The Beauty and Importance of Gratitude: “My Heart Overflows”

Our world seems a little short on gratitude. We have expectations and demands, and we have entitlements. But we have so much to be thankful for. Perhaps that’s the problem – so many blessings and forgetting what the source is. 

My Heart Overflows: A Treasury of Readings, Poems, and Prayers on Gratitude is a relatively small but beautiful book that reminds us to be grateful. Assembled by the editors of Paraclete Press, the work is 144 pages of artwork and text that each speaks to gratitude, why we feel it and show it, and how we can be thankful for it.

 

You can pray with Francis of Assisi, observe Walden Pond with Ralph Waldo Emerson, celebrate beauty with Gerard Manley Hopkins, consider what you mother has done for you with Maya Angelou, and be thankful for the rain with Luci Shaw. Helen Keller is here, as is John Greenleaf Whittier. 

 

You can feel the evening wind with William Cullen Bryant, read what G.K. Chesterton said about St. Francis, see why you should enjoy life (Charlotte Bronte did), and discover what George Washington was grateful for about his new nation. Emily Dickinson believed there was nothing without gratitude (and she wrote a poem about it). And you can pray and be thankful with Jane Austen and the church father Clement of Alexandria and discover what Abraham Lincoln was so thankful he declared a national day of Thanksgiving (as did James Madison). 

 

The paintings included in the artwork includes those by Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Claude Monet, Albert Bierstadt, Jan Steen, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Gustav Klimt, Giotto, and John Constable, among many others. The book is profusely illustrated, each painting chosen to illustrate the themes of thankfulness and gratitude.

 

I love beautiful books, and My Heart Overflows is a beautiful book. In fact, you could say I’m grateful for the time, care, and attention the editors at Paraclete used to create this volume.

 

Painting: The Thankful Poor, oil on canvas (1896) by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), one of the illustrations used in the book. 

Some Monday Readings

 

Chaos in Aurora – Christina Buttons and Christopher Rufo at City Journal. 

 

The Imminent Russia-US War – Christopher Caldwell at Compact Magazine.

 

Kristallnacht – The Night of Broken Glass – poem by Brian Yapko at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Writing for an Audience of One – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Things Worth Remembering: The Imperfection of America – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.

He turns his face

After Psalm 67 

He turns his face

towards us, staring

directly into our eyes,

our souls, our hearts.

He gets in our faces,

placing his hands

on our heads, staring

and saying he loves us,

he cherishes us, he knows

all our faults, our sins,

and what matters

is his love for us,

once lost, now found.

 

Photograph by William Carlson via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Balrog on the Bridge: Cultivating the Courage of Gandalf – Clinton Manley at Desiring God.

 

“Sailing to Byzantium,” poem by William Butler Yeats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Helene Binet at St. Anne’s Limehouse – photographs at Spitalfields Life.

 

Blessing for Different Sounds – poem by David Whyte.

 

Two Owls – pome by Josiah Cox at First Things Magazine.

Saturday Good Reads - Sept. 14, 2024

Matti Friedman worked for the Associated Press for six years in Israel. He began to see a shift in what was happening with his colleagues. They were moving from covering the news to covering “evil Israel versus the oppressed Palestinians,” even when the facts contradicted what they were writing (which was most of the time). Seen “ When We Started to Lie” at The Free Press.

 I’ll add a postscript to that article. I used to trust the AP’s stories; they were often the only journalistic accounts of what was going on. Then, about 2012-2013, something began to shift. What passes for AP news reports today is more charitably labeled “opinion.” Friedman is right, but it’s not only news about Israel.

 

We were in London when what is known as “Benghazi” happened. We were happily ignorant of the news until our hotel concierge warned me one morning to avoid Parliament Square, Grosvenor Square, and other areas where Americans congregated. Protestors were targeting Americans because the U.S. Administration was blaming Benghazi on an alleged movie about Mohammed. Nobody, including the news media, wanted to dwell on what happened to the American ambassador and the other Americans killed – it was an election year, and Benghazi made the U.S. look powerless and incompetent. One story I hadn’t read about was the Navy SEAL who gave his life, doing what he was supposed to do. 

 

What’s the best social platform for writers? Writing coach Ann Kroeker talks with Jane Friedman, who knows more about writing and electronic communications that just about anyone I’ve heard of. And Friedman says what she thinks, including about the most popular platform at the moment – Substack. 

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

I Think Therefore I Am: Technology’s transformation of human existence is rendering conservatism irrelevant – Brad Littlejohn at American Compass.

 

The Total State and the Twilight of American Democracy – N.S. Lyons at The Upheaval.

