Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
If Brigid visited your house with a blessing last night, show her your gratitude by beginning your spring cleaning in her honor. If you have a woodstove, today is a good day to clean out the ashes and begin spreading them on your garden beds. (If you live where the soils are already saline, especially… Continue reading The Daily: 1 February 2023
You can achieve wisdom in three ways. The first way is meditation. This is the most noble way. The second way is the way of imitation. This is the easiest and least satisfying way. Thirdly, there is the way of experience. This is the most difficult way. — Confucius (Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom for 29… Continue reading The Daily: 30 January 2023
They asked a Chinese man, "What is science?" He said, "Science is knowing people." Then they asked, "And what is virtue?" He answered, "Virtue is loving people." — Tolstoy, from his Calendar of Wisdom for 27 January Yesterday was my birthday. I am not going to say which one, but that’s more because I like… Continue reading The Daily: 27 January 2023
A wise man seeks wisdom; a madman thinks that he has found it. — Persian proverb (from Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom for 24 January) The wolf month is underway. Soon it will be Imbolg, then Lupercalia, and then we're marching into March. But for now, it is winter and the Wolf Moon is waxing. The… Continue reading The Daily: 24 January 2023
Just after sunset tonight, if you have a cloudless sky and a flat western horizon, look for the thin crescent of the New Wolf Moon in a grouping with very bright Venus and a warm fuzzy Saturn. Look for Venus first. At magnitude -4, it will be easiest to see in the twilight (which is… Continue reading The Daily: 23 January 2023
In a perfect example of why counting eggs is never advisable, the very day that I talked about the possibility of escaping the worst of winter, the weather system that was dismissed by even the excitable forecasters at the Weather Channel is now dumping inches of snow on my town. It has been snowing for… Continue reading The Daily: 20 January 2023
The only real science is the knowledge of how a person should live his life. And this knowledge is open to everyone. — Tolstoy, from his Calendar of Wisdom for 18 January Armchair Immunology (or How I Became a Vegetarian) I became a vegetarian way back when it was decidedly uncool, especially where I lived… Continue reading The Daily: 18 January 2023
When an arrow does not hit its target, the marksman blames himself, not another person. A wise man behaves in the same way. — Confucius (from Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom for 11 January) For those who have not yet cleared away Midwinter, even in my rather northerly part of the world, day length is now… Continue reading The Daily: 11 January 2023
for 1 January 2023 New Year's Day is definitely one of those holidays that feels out of joint. I don't think it's me. I think this date, this point in the solar year, lacks ties to reality. It is historically wrong. When the Romans created these two new months and set their state calendars to… Continue reading The Daily
for 31 December 2022 First, I want to say: Happy New Year! And now, here's a bit of grumbling about what that entails for way too many people... Among other excesses... The last few days of the secular calendar are sort of lost on me. I do not celebrate these holidays in the same terms… Continue reading The Daily
By My Solitary Hearth 