
― Thomas Merton

Miro

“The painting rises from the brushstrokes as a poem rises from the words. The meaning comes later.”

“For me an object is something living. This cigarette or this box of matches contains a secret life much more intense than that of certain human beings.”

“I feel the need of attaining the maximum of intensity with the minimum of means. It is this which has led me to give my painting a character of even greater bareness.”

“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.”

“My characters have undergone the same process of simplification as the colors. Now that they have been simplified, they appear more human and alive than if they had been represented in all their details.”

“The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness.”

“Throughout the time in which I am working on a canvas I can feel how I am beginning to love it, with that love which is born of slow comprehension.”

“What I am looking for… is an immobile movement, something which would be the equivalent of what is called the eloquence of silence, or what St. John of the Cross, I think it was, described with the term ‘mute music’.”

“The simplest things give me ideas.”

Joan Miró i Ferrà (April 20,1893 – December 25,1983) was a world renowned Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramist who was born in the sea port city of Barcelona.

Miro was the son of a watchmaking father and a goldsmith mother, he was exposed to the arts from a very young age. There have been some drwaings recovered by Miro dating to 1901, when he was only 8 years old. Miro enrolled at the School of Industrial and Fine Arts in Barcelona until 1910; during his attendance he was taught by Modest Urgell and Josep Pascó.
source

Font Detective: Ferret out Fakery

He calls himself a font detective—an expert called upon in lawsuits and criminal cases to help determine documents' authenticity based on forensic analysis of letterforms used, and sometimes the ways in which they appear on paper. Article

William Hazlitt

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.
William Hazlitt

The Pretty Suburbs

When we walk along the pond to enjoy the view of the water I can't help but notice a few of the houses and cottages have threatening signs displayed THIS HOUSE IS UNDER SURVEILLANCE and THE OWNER of THIS PROPERTY is ARMED. I can't help wondering why? But then I remember that people are terrified and generally more terrified in the pretty suburbs.

Exerting Yourself

“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they'll go to any length to live longer. But don't think that's the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as whole. I believe many runners would agree”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Being Active

“Being active every day makes it easier to hear that inner voice.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Randy Newman Song

Stay Away

Vote!

The Enemy

“The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he is on.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Focus and Effort

Success at anything will always come down to this: Focus and effort, and we control both.

Dwayne Johnson

William Hanage

No matter how you crunch the numbers, this pandemic is only just getting started
William Hanage

Nick Cave

The act of prayer is by no means exclusive to religious practise because prayer is not dependent on the existence of a subject. You need not pray to anyone. It is just as valuable to pray into your disbelief, as it is to pray into your belief, for prayer is not an encounter with an external agent, rather it is an encounter with oneself. There is as much chance of our prayers being answered by a God that exists as a God that doesn’t. I do not mean this facetiously, for prayers are very often answered.

A prayer provides us with a moment in time where we can contemplate the things that are important to us, and this watchful application of our attention can manifest these essential needs. The act of prayer asks of us something and by doing so delivers much in return — it asks us to present ourselves to the unknown as we are, devoid of pretence and affectation, and to contemplate exactly what it is we love or cherish. Through this conversation with our inner self we confront the nature of our own existence.

The coronavirus has brought us to our knees, yet it has also presented us with the opportunity to be prayerful, whether we believe in God or not. By forcing us into isolation, it has dismantled our constructed selves, by challenging our presumed needs, our desires, and our ambitions and rendered us raw, essential and reflective. Our sudden dislocation has thrown us into a mystery that exists at the edge of tears and revelation, for none of us knows what tomorrow will bring.

In our hubris we thought we knew, but as we bow our heads within the virus’ awesome power, all we are sure of now is our defencelessness. In the end this vulnerability may be, for our planet and ourselves, our saving grace, as we step chastened into tomorrow. Released from our certitude, we present our purest offering to the world — our prayers.
-Nick Cave, Red Hand Files Issue #92 / April 2020

Dear Colleague

Dear Colleague: We Must Insist and Act on the Truth in the Coronavirus Crisis
April 14, 2020
Press Release

Dear Democratic Colleague,

This Easter Weekend provided me with a time for deeper prayer and reflection. This is an unbearably sad time with all Americans sharing the same devastating experience: we are grieving for those who have died from the coronavirus, we are fearful for our health and especially the health of our loved ones and we are heartbroken for our children who are unable to be in school and with their friends.

As Americans, we are suffering from pressures of economic hardship. All of us want to resume the precious and beautiful lives that America’s unique freedoms provide. We will overcome this moment, but success requires one fundamental from which all actions will follow: we need the truth. To succeed in this crisis, we must insist on the truth, and we must act upon it!

In order to move forward, we must first understand the truth of what has put us in this position:

The truth is that Donald Trump dismantled the infrastructure handed to him which was meant to plan for and overcome a pandemic, resulting in unnecessary deaths and economic disaster.
The truth is that in January Donald Trump was warned about this pandemic, ignored those warnings, took insufficient action and caused unnecessary death and disaster.
The truth is that Donald Trump told his most loyal followers that the pandemic was a hoax and that it would magically disappear, thus endangering lives and paving the way for economic disaster.
The truth is that we did not have proper testing available in March despite Trump repeatedly claiming that we did; and even now, we do not have adequate tests, masks, PPE, and necessary equipment, which creates unnecessary death and suffering.
The truth is because of an incompetent reaction to this health crisis, the strong economy handed to Donald Trump is now a disaster, causing the suffering of countless Americans and endangering lives.
The truth is a weak person, a poor leader, takes no responsibility. A weak person blames others.

