my beloved beet

The thing about an ugly win is that it's ... worth 3 points. ⚽

🎶

Cards in each mailbox,
angel, manger, star and lamb,
as the rural carrier,
driving the snowy roads,
hears from her bundles
the plaintive bleating of sheep,
the shuffle of sandals,
the clopping of camels.
At stop after stop,
she opens the little tin door
and places deep in the shadows
the shepherds and wise men,
the donkeys lank and weary,
the cow who chews and muses.
And from her Styrofoam cup,
white as a star and perched
on the dashboard, leading her
ever into the distance,
there is a hint of hazelnut,
and then a touch of myrrh.

🎶

Generally, the world says, "Work first, and benefits come after." (E.g., exercise, then fitness.) That's good, because, even for bad work, anticipating the reward eases the pain. But if you must pay after, that looming bill taints the enjoyment of the thing enjoyed. (Of course, taking joy in the work is best of all.)

A 2011 photo of the Library of Congress' card catalog (now digitized).
Source: Dr. Amy Brady

Today, this little girl would have been 100 years old.

📷

RIP, Sandra Day O'Connor

Downtown Dallas, Texas USA

Delightful Django (presumably) and friends by artist Marion Elliot, via the equally delightful Spitalfields Life. (Follow for many more treasures.)

They taste better than they look. No surprise there, for “What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes?”

 
There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry “hello there, Anne”
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.  
All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.
So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.
The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,
dies young.

🐶

There is little excuse for pretending eloquence about the meaning of the Resurrection while holding reservations about whether the event really happened. The assertion that Jesus was raised from the dead cannot at the same time be theologically true and historically false.

Andrew Christiansen, paraphrasing Carl Braaten - Covenant blog

an ongoing list
P.G. Wodehouse • G.K. Chesterton • Dorothy L. Sayers • C.S. Lewis • Frederick Buechner • Kathleen Norris • Alan Jacobs • Terry Teachout • David French • Evelyn Underhill • Garrison Keillor, editor (for his Good Poems collections) • Naomi Shihab Nye • T.S. Eliot • Roger Scruton • John Donne • John Milton • Abraham Lincoln • Anthony Trollope • Jane Kenyon • John McPhee • David Brooks • Li-Young Lee • Tom Stoppard • Michael Chabon • Laurie Colwin • The author of the Johannine epistles • The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews • Witold Rybczynski • Angelo Pellegrini • Calvin Trillin (the "Tummy Trilogy" and beyond) • William Carlos Williams • Christopher Alexander, et al. (A Pattern Language) • Anne Lamott • Yuval Levin • Philip Yancey • Colum McCann • Hilary Mantel • William deBuys • Alex Harris, photographer • Victoria Goddard • Iris Murdoch • Virginia Woolf • Hampton Sides • Louis Menand • Sophocles • Charles Dickens • Jane Austen • Wendell Berrly • John Buchan • Dorianne Laux • Charles Portis • Annie Dillard • Lewis Hyde • Sappho • 📘

"Tree Sleeves" on Kneeling Bois d'arc, Tietze Park, Dallas, Texas, USA

Really lovely paintings. “Spanish Light: Sorolla in American Collections” through January 7, 2024, Meadows Museum, SMU Campus, Dallas, Texas - Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (Spanish, 1863–1923) 🎨

Megan and I are loving "This Farming Life," on Britbox. City folk have no idea what it's like to be a farmer or rancher. Highly recommended. 📺

(A feeling Spurs fans are not overly familiar with.)

UPDATE: 3 straight losses + major injuries and suspensions = Unhappy Spurs days. Ah, well.

⚽️