Keeping a Book of Centuries
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In My Notebook...

In my Music Notebook...

6/8/2025

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For Pentecost
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In my Picture File...

1/6/2025

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PictureKandinsky, "Winter Landscape" 1909



​                It's Epiphany.  What are you seeing in a new light?

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In my Music Notebook...

12/16/2024

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Third Advent
Picture
Tom Thompson, "Moonlight in Fall, 1914"
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In my Poetry Notebook...

12/9/2024

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Advent Two
 You, God, who live next door--

If at times, through the long night, I trouble you
with my urgent knocking--
this is why: I hear you breathe so seldom.
I know you're all alone in that room.
If you should be thirsty, there's no one 
to get you a glass of water.
I wait listening, always. Just give me a sign!
I'm right here.

As it happens, the wall between ius 
is very thin. Why couldn't a cry
from one of us
break it down? It would crumble
easily,


it would barely make a sound.  

 I,6   by Rainer Maria Rilke  translation by Anita Barrows & Joanna Macy
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In my Poetry Notebook...

12/10/2023

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“Hurry,” by Marie Howe,

We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store   
and the gas station and the green market and   
Hurry up honey, I say, hurry,   
her blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.   

Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?   
To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?   
Today, when all the errands are finally done, I say to her,   
Honey I'm sorry I keep saying Hurry—   
you walk ahead of me. You be the mother.   
​

And, Hurry up, she says, over her shoulder, looking   
back at me, laughing. Hurry up now darling, she says,   
hurry, hurry, taking the house keys from my hands.


​for Advent Two
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In my Book of Centuries...

7/11/2023

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Saint Benedict of Nursia  c. 543
Picture
Benedetto Portinari Triptych, by Hans Memling.
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In my Music Notebook...

12/8/2022

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

from "People, look East" hymn for Advent II 
Picture
"If the chickadees coming to the feeder are fluffed fat as tennis balls the temperature is in the low thirties, plenty cold enough for a muffler."  Hal Borland
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In my Prayer Journal...

10/5/2022

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"Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people the grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may, for love of you, delight in your whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen."  The Collect of the Day
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In my Music Notebook...

6/7/2022

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Pentecost Fare:

The Tree Song

I saw a tree by the riverside one day as I walked along,

Straight as an arrow,
And pointing to the sky, growing tall and strong.
How do you grow so tall and strong?"
I said to the riverside tree.
This is the song my tree friend sang to me.

I have roots growing down to the water.
I have leaves reaching up to the sunshine.
And, the fruit that I bear is the sign of the life in me.
I am shade from the hot summer sundown.
I am nests for the birds of the heaven.
I'm becoming what the maker of trees
Has meant me to be: a strong, young, tree.

I saw a tree in the wintertime, when show lay on the ground.
Straight as an arrow and pointing to the
Sky and the winter winds blew all around.
" How do you grow so straight and tall?"
I said to my wintertime tree.
This is the song that my tree friend sang to me:

I've got roots growing down to the water.
I've got leaves growing up to the sunshine.
And, the fruit that I bear is a sign of the life in me.
I am shade from the hot summer sundown.
I am nests for the birds of the heavens.
I'm becoming what the maker of trees
Has meant me to be: a strong young tree."

I saw a tree in the city streets where buildings blocked the sun.
Green and lovely, I could see it gave joy to everyone.
How do you grow in the city streets?"
I said to my downtown tree.
This is the song that my tree friend sang to me:

I've got roots growing down to the water.
I've got leaves growing up to the sunshine.
And, the fruit that I bear is a sign of the life in me.
I am shade from the hot summer sundown.
I am nests for the birds of the heavens.
I'm becoming what The Maker of Trees
Has meant me to be: a strong, young, tree."

 Written by Ken Medema arranged by Robert Sterling
 
   Pairs so nicely with....
Picture
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In my Nature Notebook...

2/2/2022

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Picture
"Groundhog Day," Andrew Wyeth
Groundhog Day

"...Early tribesmen credited various animals with the ability to forecast weather. The Egyptians relied on bears.  Early Europeans turned to wolves for prophecies. In England they put their faith in  otters and badgers. Early English colonists in America, never skilled in identification, mistook woodchucks for badgers, which often were called groundhogs in England. The badger was the Candlemas forecaster in England, so the American marmot inherited the prophet's mantle. And just to round out the tangle of identities, the name 'woodchuck' came from the Algonquin wejac, which meant fisher, a cousin of the weasel." Hal Borland
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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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    Prayer Journal
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  • welcome
    • About the Book of Centuries
  • in my notebook...
  • One Hundred Days
  • One Hundred Words
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