The truth is, from this moment on, Americans must ignore lies and start to listen to scientists and other respected professionals in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

Here’s more that is true: the American people want us to work together. In March, Congress passed three bipartisan bills to address this crisis. The first bill passed the House on March 4 and focused on testing, testing, testing.

The truth is, one month later, we do not have appropriate testing. The President continues to obfuscate, saying we have more testing than any other country in the world. The truth is that only 1 percent of Americans have been tested. The failure to test is central to the spread of the virus and its impact on those most vulnerable in our society. The failure to test is dangerous and deadly, and without testing, we cannot resume our lives.

The President has said that we are engaged in a war. Leaders understand that in war, force protection of our troops is the top priority. In this war, force protection means for health care, police, fire, EMS, food and other essential workers to have the protective equipment that they need to save lives without risking their own.

The truth is that we do not have the necessary hospital equipment. Without ventilators and other equipment, our health care workers cannot save the lives of those they serve.

Once we all share the truth of what took place and what is currently happening, including in our minority communities, we can work together to solve these problems.

There are important decisions ahead. We can go forward confident that America, its competent and honest leaders and its people are fully capable of making the right choices and decisions to restore the American greatness that has been squandered.

But if we are not working from the truth, more lives will be lost, economic hardship and suffering will be extended unnecessarily and our children will not be safe, happy and learning. Our future will be healthy and prosperous if we no longer tolerate lies and deceit.

We must recognize the truth, we must speak the truth, we must insist on the truth and we must and will act upon it.

Respectfully and sadly,

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House

Sylvia Scahill

Honoring Lorena Borjas
Filmed and edited by Sylvia Scahill

Chef Michael's Slow and Silky Salmon

Canadian Chef Michael Smith's Pink Salmon
My favorite Chef's recipe

http://chefmichaelsmith.com/recipe/slow-baked-salmon-honey-mustard-glaze/

Derek Sivers

Life can be improved by adding, or by subtracting. The world pushes you to add, because that benefits them. But the secret is to focus on subtracting.
Derek Sivers

Eastern Towhee

Listen to him sing "drink your tea!"
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Towhee/overview

Burk Uzzle, Photographer

https://www.pbs.org/video/f11-and-be-there-7gjtfc/

Jennifer Toon

As the outside world disappeared, a new one took shape. The inner world within myself surfaced, as if it had always been waiting to do so. The most important lesson I learned during this time was that I had to accept my circumstances as they were, then change my perspective about them. To my surprise when I did this, those once menacing walls, with their obscene graffiti and chipped paint, transformed. They were no longer holding me hostage but offering refuge.

Solitude challenges you to look at things differently. Before prison, my worldview had been rather limited and selfish. I was known to throw terrible tantrums as I tried to bend reality to my will, but peace depended on my bending to reality. Life wasn’t all about me. I had to learn what was within my control and what wasn’t. I also discovered that time exists in relation to an emotion or experience, and it slowed or sped according to my ability to be present. So, I learned how to flow with it, not rushing nor procrastinating, but fully engaged in whatever was before me.

What did that look like? It was as simple as just paying attention. I read books carefully. I listened to others deeply. I stopped mindlessly flipping through the channels of my mind. I gave my full attention to every activity, no matter how small it might be. Full engagement strengthened my gratitude, and gratitude strengthened my will.

-Jennifer Toon

Article

Wally Lamb

“My creative brain is most active in the early morning, coming out of the dream state,” he said. “I’ve done my fair share of goofing off, but I’ve been a little more productive than usual.”

Lamb has several things in the works. Before lockdown, he was able to visit the set of HBO’s adaptation of his novel “I Know This Much Is True,” and he met Mark Ruffalo, who is playing the twin protagonists.

He’s also working on a new novel about a character who is just coming out of prison, and he finds the writing provides a welcome respite from our current reality.

“I’ve been able to create a boundary — one of the things I’ve felt good about is that writing allows me to escape the whole pandemic for the hours that I’m writing,” he said. “In the story that I’m writing, coronavirus isn’t there, we are still free of it in that world, and I get my head pretty deeply into it because I’m writing in first person. I am this guy while I’m there.”
Article

Ann Cleeves

“I’m fascinated generally in the narratives people create about themselves. Most of us present a mask to the world, pretend to be more confident, happier, more interesting than we really are. I love getting behind the façade of reputation and image to see what lies beneath.
Ann Cleeves

Shetland

Yesterday at 5PM we draped the TV room windows in a dark blanket and watched 3 episodes. It was good!

The Ritual

“The ritual of tea, Willow thought, is like a liturgy itself, comforting because it’s so familiar.”
― Ann Cleeves, Dead Water

T.S. Eliot

To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.

T.S. Eliot

Savory Pecorino & Pepper Mini-Pizzelle

https://kitchenencounters.typepad.com/blog/2014/12/-savory-parmesan-pepper-pizzelle-snackers-.html

Swimming

Swimming

In America...

We are not safe from the virus nor our dire political crisis.

The truth is the virus of autocrats and criminal elites.

The truth is the virus of autocrats and criminal elites. They cannot stomp it out, and they scramble to keep themselves from being exposed. They do this by commanding the mechanisms of power and, once in office, rewriting the laws so they’re no longer breaking them.

In the United States, they were able to do this because officials refused to enforce accountability for the crimes of the wealthy and well connected. That’s why you see the same names – Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Bill Barr, Jeffrey Epstein, Rupert Murdoch, John Bolton – repeating throughout decades of horrific American scandals. Watergate, Iran-Contra, the war in Iraq, the 2008 financial collapse, and the illicit foreign interference in the election of Mr. Trump share many of the the same participants.

But it’s not solely the GOP that’s to blame – it’s everyone who looked the other way, everyone who waited for someone else to sort it out, everyone who settled for false stability over real justice.

Avoidance is a dangerous strategy. It doesn’t actually keep the peace; it turns elite criminal impunity into elite criminal immunity, as the corrupt pack the courts and order their own exoneration. These tactics have been most blatant during Mr. Trump’s rule, as he dispensed with even the pretense of serving the public good. But it was true of every administration of my lifetime, dating back to the Reagan era. The 2020 election offered a fleeting chance to tackle institutional corruption. But it’s uncertain now whether that election will even be held. As election integrity experts push for voting by mail as the safest method to employ during the pandemic, the Trump administration is trying to shut down the post office.

The other day, I looked across the street at the community centre where I cast what may have been my last vote. My neighbourhood was silent. Missouri spring in all its beauty – the blooming dogwood trees and wildflowers make my downtrodden region a hidden treasure. You’d never know death was in the air.

Corruption is like that, too – invisible until it shatters your life. My comfort in this time is that the same can be said of truth. Truth is still out there, hiding in plain sight, and its revelations can rearrange the world.

There are people to blame for these crises of corruption, but there’s a difference between vengeance and justice. To tell the truth is to try to bring justice to the vulnerable, to protect people from further harm. These days, the vulnerable is all of us. No one is immune – not from the crisis of public health and not from our political crisis, because they are one and the same. What was predictable was preventable, and no one deserved this fate.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-in-america-we-are-not-safe-from-the-virus-nor-our-dire-political/

find work you love to do

“Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.”
― Grace Paley

“There is a long time in me between knowing and telling.”
― Grace Paley, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute

“The only thing you should have to do is find work you love to do. And I can't imagine living without having loved a person. A man, in my case. It could be a woman, but whatever. I think, what I always tell kids when they get out of class and ask, 'What should I do now?' I always say, 'Keep a low overhead. You're not going to make a lot of money.' And the next thing I say: 'Don't live with a person who doesn't respect your work.' That's the most important thing—that's more important than the money thing. I think those two things are very valuable pieces of information.”
― Grace Paley

“You become a writer because you need to become a writer - nothing else.”
― Grace Paley

“The only recognizable feature of hope is action.”
― Grace Paley

“That heartbreaking moment when you finish an amazing book, and you are forced to return to reality.”
― Grace Paley

“Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.”
― Grace Paley

“Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life.”
― Grace Paley

“You write from what you know but you write into what you don't know.”
― Grace Paley

“I saw my ex-husband in the street. I was sitting on the steps of the new library.
Hello, my life, I said. We had once been married for twenty-seven years, so I felt justified.
He said, What? What life? No life of mine.”
― Grace Paley, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute

Leaving things Undone

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
Lin Yutang

The Story

“Write the story that you were always afraid to tell. I swear to you that there is magic in it, and if you show yourself naked for me, I'll be naked for you. It will be our covenant.”
― Dorothy Allison

Write

“Write to your fear.”
― Dorothy Allison

Dorothy Allison

“Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is the way you can both hate and love something you are not sure you understand.”
― Dorothy Allison, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

“Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.”
― Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina

“The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal.”
― Dorothy Allison

“Behind the story I tell is the one I don't.

Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear.

Behind my carefully buttoned collar is my nakedness, the struggle to find clean clothes, food, meaning, and money. Behind sex is rage, behind anger is love, behind this moment is silence, years of silence.”
― Dorothy Allison, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

“Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that if we are not beautiful to each other, we cannot know beauty in any form.”
― Dorothy Allison

“Change, when it comes, cracks everything open.”
― Dorothy Allison

“I did things I did not understand for reasons I could not begin to explain just to be in motion, to be trying to do something, change something in a world I wanted desperately to make over but could not imagine for myself.”
― Dorothy Allison, Trash: Stories

“Everything that comes to us is a blessing or a test. That’s all you need to know in this life…just the certainty that God’s got His eye on you, that He knows what you are made of, what you need to grow on. Why,questioning’s a sin, it’s pointless. He will show you your path in His own good time. And long as I remember that, I’m fine.”
― Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina

“Two or three things I know for sure, and one is that I would rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me.”
― Dorothy Allison

Holidays

I've always been a watcher. When I got my first Brownie Instamatic camera at age 8, it was just after my Aunt Rose's church wedding down the street. We were all gathered in the backyard. My sister had the family pose all dressed up standing in front of our Japanese maple tree. Luckily my sister didn't notice I was missing. I was off photographing her photographing the family.

When we got older and my sister was chasing the neighborhood boys around the yard. I was in the tree house contemplating the snowfall. Loving the quiet.

As with most holidays I prefer to be in the kitchen, backstage, watching, overhearing other peoples conversations.

I like to walk around and just be the watcher. Other people play the leading roles showing up well dressed with bouquets of flowers or cooked roasts. I'd rather just take a long walk and admire the daffodils and flowering trees and soak up the space left by other peoples lives.

One July 4th many years ago my husband was rowing our wooden boat on Spring Lake, slowly circling the pond. I followed alongside, swimming. Each family was having a Fourth of July picnic facing the water. We were enjoying having a view of them.

This year we will bake a piece of fish with rice and make chinese-spicy garlic stir-fried broccoli and sit down and think about what we are grateful for. Our health, each other, our pets, our city, our neighborhood, our distant families. We are both introverts. Life isn't terribly different for us during this pandemic but the backdrop of a potential deadly sickness is frightening for us, as it is for everyone.

4/9/2020

Savory Pizzelles

https://joybileefarm.com/savory-pizzelles/

Savory Pizzelles that are perfect with cheese.

Ingredients

3 eggs
¼ cup plus 1 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tbsp. chives, chopped
1 tsp. dried onion flakes
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
½ cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup flour, whole wheat
2 tsp. baking powder

Instructions

Add eggs, one at a time, to a medium bowl, whisking after each addition. After melting allow butter to cool to room temperature. Pour butter into egg mixture whisking while you add it.
Add chives, onion flakes, salt, and parmesan cheese to the egg mixture. Whisk until the batter is light and frothy, about a minute.
Add whole wheat flour and baking powder together to the egg mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon just until the flour is moist and the batter clings together. The batter will be thick and it will clump together but it should still be light. The batter consistency is a little thicker than muffin batter but not as thick as biscuit dough.
Preheat the pizzelle iron according to manufacturer’s directions.
Drop the batter by heaping teaspoonful into the centre of the pizzelle plate, just a little toward the back of centre. Close the pizzelle iron.
Cook the pizzelles until the steam stops escaping from the iron. Pizzelles should be golden brown and will hold their shape when removed from the pizzelle iron.
Cut the pizzelles into quarters, if you wish to make smaller crackers, or leave them whole. Cool immediately on wire rack to crisp the pizzelles.
Repeat with remaining batter. Makes 1½ dozen pizzelles.

Use a light hand when mixing these pizzelles, due to the low-sugar content they can become tough if over-mixed.

3 Tenors Paris 1998

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovtB1zo0IAI

Junkyard Dog

The absentee landlord has no idea there's a junkyard dog on his property, barking for hours. Absentee landlords destroy the neighborhood.

Lin Yutang

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.

Lin Yutang

Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese

We cooked 1 pound of cavatappi (Colavita brand) for 3 minutes in 4c cold water in the instant pot. Then we released the steam using a towel to avoid splatter. Then we drained the pasta and threw it back in the instant pot. We added 1/4 cup olive oil (in place of 4T butter.)

While the macaroni was pressure cooking, we had mixed the wet ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
We beat 2 large eggs, then mixed in 1 tsp ground mustard, 1 tsp Sriracha, and 12 ounces (1 can) of evaporated milk. Mixed it well and poured it over the cooked oiled noodles. Then we heated and stirred adding 1.5 cups of freshly grated Asiago and 3 tablespoons of grated Romano cheese. (do not use pre-grated cheese because the preservatives prevent it from behaving correctly). Sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper and enjoy.

Adapted from Instant Pot Mac and Cheese.
https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/pressure-cooker-mac-and-cheese/

We have met the enemy, and he is us.

By
Molly Roberts
Editorial Writer
April 8, 2020 at 4:28 PM EDT

Pogo got it right. We have met the enemy, and he is us.

Our globalized system is in part to blame for this disease ballooning, and yet at the same time our lack of global spirit is to blame for our inability to deflate the blimp before it explodes — by coordinating an international response that could contain the germ’s spread instead of allowing it to move in its own ruthless way. The same sort of international action will be necessary for Carroll’s virus-fighting atlas to come to fruition, too. Can we summon the will, not to mention the goodwill?

The problem is everything is connected, and the problem is, despite all that, we’re not connected enough.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/08/we-made-this-disaster-ourselves/

Absentee Landlords Destroy the City

The problem with neglectful absentee landlords is the city is destroyed by them.

Swimming in the Sink (Memoir)

Must get my hands on this.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/536325/swimming-in-the-sink-by-lynne-cox/9781101971833/

Something Large and Wild

https://thisislovepodcast.com/something-large-and-wild-2/

Seymour Hersh

Seymour Hersh once said: "I don't make deals, I don't party and drink with sources, and I don't play a game of leaks. I read, I listen, I squirrel information. It's fun."

Charles Kingsley

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements in life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
Charles Kingsley

Awful stuff happens and beautiful stuff happens

"Awful stuff happens and beautiful stuff happens, and it's all a part of the big picture. In the face of everything, we slowly come through. We manage to make new constructs and baskets to hold what remains, and what has newly appeared..." -Anne Lamott, in Help Thanks Wow

DeMisty Bellinger

Read this!

Spring is for Amateurs

I like to be outside every day of the year no matter the weather. I have a huge anger problem with SPRING. Neighbors play radios and chain up their barking dogs. My consolation is that tomorrow it will be raining for 3 days. Hurray! Spring is for amateurs who come out and mess it up for the introverts.

Dalai Lama

“There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’
No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.”

“Hard times build determination and inner strength. Through them we can also come to appreciate the uselessness of anger. Instead of getting angry nurture a deep caring and respect for troublemakers because by creating such trying circumstances they provide us with invaluable opportunities to practice tolerance and patience.”

“When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways–either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.”

