Journal entry - May 30, 2005
Morning Watch in the Garden

6:00 am - Early morning.  I am having morning coffee by the kitchen window.  I saw a pig-like animal, short legs, fat tubular sausage-like torso, long thin tail, no hair small thin face with a pointed nose.  It sprinted swiftly across the back garden and disappeared into the bushes at the side into the neighbor’s property and disappeared.  An armadillo!  It’s a bit far north for its range, but very exciting.  So I hunkered down by the window, hoping to see it again.

6:20 am - Baby bunny, 2 mourning doves, and some grackles.  The bunny was chomping on a short daylily in the upper garden, the small light orange variety called “Pudding.”

6:25 am - A grackle was trying to eat from the green feeder and was extremely frustrated!

6:30 am - A squirrel under the tree at the ground feeder.  Sits up, watches, climbs the Shepherd’s Crook, tries to eat from the flat feeder, but can’t get through the covering grates, except for a few sunflower seeds the birds kicked up.  Chickadees arrive for morning visit.

6:42 am - Two robins whip by in a cock fight.  One leaves and the winner takes a long drink in the lotus pond.

6:57 am - Lots of visitors: sparrows, grackles are back, doves strutting and fluffing out, walks proudly away.

7:00 am - Baby bunny finds the carrots.  And then a lull in the garden.  Total quiet.  The morning rush is over.  No more armadillo though.

Winter's Penumbra

From Journal Entry February 9, 2005
Winter’s Penumbra

Almost every winter afternoon when I come home from work, I like to make a cup of tea, sit down, and process the mail.  Out the window I watch the birds and squirrels.  Then I restock the feeders and put carrots in the dish on the terrace for the big brown bunny.  Mr. Bunny is eating about 2 sticks per day now, so he is becoming more confident.  We don’t see him often as yet, one time only at mid-morning, and I’ve seen him at various occasions 3-4 times.  One morning I saw several smaller ones grouped under the mulberry tree.  They stayed for a long time, just to sit and meditate.

   We should be seeing some young bunnies soon - and maybe the babies.  March is birthing time, of so the books on lagomorphs say.  They were a real joy to watch last spring, full of life, and such curiosity and so dainty on their feet, yet fast as lightening with a white of their tail as they fly by .

   I sense evening as it begins to close in around the still village. A gray shade draws over the line of trees and creeps in behind the house across the way.  Their roof melts in the dwindling light.  A lamp flares in the darkness.  A piece of crumpled paper skitters off.

   The clock ticks in the silence.

Journal Entry 03-20-2004
Back in Time: Signal Oak

Today was a touch of Spring in the air, sunny but with clouds scudding across the sky in a light breeze.  I was riding with a friend.  As I was not born in Kansas, she wanted to share with me a half-forgotten piece of local Kansas history.   It was a beautiful country drive at this time of year, but not a simple route.

Outside of Lawrence, KS, we took Route 10, heading east.  At the Lenexa exit, we turned off onto Route 1057, heading south.  Then we turned right (west) onto Route 460, heading towards Vinland.  On the west side of Vinland, We turned left (south) (Note: Route 460 also turns south at this point) to follow Route 1055.  Continue south on 1055 and then turn east onto Route 500 (a small dirt road, see sign “Rice Wood Land”).  Turn right (south) on to Route 1750 (another dirt road, see sign “Baker University).  All along the road was evidence of old farm fields and houses, a small bridge of railroad ties across a creek, and abandoned gardens, bright with irises in bloom (and in summer, daylilies).  Our destination was on this winding road at the top of a long hill.

The top is dominated by a huge oak tree, surrounded by descending levels of fallow fields and upland meadows, and the sounds of song birds.  Two signs are posted: one, the original sign is much weathered; the second is a modern replacement with clear text.

“On this quarter acre site, overlooking three valleys, Coal Creek, Wakarusa, and Kansas, stood the famous Signal Oak Tree.  It was a stately white oak at the time of the Civil War whose branches were used to hold signal lanterns.  This park, donated to the Sante Fe Trail Historical Society, was a gift from dedicated local historians.”

   Lighted, the lanterns were used to signal messages on the Underground Railroad and could be seen in all three valleys, many miles away to the north.  I imagined what dangers these signals might have communicated, and what lives might have been saved.  

Today the area is used by Baker University for a Nature Reserve, and by the University of Kansas as an Ecological and Biological Reserve.

Journal entry for February 25, 2004

Letter by Eleanor Roosevelt

Re: Marion Anderson concert Request

“February 26, 1939

My dear Mrs. Robert:

I am afraid that I have never been a very
useful member of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, so I know it will
make very little difference to you whether
I resign or whether I continue to be a
member of your organization.

However, I am in complete disagreement
with the attitude taken in refusing
Constitution Hall to a great artist.  You
have set an example which seems to me,
unfortunate, and I feel obliged to send in
to you my resignation.  You had an
opportunity to lead in an enlightened way
and it seems to me that your organization
has failed.

I realize that many people will not agree
with me, but feeling as I do this seems to
me the only proper procedure to follow.

