“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.”
— Marcus Aurelius #quote #stoic #philosophy #soul #life
Tag Archives: words
Book Review: Medieval Bodies Life and Death in the Middle Ages by Jake Hartnell
Art Historian Jake Hartnell takes us on a macabre and enthralling journey from head to toe in the medieval human body. This is fascinating because, even though we share the same bodies as our medieval ancestors, we had wildly diverging beliefs about the inherent symbolic power of parts of our bodies and what could heal, harm or kill us.
Book Review: To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
Eowyn Ivey is a master craftswoman and her sentences are smooth and flowing like treacle. Her debut the Snow Child was one of my favourite novels. It told the magical tale of a child that emerges out of the icy Alaskan tundra and provides an ageing couple yearning for a baby, with the promise of a living child.
Ancient Word of the Day: Stravaig
Stravaig derives from eighteenth-century Scots extravage, meaning ‘wander about; digress, ramble in speech’, in turn derived from Medieval Latin extravagari ‘wander, stray beyond limits’. Stravaig, in various forms, is found in a wide range of Scottish texts from the late eighteenth-century onwards. Read more
Comforting Thought The challenge of a life’s time and a lifetime
It may be when we no longer know what to do,
We have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go,
We have begun our real journey.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) is a poet, farmer, writer and activist.
Book Review: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
In this funny, odd-ball and deeply emotional novel by Japanese debut novelist Sayaka Murata, we follow the book’s heroine Keiko, who is in her late 30’s and is working as a sales assistant in a convenience store, while living unmarried and childless (a mortal sin in Japan).
Ancient Word of the Day: Adsum
From Latin: “Adsum” – be here now
The life, in a form, that we all live. Adsum abandons hopelessness and blind hope and even rational hope.
Hope is that virtue by which we take responsibility for the future and a quality that gives our actions special urgency.
Short Story: Awhiina finds her orb
In the heart of the Pacific, there lies an island so remote it is whispered about like a myth. This island, cloaked in lush greenery and bordered by the endless blue, is home to Awhiina, a woman of quiet strength and profound connection to the natural world around her. Awhiina lived in a small village,Continue reading “Short Story: Awhiina finds her orb”
The naive trap we all stumble into
I’ve fallen into that delightful and gradual fantasy yet again. You would also know this one, it’s comfy, cosy and always clings to your body like a well-worn jumper, there’s some holes from moths and some dust from yesteryear on it. Nobody would say it’s fashionable, but I cling to it as a child clingsContinue reading “The naive trap we all stumble into”
Book Review: Weatherland by Andrea Harris
Weatherland by Alexandra Harris is a sweeping panorama and magic carpet ride through the history of England using a quirky weathervane to measure the changing culture – the weather.
Author Alexandra Harris’ debut book won The Guardian’s Book of the Year. It’s no surprise either because this is a far-reaching, expansive book written in an engaging, poetic and erudite way.
Content Catnip 