How to Make Buttermilk

Here

Aebleskiver (Danish Pancake Balls)

I have had this pan for 25 years and today I finally used it for this recipe. Delicious finger food for tea time!
video
sourdough version
savory lentil potato

Aebleskiver (Danish Pancake Balls)

Recipe by mersaydees
ADAPTED by Emily
READY IN: 30mins
YIELD: 12-15 pancake balls
mix and allow 15 minutes for ingredients to rise.

INGREDIENTS

1 1⁄4 cups whole wheat flour*
1 teaspoon Kosher salt*
1⁄2 teaspoons baking soda*
2 tablespoons brown sugar*
1⁄2 teaspoon ground cardamom or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
1 cup buttermilk*
3 tablespoons corn oil*, or butter or 3 tablespoons margarine, divided, melted and cooled
powdered sugar
fruit jam or preserves

DIRECTIONS

Sift flour with salt, baking powder, granulated sugar, and cardamom in medium-size bowl. Combine egg, milk, and 2 tablespoons of butter in small bowl. Add wet mixture to dry combination and stir until blended and smooth.
Note: If your aebelskiver pan is new and isn’t Teflon coated, season it by preheating it to medium-hot – until water dripped onto the surface sizzles. Brush entire cooking surface generously with salad oil. Continue to heat just until oil smokes, then remove from heat and let cool completely. Wipe clean and your aebelskiver is ready for use. If your old aebelskiver seems to stick, wash its cooking surface in soapy water. Then season as directed above.
Place a seasoned aebleskiver pan over medium heat until water sprinkled in pan sizzles. Brush each cup lightly with some of the remaining butter. Fill each cup approximately 2/3 full with batter. About 30 seconds later, a thin shell forms on the bottom of each pancake ball. Coerce unbaked batter to flow out by sticking a slender wooden or metal skewer into baked portion and gently pulling shell almost halfway up.
Continue to rotate each pancake ball about every 30 seconds as the shell begins to set, pulling up the baked shell to let remaining batter flow out into cup. After about four turns, the ball should be almost formed and you can turn it upside down to seal.
Continue baking, rotating the balls frequently until they are an even golden brown and a skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Using skewer, lift balls from pan when baked. Repeat with remaining batter.
Serve immediately, or keep warm for as long as 30 minutes in a bun warmer or cloth-lined basket on an electric warming tray. Dust with powdered sugar. Break each ball in half, fill with jam, and eat out-of-hand.

Piano Truck

Welcome to the 'piano truck,' where a music teacher is offering mobile lessons to his students in Hong Kong https://reut.rs/2UMWGvH

Stayin' Alive

Stayin’ alive! How music has fought pandemics for 2,700 years

Article

Hunger is Rampant

Article

Feeling Connected

A 68-year-old woman wrote this week about how her husband of almost 50 years had come across their old love letters. “For the next hour or so he would run in with another letter, I would read it, and we would laugh and reminisce about how young and in love we were,” she wrote, of the “moment of togetherness, caused by the Covid-19 shutdown”.

Zukin says readers have responded well to such positive stories. “At first I was thinking that misery loves company, but … it’s about feeling connected when we are physically isolated.”

Article

Domestic Violence

Domestic violence rates have surged in France and South Africa, according to Voice of America. In South Africa, authorities said there were nearly 90,000 reports of violence against women in the first week of a lockdown.

Since the start of the pandemic, the U.N. reports that Lebanon and Malaysia have seen the number of calls to helplines double, compared with the same month last year. In China, the number of calls has tripled, according to the U.N.
Article

Anger

What are the four types of anger?
There are at least four types of anger of which we know: anger directed at self, anger directed at others, disappointment, and constructive anger.

Anger at Self. The first type is anger directed inwardly at oneself. ...
Anger at Other. A second type of anger is directed outward. ...
Disappointment. ...
Constructive Anger.

a darkened attic of fluttering bats.

Opinion
This Is What Happens When a Narcissist Runs a Crisis

Trump’s catastrophic performance has as much to do with psychology as ideology.

By Jennifer Senior

Rebecca Solnit

Stories are compasses and architecture; we navigate by them, we build our sanctuaries and our prisons out of them, and to be without a story is to be lost in the vastness of a world that spreads in all directions like arctic tundra or sea ice. To love someone is to put yourself in their story, or figure out how to tell yourself their story.

REBECCA SOLNIT

Gregg Gonsalves

Gregg Gonsalves
@gregggonsalves
·
8m
In other news, my 86-year-old Italian-American mother has a thing for Dr. Fauci. She told me this AM, his father ran a pharmacy around corner from her house growing up on 13th Ave (82/83 St.) in Dyker Heights. She won't listen to me. She listens to him.

Trapped on a Tropical Island

Article

The Myth of Familial Love

Bonding with family is not a directive I can stomach.

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Last Night

Last night my husband said, "This is just like summer vacation."
"Except with the looming fear of DEATH!" I added.
And we laughed ourselves to tears.

Marcus Aurelius

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.
Marcus Aurelius

Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks

Stop Trying

“I’m trying to be more OK with just being.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/style/productivity-coronavirus.html

Larry David

“I never could have lived in the Old West,” he added parenthetically. “I would have been completely paranoid about someone stealing my horse. No locks. You tie them to a post! How could you go into a saloon and enjoy yourself knowing your horse could get taken any moment? I would be so distracted. Constantly checking to see if he was still there.”
Article

Giselle

I am obsessed with adopting Giselle. We can't have second dog right now. There's too much going on. But I want to adopt her!