Very sincerely yours,

Eleanor Roosevelt”

October 2, 2002

“My Grandfather’s Blessings” by Rachel Remen

[As a doctor] “ … I thought that serving life was a thing of drama and action and split-second judgment calls.  A question of going sleepless and riding in ambulances and outwitting the angel of death. . . Service was larger than ordinary life, and those who served were larger than life.  But now I know that this is only the least part of the nature of service.  That service is small and quiet and everywhere.  That, far more often, we serve by who we are and not by what we know.  And every one serves, whether they know it or not. . . Service is based on the premise that all life is worthy of our support and commitment.” [pp. 4,21]

“Sometimes a wound is the place where we encounter life for the first time where we come to know its power and its ways.  Wounded, we find a wisdom that will enable us to live better than any knowledge and glimpse a view of ourselves and of life that is both true and unexpected. . .  How tempting. . . to put the struggles behind you as quickly as possible and get on with your life.  Life might be easier then, but far less genuine.  Perhaps the wisdom lies in engaging the life you have been given as fully and courageously as possible and not letting go until you find the unknown blessing that is in everything.” [p. 25-7]

“We restore the holiness of the world through our loving kindness and compassion.  Everyone participates.  It is a collective task.  Every act of loving kindness, no matter how great or small, repairs the world.  All those ever born have shared this collective work since the beginning of time. [p. 329]

[Note:  Rachel Remen wrote two books filled with wisdom: “My Grandfather’s Blessings” and “Kitchen Table Wisdom.  I keep both on the shalf next to my desk and read them frequently. NLS]

From entry 8-26-2002

The Dominant Eye

To find your dominant eye, keeping both eyes open, stretch out an arm and point with a finger to a distant corner of the room or a distant spot..  Then close one eye, then the other eye.  Notice which eye by which the image “jumps” less.  That is the dominant eye.  But beyond that, it is often revealing to note what is around the non-dominant eye

Image.  The creative part of the brain is often interested in the peripheral field of what is being examined.  We can easily note the obvious, but insights can also be found in non-obvious places.


From entry 9-3-2002

Astral Prayer for the Cosmos

“Greatest God, Our Lord!

Great is His power,

And there is no end to His Wisdom.

Praise Him, you heavens!

Glorify Him, sun and moon,

And you planets

For out of Him, are all things,

Every perception and every knowledge.”

[Ref: Johannes Kepler,

Astronomer, 1571-1630]

July 14, 2002
Some Things to Think About

A Dream . . .

In my dream I was in the dark on a trip to some remote place with a group of travelers: cold, rough log road, raining, rude, crude, muddy.  We arrive thinking it is going to have a great outcome (gold, diamonds, whatever), but things just get worse, and the sun never shines. Finally, we decide to throw in the towel and get out.

Then real trouble starts.  The trip back is one rip-off after the next: no food, nothing left.  Can’t go forward. Can’t go back. Should never have come.  Should never have left.

Sometimes we don’t know when we are already ahead.

Supposing . . .

“Suppose for a moment that God began taking from us the many things for which we have failed to give thanks.  Which of our limbs and faculties would be left?  Would we still have our hands and our minds?  If God were to take from us all those persons and loved ones for which we have not given thanks, who or what would be left of us?” [Ref: Jan Karon, Out to Canaan, p. 124].

“Through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come;

‘tis grace that brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.”

[Ref: Rev. John Newton, “Amazing Grace”]

Getting Back to Basics



To begin at the beginning . . .

It’s been quite a while since my last Journaling post.  Recently I had to upgrade my office, which meant I had to move everything out in order to refinish the floor, including the Journaling book shelves which contain about 45 volumes.  The office is now functional.  

In re-shelving the journals, I could not resist reading-my-way through them.  I found memories, recipes, clippings, quotations, in short, the repository of my brain, and some glints of gold along the way.  And then the birth of the impulse to share these by posting some of the newly-remembered material.  

The only sense of order will be chronological order, starting in 2002, the year I committed to serious journaling, but not every day.  (Not every day hath pearls, to coin a phrase.) but they will be posted in whatever order they are found just as I originally wrote, along with sources if I was diligent enough to reference them.

Let’s start with Quotations:  I often encounter nice bits of wisdom.  I write them down because they are “useful” to daily life.  If I don’t capture them by writing them down, I know I will lose them in the pit of oblivion where all lost things fade away.

Quotations: 7/6/2002
>  “Forget your mistakes, but remember what they taught you.”
>  “The sure sign of the little man is the big head.”
>  “The school of experience has no vacation.”
>  “All things are difficult before they are easy.”
>  “If it is dark enough you can see the stars.”
>  “Character casts a shadow called reputation.”
>  “A person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.”
>  “A human is an arboreal animal which makes itself at home in genealogical trees.” 
     [Ref: Ambrose Bierce]
>  “I’ve found the link between apes and civilized man - it is us.” [Ref: Konrad Lorentz]
>  “It may be that those who do most, dream most.” [Ref: Stephen Leacock]
>  “Life is lived forwards, but only understood backwards.”