v. anastasi
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Monday morning, as I looked out the windows of The Observatory (our family room), I saw a grey heron down in the creek. At first, I was content to simply admire him from afar. Besides, if I went outside and down to the water’s edge, I’d surely scare him off. But the lure was just…
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A quiet evening by the open window reading Andrew Klavan’s The Truth and Beauty. The neighbor’s window air conditioner humming incessantly in the background. William Wordsworth’s timely sonnet about the pervasive nature of our modern world. A train whistle in the distance. The bread and the wine. What follows is the synergy of those experiences…
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Rather than post yesterday, we chose to celebrate the Fourth of July with disc golf in the morning, then some quiet time to do crossword puzzles and cryptic quotes from The Epoch Times in the afternoon, followed by time to explore Wolf Creek looking for antique bottles, hot dogs on the grill with chips, baked…
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My daughter brought home a container of Magnetic Poetry, the Receivables Custom Edition, from work last week (she works at our local library). Since then, the refrigerator has become the deepening ground of our home with everyone chipping in to various poetic “masterpieces,” including the eight and ten-year-olds (grandma has not felt poetically inspired as…
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True love is the deepening ground of life. Unfortunately, so few are willing to labor together in the field, transforming the hard soils of life into the oasis offered to us in true love, especially in the midst of trying times. Most so-called “love” peters out just inches into the earth. So few are willing…
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My daughter has turned eighteen. As John Lennon once wrote, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” (“Beautiful Boy”). He understood, as a father, how quickly time escapes us. For all of us who have become parents, this truth is painfully real. It drives me more into the present, trying…
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In general, I hate greeting card holidays. However, making a regular habit of honoring our fathers and mothers finds its roots in something far deeper and comes with the promise of a long and full life. I don’t celebrate Mother’s Day or Father’s Day because it’s printed on my calendar. I celebrate those days because…
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It’s not Wolf Creek, but it will have to do. If I could have had a decent camera with me a few Sundays ago as I floated down the creek that borders our property, staring up into the cerulean sky with only a few cumulus clouds floating by, then I could have captured the exact…
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I found my creative voice again last week! Despite the busyness of wrapping up a school year, I carved out the time to parody Smashmouth’s “All Star,” Billy Joel’s “Piano Man,” and The Proclaimer’s “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” as parting gifts to my students. That evening, I felt energized and revived. I even managed…
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Looking at the small shelf of books beside my bed last night, I noticed my copy of David Whyte’s The Bell and the Blackbird. My wife purchased the collection for me a few years ago when I expressed an interest in the book after a colleague introduced me to Whyte’s poetry. If you are familiar…
the deepening ground 