Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
The cover blurb written by Martin Shaw for Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado De Oliveira declares that "This is a book about breaking spells. And not just the obvious kind, but the grievously impacted, deep-in-the-psyche variety". I believe Shaw is right. However, I wonder how many people have truly understood what spells are being broken.… Continue reading The Daily: 18 January 2024
In the Roman calendar, this day was Larentalia, a day to honor the household gods — the lares, spirits of place — as well as the mother of all lares and the adoptive mother of Romulus and Remus, Acca Larentia. Larentalia fell after Saturnalia and before the end of the year as a way to get right with… Continue reading The Daily: 23 December 2023
I'm working my way through Rhyd Wildermuth. This was not a planned exercise, but I find his writing so compelling and original that I just keep picking up one book or essay after another. The most recent is All That Is Sacred Is Profaned: A Pagan Guide to Marxism, which is almost exactly as advertised… Continue reading The Daily: 14 December 2023
In any given week, I am reading several books a little at a time. I do this mostly so that whenever I have a spare moment, there is a book in my current reading selection that will fit my mood. Plus, I find that I can get through more difficult books if I can set… Continue reading The Daily: 16 November 2023
I have another book recommendation. This one will not keep you up until 3am, unless you get to page 161 and decide that you must read it all over again. As one does. Kayaking with Lambs is a collection of essays mostly pulled from Brian Miller's richly authentic farm journal, A South Roane Agrarian, where… Continue reading The Daily: 19 October 2023
A Brief Literary Exhortation You will want to go find a copy of Starling House by Alix Harrow. You may want to buy this perfect rendition of the Southern Gothic because you will likely read it two or three times in quick succession and then come back to it several months hence, to savor such… Continue reading The Daily: 10 October 2023
Why is it so hard to accept that we are part of a whole? Why do we suppose that there is no consciousness but ours? Or will? Or mind? Why can't we accept limits and death? Why do we impose human qualities on everything? If there are gods and spirits, why should they resemble humanity… Continue reading The Daily: 3 October 2023
The moonrise tonight is the closest to the Full Harvest Moon which happens at 5:58 tomorrow morning. In my part of the world, moonrise tonight is at 6:30pm, a few minutes before the sun sets. This ought to be one moonrise that most of New England can see, though thin clouds might dim the Full… Continue reading The Daily: 28 September 2023
I just got done reading a horror story. Or, maybe it's not supposed to be a horror story, but it sure gave me nightmares. Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian (1995, Simon and Schuster) is the story of a Vermont attorney and lobbyist who learns the hard way that what he does to make money is… Continue reading The Daily: 29 June 2023
Juneteenth Today is Juneteenth. Specifically, today is the second anniversary of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday and the 158th anniversary of the reading of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger. This was the order which served as the Texas version of the Emancipation Proclamation, a full two years after President Lincoln and… Continue reading The Daily: 19 June 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 