Glue is amazing. Glue is magic. Glue is goodness incarnate. I made a couple of stands for Scarlet out of PVC pipe. I cut it to length and shoved the pieces together good ‘n’ tight. That video doesn’t do Scarlet’s, umm, enthusiasm justice. She is one rockin’ bird. She literally rocked that stand so much […]
Finding the Good - Gratitude
I have been studying mussar a bit at my congregation. Mussar is a Jewish spiritual path of study and the word means moral conduct, instruction, or discipline. The “study units” are called middot and each middah (middah is the singular of the Hebrew plural word middot) is an aspect of the soul. The challenge is to get every aspect of your soul in balance, neither neglected nor over-indulged.
Recently, we studied the middah of hakarat hatov which is generally translated as “gratitude.” I like the literal translation better, though. It means “finding the good” or “recognizing the good.” There is already good in my life. My task is to see it. Once I find the good, having an attitude of gratitude is much easier.
This section of my blog is a personal project to recognize the good in my life, every day. Maybe you will feel drawn to join me in your own way. You could add a comment to one of my posts. Or you could find the good in your own life and recognize it in a way which speaks to your soul.
Finding the Good: Sight
Unlike my sense of hearing, I am usually conscious of my sense of sight. Sadly, I am often conscious of it because I am annoyed: my glasses are dirty or I cannot get the right part of my trifocals lined up with whatever it is that I am trying to see. Often I am peering […]
Finding the Good: Hearing
I take my hearing for granted most of the time but when I stop to think about it, holy cow!, I realize how much it adds to my life. My hearing lets me communicate with people even when I am not looking at them. Hearing pretty much made raising my sons possible. As long as […]
Finding the Good: Touch
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian received the Nobel prize in medicine this year for discovering some of the key mechanics of how we sense touch and heat and cold. It is pretty miraculous how finely honed our sense of touch is. Just consider how you can distinguish between the texture of a wool blanket and […]
Finding the Good: Smell
I think that it is amazing how intertwined our senses of smell and taste are. I have definitely had the experience of finding a meal less appealing when I have had a stuffed up nose. Sure, I can still taste the food but without the aroma but it just isn’t the same. Smell is good […]
Finding the Good: Taste
My friend told me, this morning, that her husband and she lost their sense of taste when they came down with Covid-19. Thankfully, after two weeks, it has returned. I am particularly grateful today for my sense of taste.
Finding the Good: Red-Shouldered Hawk
Today, a Red-Shouldered Hawk decided to perch on one of our deck posts for an hour or two. I am pretty sure that it was hunting voles, of which Candy and I are more than willing to share from our overly bountiful cache. Hopefully, the bird ate well. It stayed on the post plenty long […]
Finding the Good: Today
Every once in awhile, I have one of those perfect days, like today. I started with coffee and a nice breakfast (steel cut oatmeal, dried blueberries, cinnamon, and a bit o’ honey). I made good progress on the sound effects for the play that I am working on (Blithe Spirit). I had a great rehearsal […]
Finding the Good: Chocolate
So many kinds of chocolate. So many kinds of heaven. Sure, I appreciate a fine, dark chocolate. But there is still a special place in my heart for the chocolates that I learned to love as a boy. Double-chocolate cake Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Kit-Kats Donettes (though I have to admit that the powdered sugar […]
Finding the Good: Walking Upright
I stood up and walked across the room today. It was nothing remarkable at all, except that it was. My balance worked. My muscles worked. A zillion little things all worked together to make my short trip both effortless and miraculous. My friend, Myron, spent a couple of days inn the hospital recently with vertigo. […]
Finding the Good: Stars and Planets and Astronomers
It’s pretty cool that I can look at the night sky and see bright spots of light. It’s even cooler that there are apps for my phone which identify those spots of light. My favorite is Sky Map for Android. But most cool is that there are astronomers, like my friend Murray, who tell us […]
Finding the Good: Spices
Imagine opening the door to your home on a warm fall day. You inhale a whole universe full of apple pie. Mmmmmm. Cinnamon. Now imagine that pumpkin spice latte. Allspice. Have you ever sprinkled nutmeg on French toast while you cook it? Try it! Do you know what makes chai tea so good? Cardamom, cinnamon, […]
Finding the Good: Cool Autumn Nights
I love a cool evening like tonight. The windows are open. There is a bit of a breeze past my bare feet. The tree frogs and crickets are serenading me.
Finding the Good: Laughter
I was about to go have some fun when Candy reminded me that I needed to write another one of these blog posts. This couplet popped into my brain. Inappropriately (I’m sure), I said it out loud. Nagging wifeHappy life Despite the deep emotional injury she has inflicted on my emotional core, today’s tov (good) […]
Finding the Good: Justice and Mercy
I am lucky to live in a world with both justice and mercy. It would be horrible if every infraction of a rule or law, regardless of how small and regardless of intentionality, were punished to the fullest possible extent. Pure justice would be unbearable. On the other hand, I would not want a world […]
Finding the Good: Teeny Tiny Feathers
The tiny things in nature delight me, like the littlest feathers on Robin Hood’s forehead. Here are three of them, along with a sesame seed for scale. The feathers on a Red Lored Amazon parrot’s forehead are so short and dense that it almost looks like fur.
Finding the Good: Contrails
Contrails are beautiful. Here is what I saw tonight, sitting on my deck, sipping Turkish coffee.
Finding the Good: Radio
Radio is not just good, it is great! Once upon a time, it only brought music into my bedroom and into my car. Do you remember AM radio? I used to have one of these Panasonic ball radios. These days, radio is so much more. It makes my cell phone work, of course. It drives […]
Finding the Good: Sabbath
It is truly amazing that we have a day every week set aside from the others for rest and rejuvenation. I am talking about the sabbath, of course. The English word “sabbath” descends from the Hebrew word “shabbat.” We Americans know the word as a noun (the seventh day of the week) but it started […]
Finding the Good: Community
I got out of my car and waved hello to Brian. He is rents the hangar next to mine at Smartt Airport in St. Charles county. Brian introduced me to Mary, his wife. Then Brian told me that he had run into my son, David, at Fritz’s Frozen Custard, which is just a couple of […]
