Covering a book with a brown paper bag is a simple, practical project that helps protect books from scuffs, bent corners, and everyday wear. It also eliminates people from seeing the title of the book we are reading if we so desire. It can also make it easy to label the ownership of a book … Continue reading Making a brown paper bag book cover
reading
What we love
Love is not merely an emotion. It may just be the origin of knowledge. A way of knowing. The human experience forces each of us to grapple with the labels wisdom and knowledge in so many areas of teaching including philosophical, spiritual, scientific, and artistic. Eventually these all arrive at some version of this same … Continue reading What we love
Herb cultivation through history
In every age and in every land, the garden has been both pharmacy and prayer, a place where human hands and the earth's own intelligence have met in quiet collaboration. Herbs have been humanity's oldest and most enduring medicine, food, and ritual offering. Long before the first physician wrote a prescription or the first pharmacist … Continue reading Herb cultivation through history
Meant to bes & have to dos
“Somewhere there is an ancient enmity between our daily lives and the great work. Help me in saying it, to understand it.”– Rainer Maria Rilke There is a profound tension between the mundane and chaotic aspects of daily life and the pursuit of significant, transformative work in each day of our lives. This "ancient enmity" … Continue reading Meant to bes & have to dos
Transformations
The Layers By Stanley Kunitz I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray. When I look behind, as I am compelled to look before I can gather strength to proceed on my journey, … Continue reading Transformations
Spirit
He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city. - Proverbs 16:32 The value of patience and self-control over physical strength and aggression can bend reality in revolutionary ways. Being slow to anger and ruling one's spirit is more commendable than … Continue reading Spirit
Tough enough
Tough times never last, but tough people do.– Robert H. Schuller Keystone Tough times are a part of life, but the resilience within us defines our lasting strength. Challenges may feel overwhelming, but they are extended painful moments in time, not permanent states. Tough people endure because they adapt, persevere, and find inner resolve to face … Continue reading Tough enough
Within
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."– Ralph Waldo Emerson Keystone The largest territory any person will ever inhabit is the one inside themselves. Many people never fully move in. We don't have to be the product of what happened to us, nor what … Continue reading Within
What is precious
Our mind is a brilliant instrument. It categorizes, analyzes, compares, and concludes. But our mind focuses on what is useful, what is logical, what is safe, what is efficient. The heart finds what is precious. Those are not the same search. They do not use the same tools. They do not even ask the same … Continue reading What is precious
Practicing self-control
"Emotional self-control is the result of hard work, not an inherent trait." - Travis Bradberry Key takeaways This quote comes from Bradberry's broader body of work on emotional intelligence (EQ) - the cluster of skills that govern how we recognize, understand, manage, and apply emotions in ourselves and in our relationships with others. His research consistently … Continue reading Practicing self-control