The Evil King

The evil king is at it again. I have never hated anyone so much except of course my mother but she is gone now. When will the evil king be gone? Not soon enough. Not soon enough.

Pablo Neruda

Poetry doesn't belong to those who write, it but to those who need it.
Pablo Neruda

Ram Dass

“Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it!”
— Ram Dass

Natalie Diaz

“Why not now go toward the things I love?”

—Natalie Diaz from Postcolonial Love Poem

Linda Pastan

"Finding a new poet
is like finding a new wildflower
out in the woods. You don't see

its name in the flower books..."
- Linda Pastan

Carl Jung

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
— C.G. Jung

John Lennon

“The more real you get the more unreal the world gets.”
― John Lennon

Miles Davis

“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning.”
— Miles Davis

Wisława Szymborska

“When they ask me, why poetry?
This, always, is how I am going to respond...
“I prefer the absurdity of writing poems
to the absurdity of not writing poems.”
— Wisława Szymborska

Lucille Clifton

“Poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing.”
– Lucille Clifton

Jean Cocteau

“The poet doesn’t invent. She listens.”
– Jean Cocteau

Vincent van Gogh

“…and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
— Vincent van Gogh

Love

Love in time of coronavirus: octogenarians picnic at Danish-German border

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-separated/love-in-time-of-coronavirus-octogenarians-picnic-at-danish-german-border-idUSKBN21L2DR

Rainer Maria Rilke

What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude. To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours — that is what you must be able to attain'

Rainer Maria Rilke

The F Word

Article

Rainy Day Workout

https://www.realsimple.com/health/fitness-exercise/stairs-workout#
https://www.realsimple.com/health/fitness-exercise/stairs-workout?slide=698489#698489

The Real Way

https://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/food-and-wine/italian-lasagna-recipe

Coleslaw

I tell everyone it's best to improvise after you have made something 100 times. I have made coleslaw 1,000 times. The first time I made it was following the Marion Cunningham recipe in the SUPPER BOOK. Then I started improvising. Now I add schiracha sauce and buttermilk to the mayo Adobo and mustard mixture. Then I add cabbage and raisins and celery onions and carrots. So good!

tell the truth

If you tell the truth about how you're feeling, it becomes funny.
LARRY DAVID

Alan Watts

Wherever the past is dropped away and safety abandoned, life is renewed.
Alan Watts

Thundercat Talks Baselines

https://youtu.be/JI8cIZ9VIpg

Coffee and Tea

Every morning I make a black coffee using my cone filter and a tablespoon of store bought coffee. It's so simple. I am only sad when it's over. Unlike tea I never have the desire for another cup. With tea I could drink a thousand cups in a day.

Vous êtes un amateur de livres!

“Musique, nourriture et femmes. Tels sont les grands plaisirs de la vie. Les plaisirs durables. Vous apprendrez cela, jeune moine. - J'ajouterais les livres, fit Claude, quelque peu embarassé. Vous savez, de bons livres. - Bien entendu! Vous êtes un amateur de livres! C'est parfait. - Ils ne vous laissent pas tomber.” ― Frank Conroy, Body and Soul

“Music, food and women. These are the great pleasures of life. Lasting pleasures. You will learn this, young monk. "I would add the books," said Claude, somewhat puzzled. You know, good books. - Of course! You are a book lover! It's perfect. - They don't let you down. ” - Frank Conroy, Body and Soul

Sadness

“Sadness crept over me—a sadness I didn’t question, a sadness so profound I understood it could not have come from life, or any source within my conceptual scope, but instead seeped into me from the very air, from the whole extant universe in which I was less than a speck, sadness that was not emotion but the awareness of vast emptinesses.”
― Frank Conroy, Stop-Time: A Memoir

Dissolved

“The real world dissolved and I was free to drift in fantasy, living a thousand lives, each one more powerful, more accessible, and more real than my own.”
― Frank Conroy

Without Ego, One Simply Looks

“A large color plate of a cat statue caught my eye and I gazed at it for several moments, my mind empty of thought. Without an ego, one simply looks. The image of the cat, entirely whole and entirely static, is a signal to the mind to come to rest. There is no immediate sense of beauty, only the act of seeing.”
― Frank Conroy, Stop-Time: A Memoir

as they make their way up the hill

“The author makes a tacit deal with the reader. You hand them a backpack. You ask them to place certain things in it — to remember, to keep in mind — as they make their way up the hill. If you hand them a yellow Volkswagen and they have to haul this to the top of the mountain — to the end of the story — and they find that this Volkswagen has nothing whatsoever to do with your story, you're going to have a very irritated reader on your hands.”
― Frank Conroy

Clarity

“I could not resist the clarity of the world in books, the incredibly satisfying way in which life became weighty and accessible. Books were reality. I hadn't made up my own mind about my own life, a vague, dreamy affair, amorphous and dimly perceived, without beginning or end.”
― Frank Conroy, Stop-time

No More

No more radio, no more newspapers, no more TV. Just paper and pen and the sound of the tea water trying to boil on the electric coil. The rain is hitting the pavement from the house next door, the one that had it's gutters stripped off.

It's easy to forget that we can just stop listening to worldwide tragedy for a day and plant a garden between our ears. This, today, right now. Create a sacred circle and step into it.

Sacred

You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Preoccupied

Writers spend all their time preoccupied with just the things that their fellow men and women spend their time trying to avoid thinking about. ... It takes great courage to look where you have to look, which is in yourself, in your experience, in your relationship with fellow beings, your relationship to the earth, to the spirit or to the first cause—to look at them and make something of them.

