“O Lord, as we travel through this day of our life, our strength is in you; in our hearts are the roads to our eternal destination, the place where you dwell for ever with your people in joy and in peace. Sustain us as we pass through the bitter valleys of suffering; shield us as dangers threaten; let us rejoice in the springs of living water that refresh us on our way; and keep us faithful until journey’s end, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
- from Magnificat, February 2025
I've always wanted to make a cherry pie on George Washington's birthday. I cannot tell a lie - today I did it.
I cut out the front and back pieces for the skirt today; I have to think about the casing for the elastic - I'm not going to fold over the top, but make a separate piece for that. It's a very pretty polyester velvet with a large floral. I sewed the side seams and was walking by a print on my wall. I got it at Goodwill; it's a bowl of flowers, mostly shades of pale to deep rose pink. The background is rather neutral, even the leaves. I realized my fabric looked a lot like this painting.
We've seen a rabbit outside under the bird feeder, the past two nights, eating seed. The snow is crusty and hard, the days and nights are frigid and they are hungry. My brother bought timothy hay at Agway, and put some out there, and the rabbit came tonight. I was about to get the dryer going, but decided to wait - the noise and steam might send him away.
Just trying to help.
I went into the spare room, and there was Annie on a dresser - that was a surprise. They stayed there, and I got my camera. I love this picture - it's hard to get a good one of Annie, especially.
The wind roared all day.
"Our difficulties, whatever they may be, can all be used. They are redemptive. Many, many saints experienced various degrees of mental and emotional suffering and anxiety, and their experience, painful as it was, had profoundly spiritual effects on themselves and others. The anxiety is true at the level of felt experience, but at a deeper level, at the level of spirit and faith, something quite different may be happening. Even in anxiety one can have a real sense of God's love and possess faith.
And it's important to recognize that feeling low, depressed, is an emotional state, not an action. This does not cut you off from God in any way. Those who suffer this affliction have not yielded to it, any more than one yields to a broken arm or leg. So it is never a question of yielding to a sinful action - that would be a far deeper wound - but rather a condition.
But this condition is not meaningless. Prayers to God for help and relief are real prayers and signs of an active faith, hope, and love. This recognition of our need of God, and learning to trust him, are very precious. In all these ways there can be real growth in the midst of, and in spite of, anxieties. Also, these experiences, painful as they are, often bring a deepening compassion for others. All of us have something to carry - whether physical or moral or spiritual - and, united to Christ, these become fruitful for ourselves and others."
- Sister Mary David Totah, O.S.B. from Magnificat, February 2025
All emphases are mine. Sister Mary David Totah was an American who later became a Benedictine nun at Saint Cecilia's Abbey on the Isle of Wight. She died in 2017.
I saw rabbit tracks in the snow around the bird feeder; do rabbits eat sunflower seeds? I hope he found some food.
I finished reading The Bird in the Tree. It's the first in a trilogy, with the middle one being my favorite. But I had forgotten how good this was - or maybe I hadn't realized it before. I'm wanting to read the whole thing again, but it's not long ago I read the second, so I may just go right to the third, which is The Heart of the Family - I don't remember it that well, but I know I loved these three books.
"In times of storm and tempest, of indecision and desolation, a book already known and loved makes better reading than something new and untried. The meeting with remembered and well-loved passages is like the continual greeting of old friends; nothing is so warming and companionable."
- Elizabeth Goudge, The Bird in the Tree
Meanwhile, I continue with J.D. Vance's memoir of his youth in Appalachia. He's come a long way from that very unstable childhood, to the fellow who made that terrific speech in Munich the other day.
When it snows at night, the reflection from a sky filled with snowflakes is brighter than on a full moon. It lightens the whole house inside, so there’s no groping in the dark when you have to get up.
In case you didn’t know.
It's supposed to start snowing any moment, but the sky is too dark. When it's going to snow, the clouds are so thick, it looks whitish. But we are getting - some are saying five to nine inches, some six to ten - a good amount, and it will come in its own good time, I guess. But this morning, I hung something on the line to dry! It was just over freezing, but there is something mild in the air - it's hopeful.
We went to Mass this afternoon, in case it's too bad tomorrow. A lot of others had the same idea. One of the hymns we sang was In Christ Alone, which is rather stirring - an Irish-sounding melody.
I've put Samuel Adams aside (again! poor fellow) and am finally reading Hillbilly Elegy. I have been interested in that book for eight years, and now he's Vice President - it's time. What kept me from it, was the idea it would be heavy, but it's not. In fact, the introduction really grabbed my attention; I often skip introductions.
"I was one of those kids with a grim future. I almost failed out of high school. I nearly gave in to the deep anger and resentment harbored by everyone around me. Today people look at me, at my job and my Ivy League credentials, and assume that I'm some sort of genius, that only a truly extraordinary person could have made it to where I am today. With all due respect to those people, I think that theory is a load of bullshit. Whatever talents I have, I almost squandered until a handful of loving people rescued me.
That is the real story of my life, and that is why I wrote this book. I want people to know what it feels like to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it. I want people to understand what happens in the lives of the poor and the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children. I want people to understand the American Dream as my family and I encountered it. I want people to understand how upward mobility really feels. And I want people to understand something I learned only recently: that for those of us luck enough to live the American Dream, the demons of the life we left behind continue to chase us."
- J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy
At five minutes to ten, it hadn't begun to snow yet. At ten fifteen, I looked out - the ground was almost covered.
And I baked a fancy quick bread recipe, because I always want to bake during snowstorms.
"Candlemas [Feb. 2] is the last feast of winter and the first feast of spring" (from Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker) - I wonder if that means the weather was more temperate and predictable back then, or is it just that it's milder in the UK, anyway?
It snowed Sunday night, but then the air was mild, so the snow didn't last. Today, we had a little bit more with some freezing rain - a very different matter. They closed the library and other town offices. But Sunday - we are supposed to have seven to ten inches through Sat. night and all day Sunday! That changed from this morning's prediction which was three to six inches. Wow.
I tried on my Regency gown. Well, I tried to try it on - it doesn't fit anymore. But I did such a good job on it - I'm amazed. It's nice and heavy, with the whole thing except the sleeves lined. I made the piping and put it in all the bodice seams
The back center section has gathers, and is lower, like a small train. These bodices are meant to be snug, and, even though I weigh more than I did, my extra weight isn't on top. But I've also done some exercising since then which may account for it. So it doesn't fit, but I don't think I can get rid of it. It's the nicest thing I've ever made. As for trying to match up all the plaid - well, I did the best I could.
"The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, ....But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it - at no matter the risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change."
- James Baldwin, from Plough, Winter, 2025
"How Samuel Adams supported his family starting around 1769 is a mystery. With his brewery closing that year, his only steady income was his small salary as clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. According to gossip, the Adamses were so poor at this time that John Hancock and other friends sent them food to keep them from starving and repaired the Purchase Street house to keep it from falling. There was even a joke around Boston about Adams's letter writing: 'Samuel Adams writes the letters and John Hancock pays the postage’.”
Dennis Fradin, the author of this biography, says that Samuel Adams never held a good job when he was younger, he was more of a thinker. And it seems that our revolution would Never have come to pass without him. He knew we needed to revolt against the oppressive British rule and he never stopped insisting on it, trying to stir up the populace.
