The Joy of Winter

My moment of the day is listening and reading  the story of two climbers: Brian Mann  & Emily Russell. Listen:here

Winter Joy: Breaking Tail in 15 Degrees

by Brian Mann & Emily Russell

“It might sound strange, but there’s something cool about being tested. We’re both tempted to turn back, but we’re also thrilled by the idea that we’re the only humans here. It’s a kind of love-hate thing.

“The thing I like is when a mountain surprises you and the mountain comes out on top,” Emily says. “That’s what happened today.”

Worth

“Free! The word and the thought alone were worth fifty blankets.” -Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Mine is books.

What’s yours?

note: I just finished The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Books I’m reading:
The Japanese Way of the Artist by H.E. Davey

and How We Work by Leah Weiss

Conversion

“That finger of Jesus, pointing at Matthew. That’s me. I feel like him. Like Matthew,” he told Fr Spadaro. “It is the gesture of Matthew that strikes me: he holds on to his money as if to say, ‘No, not me! No, this money is mine.’ Here, this is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff.”
-Pope Francis
quoted in the chapter, “Who Am I? A sinner…” in the book, Fioretti, The Little Flowers of Pope Francis, by Andrea Tornielli

“Pope Francis asked people in the crowd to find a quiet time at home or in a church to remember in silence and with gratitude an occasion when they felt that merciful gaze of Christ.” quoted in an article by Cindy Wooden, link here

The rendition of the The Calling of St. Matthew by Caravaggio with narration here

note: Part of my daily readings during Lent is spiritual books:
Into The Silant Land, A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation by Martin Laird, Fioretti by Andrea Tornielli, and Franciscan Prayer by Ilia Delio. The other book I’m reading is Becoming Wise, An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living by Krista Tippet.

The photo of The Calling of St. Matthew is from Khan Academy. org

Faith

“In Scripture, the opposite of faith is not doubt but anxiety. To lack faith is not so much to have theoretical doubts about God’s existence as it is to be anxious and fearful at a deep level…

It is this kind of anxiety, the deep fear that we have been forgotten, that pushes many of us to make an assertion of our lives. Nobody wants to live and die unnoticed, insignificant, forgotten. This anxiety is the opposite of faith. It is not so much the fear that God doesn’t exist, as the fear that God doesn’t notice our existence.

What is faith? Faith doesn’t have you believe that you will have no worries, or that you will not make mistakes, or that you and your loved ones won’t sometimes fall victim to accident or sickness. What faith gives you is the assurance that God is good, that God can be trusted, that God won’t forget you, and that, despite any indication to the contrary God is still solidly in charge of the universe. Faith says that God is real and God is Lord and, because of this, there is ultimately nothing to fear. We are in safe hands. Reality is gracious, forgiving, loving, redeeming, and absolutely trustworthy. Our task is to surrender to that.”- Ronald Rolheiser, Prayer Our Deepest Longing

What is fiction?

“Fiction is the lie through which we tell our truth.”-Albert Camus
note: quoted by Albert Flynn DeSilver in his book,Writing as a Path to Awakening

Greatness & mediocrity

“Neglect nothing that will serve to make you great.”- attributed to Stendhal

“Laziness is a sign of mediocrity.”- attributed to Voltaire

note: both quotations are quoted by Julian Barnes in his book, Keeping An Eye Open, Essays on Art.

Pure crystals

“Pure crystal are those that have perfectly repeating units. You told me this after I asked you what you found beautiful about chemistry. But what of the repating units in life? Most often imperfect.”
-Weike Wang, Chemistry

note: Yesterday Mrs. Abstract and I toured the Degas and with other Impressionists’ exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

Today I finished Chemistry by Weike Wang. I added Keeping an Eye Open, Essays on Art by Julian Barnes in my reading list.

Why I like chemistry

“That’s dispersion. That’s when boring white light goes through a prism and comes out a rainbow. Blue light disperses the most, hence the blue sky you see everywhere. Yellow light disperses the least, hence the yellow sun you see in one place.”- Weike Wang, Chemistry

note: I finished reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck just in time for this Saturday Book Club. I’m finishing Journal of a Novel, The East of Eden Letters by John Steinbeck
which is an added reading for the discussion of East of Eden.

I’m reading a new set of books:
Chemistry by Weike Wang,
Forest Park by Nicole Krauss
Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing by Daniel Tammet
World Without Mind by Franklin Foer.

I put back on the shelves the other set of books I was reading before and didn’t finished.

Sharing life and art

“I have more appreciation for the little things in life …finding meaning and purpose every day.”

A few of the pearls of wisdom Jeanne finds through the years and as she reaches the age of 60. She has a colorful and interesting blog that I want to share with you: life and art

 

New things

“Now I am revealing new things to you, things hidden and unknown to you, created just now, this very moment. Of these things you have heard nothing until now. So that you cannot say, Oh yes, I knew this.” (Isaiah 48:6-7)

quoted by Christine Valters Paintner: Abbey of the Arts