HARRY CREWS

Burgess

A character, to be acceptable as more than a chess piece, has to be ignorant of the future, unsure about the past, and not at all sure of what he's supposed to be doing.
ANTHONY BURGESS

Lin Manuel

If you're thinking of an idea in the shower or while you're walking your dog, and if it still sticks the next day there’s probably something to it.
-Lin Manuel

Oriana Fallaci

When a book is done, he has his own life and you forget about him. He goes and lives alone; he takes an apartment.
ORIANA FALLACI

Create

“To engender empathy and create a world using only words is the closest thing we have to magic.”
― Lin-Manuel Miranda

Process

Commit yourself to the process, NOT the project. Don’t be afraid to write badly, everyone does. Invest yourself in the lifestyle ... NOT in the particular piece of work.
FRANK CONROY

To Look at Clouds

This is what poets are paid for: to look at clouds, watch chipmunks. Somebody has to keep an eye on these things.
BILLY COLLINS

Harry Crews

Writers spend all their time preoccupied with just the things that their fellow men and women spend their time trying to avoid thinking about. ... It takes great courage to look where you have to look, which is in yourself, in your experience, in your relationship with fellow beings, your relationship to the earth, to the spirit or to the first cause—to look at them and make something of them.

HARRY CREWS

Make your Own Tortillas

Measure out 2 rounded cups of Masa Harina. Then heat up and add 1 1/4 cups hot water with pinches of kosher salt. Combine and knead in a large bowl adding more flour or water if needed. Shape into super-ball sized dough balls. Press or roll each ball in an open, dry sturdy plastic freezer bag using a rolling pin or full wine bottle or torilla press. Cook tortillas in a dry cast iron skillet on med high flip to cook both sides. Keep in a warm oven. Enjoy with butter or cheese on top.
16/18 tortillas

Green Mac and Cheese

I made my new favorite a healthy mac and cheese. We cooked the multigrain rotini for 3 minutes in the instant pot and then put it in a dish in the oven with defrosted and sauteed frozen spinach, olive oil, Adobo and grated asiago and buttermilk garlic and jug chianti splashed in. I added defrosted chopped ham, I grated homemade sourdough breadcrumbs for the topping. I baked it for 45 minutes at 350.

Phil

https://www.pbs.org/show/ill-have-what-phil-having/

A Crowd

A crowd of 12 was clustered at the wireless table on the sidewalk. We were astounded. We walked right into the police dept to get them on it.

House on a Hill

Cute

Marion Cunningham

For anyone who is new to learning how to cook, I recommend MARION CUNNINGHAM'S books.
And this one illustrated by me. Cooking with Children: 15 Lessons for Children, Age 7 and Up, Who Really Want to Cook

Illustrated by (me) Emily Lisker

Craves

“God owns heaven but He craves the earth.”
― Anne Sexton

Poetry

“Poetry comes fine spun from a mind at peace.”
― Ovid

Brass Shines

“Brass shines with constant usage, a beautiful dress needs wearing,
Leave a house empty, it rots.”
― Ovid, The Erotic Poems

The Enemy

“It's right to learn, even from the enemy.”
― Ovid

Intelligence

“In the make-up of human beings, intelligence counts for more than our hands, and that is our true strength.”
― Ovid, Metamorphoses

Dancing in the Dark

“or that writing a poem you can read to no one
is like dancing in the dark.”
― Ovid, The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters

Reveal

“In our play we reveal what kind of people we are.”
― Ovid

broken the chains

“Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.”
― Ovid

Even More Ovid

“Love will enter cloaked in friendship's name.”
― Ovid

“As wave is driven by wave
And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead,
So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows,
Always, for ever and new. What was before
Is left behind; what never was is now;
And every passing moment is renewed.”
― Ovid, Metamorphoses

“Nothing is stronger than habit.”
― Ovid

“If you would be loved, be lovable”
― Ovid

More Ovid

“Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.”
― Ovid

“Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.”
― Ovid, Heroides

“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”
― Ovid

“Anything cracked will shatter at a touch.”
― Ovid

Ovid

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
- Ovid

Dream

I dreamed I was at Maurice Sendak's house. He was alive. His house was a huge barn on the ocean. I was designing a jacket that could hold headphones. It was a contest.

Buzzed

I have 3 friends who insist they never follow recipes. They just get buzzed and attack their pantry and hope for the best. I can't wrap my mind around this.

Emile Zola

Today is the birthday of the French novelist and journalist Émile Zola (books by this author), born in Paris (1840). He invented a new style of fiction writing that he called Naturalism, which he defined as “nature seen through a temperament.” He had been inspired by Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1839), and he decided to try applying scientific principles of observation to the practice of writing fiction. The result was a 20-novel cycle, a kind of fictional documentary about the influence of heredity and environment on an extended family. It was called Les Rougon-Macquart. Some of the novels of the cycle include The Drunkard (1877), Nana (1880), and Germinal (1885).

