To wander and wander and wander—to be lost from your home—this is pain.
I thought I knew what it would be like.
In my hope for grace,
I thought I knew what it could be.
Must I abandon what matters most to me in order
to achieve that which is more than me?
But the image of my hope becomes unimaginable
when pitted against my daily.
Must I put on the altar my Isaac—my own fulfillment,
my freedom to give at my own convenience?
I carefully measure what I get against the things I think I need,
but there is no such thing as equal.
It is time to die.
There is no life left.
There is no grace in fair.
There is no way out except by death.
We cannot create an Us without the death of me.
It is time to die, to die—to die to the measurements of my me.
From The Mystery of Thanksgiving and Home Service
Ivan Turgenev born in 1818 in Oryol, Russia: novelist known for Fathers and Sons, First love, and A Sportsman's Sketches. Died 9-3-83
Quotes: "We sit in the mud ... and reach for the stars." "Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew." "Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do."
Home is the hearth to the encoded fire, its walls encourage order of the highest kind. It is the microcosm of the whole—a center for birth and death, growth and contemplation. As Confucius says, “When the individual families have learned kindness, then the whole nation has learned kindness and when the individual families have learned courtesy, the whole nation has learned courtesy.” The children we raise represent the legacy we leave. Be they the children of our flesh, our minds, our hearts, our creative energy, it is our responsibility to ensure a rich inheritance to the whole of mankind. In response to the bounty of this world, we must offer the bounty of the human at its highest. This cannot be accomplished without home.
From The Mystery of Home of Thanksgiving High Service
Margaret Mitchell born in 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia; Pulitzer Prize winner for her American Civil War novel Gone With The Wind – her first and only book until late in her life she published another. Died 8-16-49
Quotes: “After all, tomorrow is another day.” “Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was, or what freedom really is.” ”Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.”
Here is our stable place—home is our secure place—the polestar of our life—the polestar to which we return from all the noise, all the turbulence, all the movement of the world.
William Boast
Albert Camus born in 1913 in Drean, Algeria: Nobel Prize winning author, journalist and contributor to the rise of the philosophy of absurdism. Known for The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Fall. Died 1-4-60
Quotes: “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” “Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
Granna’s house is where the grandchildren can come and take off their shoes and put on bedroom slippers. Where they can paint or draw whenever they want, or make Play-Doh sculptures and use the kitchen utensils to do so. Where every year Halloween and Easter and Christmas, cookies are made. Where dozens of eggs are dyed for Passover. Where they can help with cooking and baking, or just sit on the counter and drink grape soda and talk. Where someone always has time to read to them. Where their custom-made birthday cakes are fashioned. Where they can lie on the couches covered up with quilts while they get their feet rubbed. The world we live in is loud and confusing and fraught with danger. Our children need a haven.
Donna Leichtling
On This Day…
St. Martin of Tours: Roman soldier become hermit and then bishop of Tours who burned and destroyed all the pagan temples and shrines in Tours, France.
Shinto World Community Day: celebrating the unity behind diversity and remembering that we are all one people
We carry within us the code that links us back to a time before time, to a world before we were aware of being aware. This code has worked its way down through the ages; with each one it has recombined and played itself out through the human flesh. This code—like a fire—can consume us. It is the impelling passion that brings us together; that has brought our ancestors together—but it is not that which holds us together. Only when the code is channeled and contained within the borders of human reason and right action does it escalate into civilization and there is no greater center of civilization than home.
From The Mystery of Home and Thanksgiving High Service
Sts. Zechariah and Elizabeth: parents of John the Baptist. Zechariah was a priest in the temple at Jerusalem and, when visited by Archangel Gabriel who announced that Elizabeth, his barren and aged wife would bear a child asked for proof. For having disbelieved, Gabriel struck Zechariah dumb, though his speech returned after the birth of John.
