Heather King will be offering a new 8-week Writing Workshop on Zoom, Saturdays 12 to 2 PST, starting Sept 12 and running through Oct 31, 2020.
THE CREATIVE LIFE
THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS
There are advantages to living in a house that’s been divided into eight apartments. If I croak alone in my kitchen, I’m not going to lie there till mummification sets in. If I didn’t show up for a day or two, someone would definitely notice.
TO MAKE ONESELF NEW
“We see this spiritual dissonance everywhere today—grounded in hearts made for God, yet lived out by wills ordered only to themselves. It is part of the great secularizing sickness of our times. It is part of the dread we might feel, even if we are afraid to acknowledge it. It is the fear that wakens us at night, the vision of inauthenticity, of prevarication, of a selfishness that cannot be a part of the new kingdom of heaven.”–Fr. Aelred Niespolo, OSB
GRATITUDE VERSUS COMPLAINING
The thing about complaining is generally other people don’t have the same complaints as you. They have other things–their own things–to worry about, and they’re having the graciousness not to impose them on you.
ÉLISABETH LESEUR: THE THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX FOR MARRIED WOMEN
Servant of God Élisabeth Leseur has been called the Thérèse of Lisieux for married women. Her husband was a crabby atheist.
BUILDING ON THE CORNERSTONE
From a friend today: “I think of Psalm 127, ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders build in vain.’ Isn’t this the truth! Much of it, perhaps most of it we did build with Him, but there are foundational errors that need correcting.”
VISIO DIVINA: ARTIST MEL AHLBORN’S MADONNA ICONS
Artist Mel Ahlborn has painted a series of Madonna icons, each associated with a contemporary disease: Addiction, Dementia, B.C….and now Pandemic Madonna.
AS THE WORLD TURNS
Catholicism for me is van Gogh saying, “I love my studio in the same way that a sailor loves his ship.” It’s Maria Callas saying, “I prepare myself for rehearsals the way I would for marriage”…
USE ME
Robert Macfarlane, author of “Mountains of the Mind,” observes that continued agitation excites the climber, the huntsman, the gambler, the warrior. I’d like to add the writer to that list.
THIS SEEMS A HOME
Santa Monica’s ROSEGALLERY is currently featuring a thought-provoking online exhibition called “This Seems A Home.” “Where does it come from, this longing for home?” we’re invited to consider.
AN OPERA SINGER’S JOURNEY
Every artist has mentors, benefactors, guides. Opera singer Julia Rolwing, whose specialty is Wagner, talks about some of hers who helped along the way.
CHEKHOV ON CULTURED PEOPLE
Anton Chekhov’s first order of the day: “[Cultured people] respect human personality, and therefore they are always kind, gentle, polite, and ready to give in to others.”
G.K. CHESTERTON ON THE COLOR WHITE
wrote G.K. Chesterton: “God paints in many colours; but he never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.”
