This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death and the stars. A Clear Midnight by Walt Whitman Early Wednesday morning, the June full moon,... Continue Reading →
Like some many others across the Western Hemisphere early this morning, I was able to witness the Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse. I always get excited about any impending celestial events like this, but then have a tendency to either forget about it before it happens or just fall asleep. As totality was going to happen... Continue Reading →
“We never tire of the drama of sunset. I go forth each afternoon and look into the west a quarter of an hour before sunset, with fresh curiosity, to see what new picture will be painted there, what new panorama exhibited, what new dissolving views. Can Washington Street or Broadway show anything as good? Every... Continue Reading →
In a journal entry written exactly 174 years ago today, Leo Tolstoy declared, “”I’ve fallen in love or imagine that I have; went to a party and lost my head. Bought a horse which I don’t need at all.” This past year, I got back into the habit of regular journaling. While I haven’t written... Continue Reading →
Merry Christmas!! And Happy final day of the 12 Days of Blogmas!! In the classic Christmas song, "Oh Holy Night", there is the great line: "Long lay the world, in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth." I've always liked that line, "the soul felt its worth." We as... Continue Reading →
Happy Day 11 of The 12 Days of Blogmas! Christmas as we know it today has a pretty disjointed history. It’s a jumbled hodgepodge of pagan traditions, Christian traditions, commercial marketing, and lots of secular traditions. I’m no theologian, but quite a lot of the religious aspects of the holiday that are celebrated are acknowledged... Continue Reading →
New Year’s celebrations often get lumped together with Christmas here in my part of the world since they are just a week apart and schools are on break for both. As the song goes, “We wish you a Merry Christmas….and a Happy New Year”. As a kid I remember thinking it felt like some sort... Continue Reading →
Three years ago, during my last blogmas challenge, I wrote a post about Martin Luther King Jr.’s Christmas Sermon on Peace. The post includes a link to the audio of that sermon, and it’s worth a listen. I closed that blog post by referencing another sermon that Dr. King gave, and it is that sermon... Continue Reading →
1923 Washington Animal Rescue League Christmas party (Library of Congress) Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, humane societies around the country would host Christmas parties for horses in order to help urban residents connect with workhorses who served their communities and to bring attention to the sometimes harsh conditions that horses endured. These horse... Continue Reading →
I accidently stumbled upon an old debate that used to divide people about the proper terminology for holiday greetings. Well actually debate about holiday greeting terminology is still an active battle in some people’s minds, but that’s another topic, and not really one I want to delve into. Just noting that we humans haven’t really... Continue Reading →
Rachel F. Jean 