Gather 'round…
Initial reaction: smile
2 seconds in: “I’m not really in a good place to start this one TODAY.”
5 seconds in: sigh
10 seconds: smileThere’s no better day than today, and no better time than when you’re not quite ready.
I’m in. Who’s with me?
KJ
Starting today – no complaints for one week. Only gratitude. As soon as you drift to the negative, yank yourself back to the positive. To beauty and light. Go.
“Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” – Doris Day
The fan attached to our bargain model fireplace unit is dying. It’s a small miracle that it has gotten us this far, and it’ll be a large one if it fires up this fall when we call it back into service. You know how things on the brink of death get after a season of... Continue Reading →
The latest installment of the Ottinger Christmas Letter: Christmas Letter 2017 (Past Years: Christmas Letters from the Nexus of the Universe) Christ is Born! Glorify Him! KJ
“The snow looks light and the sky dark, but in fact the sky is lighter than the snow. Obviously the thing illumined cannot be lighter than its illuminator. The classical demonstration of this point involves simply laying a mirror flat on the snow so that it reflects in its surface the sky, and comparing by... Continue Reading →
I didn't read much as a kid, beyond a library of Garfield and Shel Silverstien (both quality literature I still stand by as my foundation). Over the years, there were a few school-mandated books (Island of the Blue Dolphins? This is honestly the only one I remember), but I read them begrudgingly at best, and they never... Continue Reading →
I spent a few primetime hours in the emergency room last night. There has been a nefarious flipflopping in the vicinity of my ticker over the past few days, and when the frequency of the internal acrobatics reached sub-minute intervals—recorded much like timing contractions, only without the pain, and adding the joy of a stethoscope—I... Continue Reading →
Work the brain before working the mouth. I've taught my kids this from the beginning, with varying degrees of success on the familial foot-in-mouth-count chart. Because the things that can come out of a mouth that has not tethered itself firmly to the brain can be embarrassing at best, and often hurtful to those you... Continue Reading →
A heavy sheet of frost cloaked the ditch clover this morning. You could almost see those little alfalfa cells bursting at the strain, transforming from lusty stalks to creamed spinach beneath the blanket of white. Look past the beauty of the lace and arctic destruction, though, and one sees something more. The clover—the whole populace... Continue Reading →
I missed it. I feel like Annie Dillard missing the very moment of the happening of spring, despite her diligence. Only I've missed the very moment of the happening of fall. I knew it would happen. That whole abandoning ship at peak thing ensured I'd be derailed. And I was. For months, I've been taking... Continue Reading →
As I've said, I'm scrapbooking again. As I've said. But what I set out to write a few weeks back was not a diatribe on the virtues of skimpy scrapbooking. It was not meant to be only a physical confession of a swept-away hobbyist. It was intended to reflect upon the growing need within to... Continue Reading →
The seasons are turning fast now. The blue is growing deeper and the colors are falling off the landscape. We often miss the peak of the beauty, enjoying the magic of Lake Superior at the very time of year that the show back home is at it's finest. Circumstances and all that. Circumstances this year,... Continue Reading →
I have been scrapbooking again. It's a bit of a wagon-worthy confession. There is a short and shunted period of my personal history when I was a scrapbooker. I scrapbooked. I sold scrapbooks. Mostly, I spent unholy sums of money on gourmet scrapbooks and all manner of scrapbooking paraphernalia. Markers. Stickers. Cut-outs. Paper; O Lord,... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Nexus 