Introducing...

Introducing Ezra Jude Finnegan.  He is 16 weeks gestation right now, and running track in his Mommy's tummy.  Emma will have a little brother, and he is due to arrive around April 11.  Join us in rejoicing with Tim and Nikki, and in praying for this little boy to grow and stay right where he should be as long as possible.

Five for Friday

Today I offer five fun short stories I will soon be reading with my little composition class.  If you need something enjoyable to read in a doctor's office waiting room, or before you fall asleep, try these titles.  For those that exist online I've tried to give you links.

1.  The Dog that Bit People by James Thurber

2. A Day's Wait by Ernest Hemmingway

3. Rip van Winkle by Washington Irving

4.  Chapter 3 of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.  Strictly speaking this is not a short story, of course.  But it is a tight, beautiful piece of writing that can stand on its own, and is a rich example of how a great writer embeds a theme in a narrative.

5. "Red" by Elsa Johnson Finnegan.  This is a wonderful story, but you have to know the author to get a copy.  :-)

What short stories are your favorites, Gentle Reader?

Thursday thought: Peace

Peace can be hard to find at times.  We can become so distracted over even legitimate concerns that peace can get lost in the shuffle. I am thinking Wendell Berry's way to find peace sounds lovely.  May you find such peace today, Gentle Reader.

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wednesday without words

 "Cowboy Picnic": a recently completed quilt

And from my sunroom:

Leaving your finger prints

At a wedding last weekend, the father of the lovely bride and I were sharing memories of that dear girl.  The father gave me a smile, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "Your fingerprints are all over my children!"

What a lovely thing to say! My fingerprints--or the effects of my influence and teaching-- had helped to sculpt his children, and he was grateful.

What could be better than helping to form the heart and mind of young people?  Whether it is your own children or someone else's, leave your fingerprints.  Leave them everywhere, Gentle Reader.  You will never regret it.

Thursday thought: impenetrable things

This morning, in an attempt to remove my mind from the political nonsense, I am pondering the impenetrable things that count.  And what better way to do than with a poem by Dana Gioia?

Do Not Expect by Dana Gioia

Do not expect that if your book falls open
to a certain page, that any phrase
you read will make a difference today,
or that the voices you might overhear
when the wind moves through the yellow-green
and golden tent of autumn, speak to you.

Things ripen or go dry. Light plays on the
dark surface of the lake. Each afternoon
your shadow walks beside you on the wall,
and the days stay long and heavy underneath
the distant rumor of the harvest. One
more summer gone,
and one way or another you survive,
dull or regretful, never learning that
nothing is hidden in the obvious
changes of the world, that even the dim
reflection of the sun on tall, dry grass
is more than you will ever understand.

And only briefly then
you touch, you see, you press against
the surface of impenetrable things.

Wednesday with somene else's words...

I have no new photos to post, so instead I offer Dave Ramsey's thoughts on the Affordable Care Act: