Keeping a Book of Centuries
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In My Notebook...

In my Commonplace...

1/6/2026

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"But if being a follower of Christ invites us to be Christ’s hands and feet, are we not also Christ’s eyes?"


                                                                      
~ Diana Butler Bass
​                                                                                                 (on Epiphany)
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In my Commonplace...

12/19/2025

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"Only one clear quality marks an action as either good or evil: If it increases the amount of love in the world, it is good.  If it separates people and creates animosity among them, it is bad. "

- Leo Tolstoy
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In my Poetry Notebook...

12/15/2025

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A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only  where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know;
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come, 
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star;
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homelsss
And all men are at home.

​- G.K. Chesterton
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In my Poetry Notebook...

11/20/2025

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Winter Poem
When the geese are flying south
And the sky is grey, my dears,
Close your eyes, and lift your nose;
Listen with your careful ears.

Feel the winter coming on,
Hear it in the crackling trees;
Note the crisping, quivering wind
Sharply snapping at their leaves.

Feel it on the windowpanes –
Chilly glass on fingertips –
Mark the biting of the air,
Heated breath on numbing lips.

See it in the early eves,
In the glowing sunset where
Shadows of the naked trees
Rattle in the biting air.

Watch the nuthatch and the wren;
They know it is time once more
To abandon careful nests,
As they’ve done each year before.

Let it rest upon your face,
Let it reach and pull you in.
See how pretty nature is
When she ushers winter in.
​
~ Barbara Vance
Excerpt from the poetry collection “Suzie Bitner Was Afraid of the Drain”
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In my Picture File...

10/30/2025

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Klimt, The Birch Wood in Autumn
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In my Picture File...

8/31/2025

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"September Moonrise," Childe Hassam 1900 (for Emily and Andrew)
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August 14th, 2025

8/14/2025

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Postcard by Elsa Beskow
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In my Commonplace...

6/11/2025

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"I am often asked where I get my ideas from. It's a very good question and one I always feel I should be able to answer. And yet, I struggle.
     How can I not know?
     I think it's because there are many ways, some clearer than others. I walk around with a notebook, and for many months before writing a book I observe and listen, taking down turns of phrase, single words, quotes from poems or books, snippets of conversation, or clipped articles from magazines and news reports. I often liken it to a pointillist work of art. Putting a dot of an idea here, another there. Some large, some tiny." 

Louise Penny,  A World of Curiosities, Acknowledgements ​
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In my Commonplace...

6/11/2025

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"Not so long ago we were never checking anything in our hands, scrolling down, pecking with a finger, obsessively tuning in. My entire childhood did not involve a single deletion. These are relatively new acts on earth.
     In those archaic but still vivid days, there might be a meandering walk into trees, an all-day bike ride, a backyard conversation with pines, a dig in the dirt, to find our messages. When we got home, there was nothing to check or catch up on - no one speaking to us in our absence. "  

                                                        ~ 
Naomi Shihab Nye
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In my Music Notebook...

6/8/2025

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For Pentecost
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<<Previous

    "Ideas 
    ​won't keep; something must be done about them."

     ~ Alfred Whitehead

     

    A Charlotte Mason education leads to all kinds of ideas! Join me in keeping one or several of the notebooks she prescribed and discover the Science of Relations and the Art of Mindfulness.

    Picture

    Laurie

    "Perhaps this is one of the secrets of life--to know 'glory' when we see it." 
     ~  Charlotte Mason

    Virtual Life?

    A wee explanation: this website was created as a way to amplify the daily surprise of seeing glory in one small life.  The notebook entries represented here are all selected from things actually lived and noted on paper in an effort to live the full life British educator Charlotte Mason so ably championed.  ​ 

    In Appreciation
    Images are linked to their original posts where possible.  They were chosen because I have found something of value there and hope my readers will likewise find a helpful resource as we explore the philosophy of Charlotte Mason together.  In the case of miss-attribution or if you desire your work not be linked, please let me know.

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  • welcome
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