 

“Fauxtastrophes” and the Power of Bureaucracy – Joseph Woodard at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Building What Matters – Frank DeVito at Front Porch Republic.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Initials or Nicknames Out of Some Now Incomprehensible Affection – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Civil War on Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner.

 

Writing When You Have No Time to Write – Thomas Kidd.

 

American Stuff

 

What September 11 Revealed – Jonathan Rosen at The Free Press.

 

War on Record: The Archive and the Afterlife of the Civil War by Yael A. Sternhell – review by Kevin Donovan at Emerging Civil War.

 

Poetry

 

“The Janitor’s Boy,” poem by Nathalia Crane – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Israel

 

Holywood: The Birth and Death of a Vision – Michael Oren at Clarity.

 

Forrest Gumping Through Israeli History – Bonnie Goodman at Times of Israel.

 

Faith

 

Our Greatest Tool for Reaching the West – Aaron Armstroing.

 

Art

 

Some Favorite Nicholas Borden Paintings – Spitalfields Life. 

 

British Stuff

 

Schrödinger’s Culture War – Kristian Niemietz at The Critic Magazine.

 

His Glory and My Good – City Alight

 

Painting: Young Woman Reading a Letter to a Blind Man, oil on canvas by Louis Denis-Valvérane (1870-1943). 

Sing a new / old song

After Psalm 67 

Sing a new song

sing a new song

   may you be gracious

 

Sing an old song

sing a new song

   may you bless us

 

Sing a new song

sing an old

   may your face shine

   shine upon us

 

It rises, a chorus

of praise, ringed

in gladness, in joy,

un expectation

of justice, of guidance,

of blessing and increase

 

We are blessed

so that those

around us

will see him.

 

Photograph by Austin Neill via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

The Latecomers – poem by Seamus Heaney at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

Life is Too Brief to Waste – Jon Bloom at Desiring God.

 

Why Church Membership Matters – Alistair Begg at Truth for Life.

 

What Does God Listen For? – Seth Lewis.

 

King Jan Sobieski of Poland and The Lord of the Rings – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

Some Thursday Readings - Sept. 12, 2024

Handbags & Handcuffs: The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara Lodge – Claire Harman at Literary Review. 

“Poor Eddy”: A New Life of Edgar Allan Poe – Mark Jarman at The Hudson Review.

 

On the Tarmac – poem by Tania Runyan at Every Day Poems.

 

Shakespeare and Classical Education – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

“The Traveler” and “Sunrise” – poems by Shindy Cai at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Author George Saunders on His Novel Lincoln in the Bardo, on Lincoln After the Death of His Son – New York Times Book Review podcast via The Reconstruction Era blog.

 

If your protagonist is bored, you can bet you reader will be to – Nathan Bransford. 

 

End – prose poem / reflection by David Whyte.

 

Photograph: Edgar Allan Poe about 1837.

"The Blackbird & Other Stories" by Sally Thomas

A little girl tries to lead a normal life – dance revues, school – while the shadow of her mother’s illness seems everywhere. If she focuses on dancing “The Blackbird,” she’ll be fine. 

A couple try to make sense of their grown son’s suicide, even if you can never really make sense of that kind of tragedy. Or you’re traveling with your grandparents, trying to escape, or deal with, a family breakup. Or a spouse dies, that “little cough” having turned into something fatal. Or your youngest child is born with a skin condition that essentially makes him allergic to sunlight, and you have to re-orient everything you know and do. Or you take refuge from your spouse’s beach house, the one in your family for three generations, the one containing memories of every childhood vacation. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Go On, Try It; The Semicolon Isn’t as Scary as You Think – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Writing without a platform – Brad East.

 

The kindest of ghosts: A new history of childhood reading is a treasure – Simon Evans at The Critic Magazine. 

 

Things Worth Remembering: Nothing is Lost Forever – Douglas Murray at The Free Press on playwright Tom Stoppard. 

 

A preview of the New World War I Memorial in DC – and why it will hit you hard – John Domen at WTOP.

An Anthology of Contemporary Catholic Poetry

Growing up in late 1950s and early 1960s New Orleans meant by definition that you were part of a Catholic culture. My family wasn’t Catholic, but most of my neighborhood friends and school classmates were. Within relatively easy walking distances were several Catholic churches and schools – Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Divine Providence, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Christopher’s, and St. Philip Neri. Our Lutheran church could only be reached by driving. My parents almost sent me to a Catholic high school. Because the Catholic church was so dominant, you didn’t think of “Catholic” as anything but normal.  

