Monthly Archives: February 2025

If you search for breathing exercises for relaxation you will find a lot of suggestions. But the one I now do automatically when I start to feel tense and nervous, is to blow out all of the air from my … Continue reading →

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test. —William James No, I … Continue reading →

Even in her senior years Tempi is a star. (Of advertising by Kaitlin’s house cleaners.) February 6, 2025

What’s the most important minute in life? I think it’s the next one. There is nothing we can do about the past, and we have limited influence over the hours and days to come. But the next minute—-minute after minute … Continue reading →

There is a dynamic quality about enthusiasm which nothing can resist. You can see it in the street orator, whose whole heart is in his argument, swaying a crowd. You can feel it in the work of any artist—painter, writer, … Continue reading →

I couldn’t help laughing and thinking of Tennyson’s Ulysses Friday evening as we tried to figure out why our old, precious lamp stopped working. The cleaning lady had been here Thursday, so we suspected she had moved it to clean … Continue reading →

Happy Groundhog Day! I remember years ago, before Google, when I looked outside and mentioned what the groundhog legend would predict. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that only Punxsutawney Phil could make that prediction. Say what? We used … Continue reading →

Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own; He who secure within can say Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today. —John Dryden, 1631-1700 I love the spirit of those lines, but … Continue reading →