The house had to be quiet.

poetry, summer, , , , ,
T.F. Simon

Oh, how I love this aspect of the experience of summer as I have known it,
in my youth and now in my older years… 

The House Was Quiet and The World Was Calm

The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,
Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom
The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.
The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.
And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself
Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself

Is the reader leaning late and reading there.

-Wallace Stevens

Weighing and measuring very carefully.

health, quotes, , , ,

“Have no anxiety. Sometimes what’s worse than being sick is being afraid of getting sick. Leave it to God. Whatever God gives you is best for you. God never gives you a cross without first weighing and measuring it very carefully to make sure that the cross will result in your spiritual growth.”

-Elder Amilianos of Simonopetra

Insects and Embroideries.

animals, nature, ,
June Beetle

In the U.K. they are coming to the end of Insect Week, sponsored by the  Royal Entomological Society. (But in this post I am showing only my own photos of California insects.) I heard about Insect Week from Blogger Katie, whose butterfly embroideries I have admired for a while at ArtyMissK. Her photography is fantastic, too; by it she reveals here the glory of a “simple” black Dor beetle, and many other examples. Have a look at these “Little Things That Run the World”:

Little things that run the world! {Insect week 2024}

An anniversary for St. John of San Francisco.

quotes, saints, , , , ,

It is the 30th anniversary of the canonization of St. John (Maximovitch), Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco. At Holy Virgin Cathedral, “Joy of All Who Sorrow,” the celebration of the feast will spread over three days this week, and members of my parish expect to travel there to participate.

You can read the life of St. John and why he is called “The Wonderworker” – here.

On this joyous occasion I want to share this exhortation from the saint:

Though a man may be found in a weak state, that does not at all mean that he has been abandoned by God. On the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ was in trouble, as the world sees things. But when the sinful world considered Him to be completely destroyed, in fact He was victorious over death and hades. The Lord did not promise us positions as victors as a reward for righteousness, but told us, “In the world you will have tribulation – but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world”.

-St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco