Keeping a Book of Centuries
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In My Notebook...

In my Commonplace...

1/6/2022

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     "'What are you reading?' I couldn't help asking her.
Even in my hurry I was curious, as I always am, to see what book is in someone's hands, and when she showed me the book I felt as if it were a magnet and I were a paper clip tumbling toward it."  Lemony Snicket
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In my Commonplace...

12/21/2021

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"There is nothing more important, according to the Torah, than to preserve human life."  Abraham Heschel
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In my Music Notebook...

12/15/2021

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In the bleak midwinter
BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.
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In my Music Notebook...

12/5/2021

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 People Look East 
Traditional French Advent Carol lyric by Eleanor Farjeon
People, look east. The time is nearOf the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.

Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.

Birds, though you long have ceased to build,
Guard the nest that must be filled.
Even the hour when wings are frozen
God for fledging time has chosen.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the bird, is on the way.

Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the star, is on the way.

Angels, announce with shouts of mirth
Christ who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
With the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.


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In my Nature Notebook...

11/30/2021

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Enduring Voices 
(First Week of Advent)

"Now that autumn's silence is upon the land, one can hear the big, enduring voices which seldom shout the things they have to say. One can hear the earth declare that ice, the counterpart of fire, must be reckoned with. One can hear the hills assert their stony structure which forever underlies the soothing green of leaf and shade. One can hear the wind and water discussing polar regions and the fundamental wedge of frost that can level mountains. Listen closely, and one can hear the patient throb of almost suspended life in the root, the bulb, the seed, the egg, waiting for another spring."

​- Hal Borland

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In my Music Notebook...

11/14/2021

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In my Prayer Journal...

11/5/2021

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"Closer is He than breathing
​and nearer than hands and feet."

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In my Picture File...

10/21/2021

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Picture
"The Yellow Books," Vincent Van Gogh
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In my Nature Notebook...

10/16/2021

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Picture
Shaker Village Canterbury NH, Photo Laurie Bestvater
"A Man can muster a variety of reasons when he goes for a walk. It's a nice day. He needs the exercise. He hasn't' been out in the park, or the fields, or the woods, for quite a while. He wants a breath of fresh air, needs to stretch his legs.
     Excuses, all of them, and good enough. But they aren't reasons. The reasons are both personal and complicated. How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, and the hills and the sky? Anyone knows they are. How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm, the rhythm of the day and the season instead of the hour and the minute? No, you cannot explain. So you walk."
  Hal Borland
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In my Nature Notebook...

10/5/2021

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Picture
Introduced to my first Monkey Puzzle Tree.  Astounding!  I will never not know this one when we meet again.
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    "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
    Photos chosen are linked to their original posts in most cases because I have found something of value there and hope my readers will likewise find a helpful resource.  In the case of miss-attribution or if you desire your work not be linked, please let me know.

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  • welcome
    • About the Book of Centuries
  • in my notebook...
  • shop
  • conversation
    • presentations
  • One Hundred Days
    • Original Invitation