Zola said, “The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”

And, “If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”

-The Writer's Almanac

Capacity to Love

“The truth is, you cannot love yourself unless you have been loved and are loved. The capacity to love cannot be built in isolation.”
― Bruce D. Perry, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

Unfortunately

“Unfortunately, that basic sense of fairness and goodwill toward others is under threat in a society like ours that increasingly enriches the richest and abandons the rest to the vagaries of global competition. More and more our media and our school systems emphasize material success and the importance of triumphing over others both athletically and in the classroom. More and more, in an atmosphere of increased competitiveness, middle- and upper-class parents seem driven to greater and greater extremes to give their offspring whatever perceived “edge” they can find. This constant emphasis on competition drowns out the lessons of cooperation, empathy and altruism that are critical for human mental health and social cohesion.”
― Bruce D. Perry, The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog

Emotional Carnage

“Surprisingly, it is often when wandering through the emotional carnage left by the worst of humankind that we find the best of humanity as well.”
― Bruce D. Perry, The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog

Renaissance Mechanics

Auto Mechanics Recreate Renaissance Paintings

Photographer Freddy Fabris had always wanted to pay homage to the Renaissance masters with his photos in some way, but he wasn’t sure how until he stumbled upon an auto-mechanic shop in the Midwest. This led to a brilliant series of funny portraits with auto mechanics.

Stuff They Can Find at Home

Museum Asks People To Recreate Paintings With Stuff They Can Find at Home, Here Are The Results
https://www.sadanduseless.com/recreated-art/

Spinach & Cheese Sufganiot

Savory Spinach & Cheese Bite Size Donut Holes (Sufganiot)

2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups frozen spinach, thawed
1/8 tsp salt (or to taste)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1– 1/4oz pack active dry yeast (about 1 tablespoon)
2 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk or regular milk, slightly warm
2 1/4 cups self rising flour
1 egg
3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
2 1/2 cups vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

In a large skillet, sauté spinach seasoned with salt, in 2 tablespoons of olive oil at medium heat, until most of the water has evaporated (about 10 minutes). Set aside
In a medium bowl, combine warm almond milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside for a few minutes until some bubbles start to form
Combine flour, egg, yeast mixture, spinach and shredded cheese in a standing mixer bowl with a dough hook attachment. Mix until all the ingredients are well combined. Slowly pour the melted coconut oil and keep mixing until well incorporated. If the dough feels too wet and, at a little more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean towel and let it rise for about an hour and a half*
Using your hands and working with about 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, form small balls (about 30 of them) and place them on a tray lined with parchment paper and slightly greased. Cover with a clean towel and let it rise for 30 minutes
In the meantime, heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan. You’ll know the oil is ready when you insert the bottom of a wooden spoon and small bubbles start to form. Reduce the heat to medium low
Drop about 4-5 donuts in the oil at a time, moving them around with a wooden spoon so they brown evenly. Cook until golden brown (about a minute) and place them on a tray lined with a few paper towels to absorb the excess oil
*Note: You can prepare the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it overnight after it rises for the first time. Take it out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before using

Healthy Mac

We made a healthy mac and cheese. We cooked the multigrain rotini and then put it in a dish in the oven with frozen spinach and grated asiago and buttermilk garlic and olive oil. It was even more amazing the next day!

how to sew a fashionable facemask from an old bra

how to sew a fashionable facemask from an old bra

Salad

Head of celery chopped, gigantic onion chopped, 2-3 large carrots grated, cooked chicken chopped, cup of mayo, sprinkles of Adobo, 1/2 cup Italian red wine vinegar, 2TB prepared mustard, sprinkles of kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, 1 cup raisins, 1 c buttermilk. Stir and enjoy.

The editorial board

Opinion
Coronavirus Doesn’t Care Where You Come From. Trump Still Does.

Hostility toward immigrants is hurting the fight against the pandemic.

By The Editorial Board

how to make up for lost time

Opinions
Bill Gates: Here’s how to make up for lost time on covid-19

By Bill Gates

Choices You Make

... not worry so much about tracking the frightening death toll and exponentially growing number of infections and to instead worry about the choices they’re making
source

Damien Barr

'That’s why I had to write a novel, not so much to answer my questions but to ask better questions and to be able to imagine the things it was not possible to find out for sure'
-@Damian_Barr
spoke to @ObserverUK

Nobody is Cancelling Spring

Get out and pedal around.

Daisies forsythia, so much in bloom today.

We use neighborhoods as empty "trails" since the nature trails are crowded.

I am not a nature bunny anyway.

I am an urban walker.

Broaden your horizons!

Think outside the box.

What box?

If you are alive there is no box!!

Atrocity

Yet, what if a president planned or ordered genocide, crimes against humanity, because this is where we are today.

Alan Watts

Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.
Alan Watts

RESTAURANT WORKERS RELIEF PROGRAM

Due to the closure of restaurants across America, thousands of restaurant workers have an urgent need for assistance. Independent restaurants are at the center of the vibrant growth in America. For the past decade, we have relied on the convivial and dynamic hospitality of the independent restaurant scene to make this a city that we are incredibly proud of. Restaurant workers need your help more than ever. It is vital that we offer relief to those in need, so after this crisis restaurants can return to their full vibrancy.

In partnership with @makersmark and @leeinitiative @chefedwardlee we have turned restaurants across the country into relief centers with local chefs for any restaurant worker who has been laid off or has had a significant reduction in hours and/or pay. We are offering help for those in need of food and supplies. Each night, we will pack hundreds of to-go meals that people can come to pick up and take home.

https://leeinitiative.org/

Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/31/opinion/futility-hate-watching-trumps-coronavirus-briefings/?event=event25
Renée Graham can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @reneeygraham.

Phil Rosenthal

https://www.pbs.org/video/ill-have-what-phil-having-sneak-peak/