 "September Moonrise," Childe Hassam 1900 (for Emily and Andrew) "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 "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  Cornell says vernal pools are decreasing. I think about this as I listen to the Spring Peepers and the Wood Frogs. "For being a foreigner, Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy-- a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an on-going responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been ordinary life, only to discover that the previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like pregnancy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect." ~Jumpa Lahiri, The Namesake “Wear the world like a loose garment, which touches us in a few places and there lightly.” ~ attributed to St. Francis of Assisi |
"Ideas
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"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.
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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