We certainly didn’t think of “Catholic” poetry or fiction as something distinct. Poetry was poetry, and fiction was fiction. We did learn about the importance of Catholic faith when we studied T.S. Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Henry Cardinal Newman, or Reformation writers, or the religious wars of the 16^th and 17^th centuries. But no one talked about a distinct Catholic literature, even if it might have existed. If anyone had asked me to name a Catholic writer, I would have said G.K. Chesterton, Flannery O’Connor, or Giovanni Guareschi, author of the Don Camillo stories (which I read in high school and loved them all). And that would have exhausted my knowledge.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Sweet Gal, You Made Me Think – poem by Jonathan Rogers at Rabbi Room Poetry.

 

A Letter from Rome – poem by Morri Creech at The Hopkins Review.

 

A Savannah Poet – Richard Kreitner at Jewish Review of Books.

 

I Have Waited for September – poem by Roy Peterson at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Poetry Prompt: Wordle Your Way – Tweetspeak Poetry. 

“The Wild Duck,” poem by John Masefield – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

"The Dark Wives" by Ann Cleeves

If you’re a fan of the DCI Vera Stanhope mystery series on Britbox, you know what a find characterization Brenda Blethyn makes of the title character. Even when I see the actress on other programs, I keep expecting her to drive that beat-up old Land Rover, wear her trench coat and fisherman’s hat, and call everyone “Pet.”  

And reading The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves, the newest entry in the Vera Stanhope series, all I can see is Brenda Blethyn. The image is branded on my brain. 

 

In The Dark Wives, Cleeves, a fine storyteller, weaves a dark tale. At a privately operated care home for troubled teens, a young worker is found dead, his head bashed with a hammer. A resident 14-year-old girl is missing. And Vera and her team can find no motive, no suspects, and no clues. Except the missing girl. But having read the diary the girl left behind, Vera can’t see as a killer. What she does begin to see is that the girl is in danger. The diary makes a vague reference to a dark car following her. And more reports of a dark car crop up.

 

The investigation shifts from the Newcastle area in northwestern England to a village some 30 miles to the north. The girl’s grandparents have an old, unused cottage nearby the village. The dead man was familiar with the area, having hiked it many times with his father. And rather brooding over the area and the case are three legendary monoliths, known as “The Dark Wives.” 

 

Ann Cleeves

Through a combination of dogged, routine police work and Vera’s uncanny intuition, the team begins to grasp what’s happening. But they may be too late to save the missing girl.

 

Cleeves has published eight mysteries in the Jimmy Perez / Shetland series, including Raven Black (2008), Red Bones (2009), White Nights (2010), Blue Lightning (2011), Dead Water (2014), Thin Air (2015), Cold Earth (2017), and Wild Fire (2019). She’s also published 11 mystery novels in the Vera Stanhope series (also a television series), six Inspector Stephen Ramsay mysteries, and several other works and short stories. The Jimmy Perez novels are the basis for the BBC television series “Shetland.” Cleeves lives in northeastern England. 

 

The Dark Wives is a classic Vera Stanhope tale, told with imagination and not a small amount of the tension as the case nears its solution. 

 

Related:

 

Missing in the Snow by Ann Cleeves.

 

Shetland author’s lost laptop with draft of next novel found in snow – Lucinda Cameron at The Scotsman.

 

The Long Call by Ann Cleeves.

 

The Woman on the Island by Ann Cleeves. 

 

My review of Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves.

 

My review of Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves.

 

My review of Red Bones by Ann Cleeves.

 

My review of Raven Black by Ann Cleeves.

 

My review of White Nights by Ann Cleeves.

 

My review of Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves. 

 

My review of Dead Water by Ann Cleeves.

 

My review of Thin Air by Ann Cleeves.

Some Monday Readings

 

Individualism – Wilfred McClay at Modern Age.

 

Toward the Recovery of American Culture – Matthew Gasda at American Affairs.

 

When Students Become Terrorists – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

The delusions of the West’s politicians – Douglas Murray at The Spectator.

 

Nehemiah Questions Robert Frost About Walls – poem by Cynthia Erlandson at Society of Classical Poets.

Who, exactly?

After Luke 10:25-37 

An, perhaps the, eternal question:

who, exactly is my neighbor?

The one who lives next door?

The one who sits near me

at work? My cousin?

My brother? My own family?

 

Who is my neighbor?

One can hear the smugness,

the self-satisfaction,

the self-justification

behind the question.

 

The answer was, is,

Unexpected: your neighbor

is also the one you despise,

the one you disdain,

the one you consider

an enemy, the one

who’s hurt you,

the one who’s betrayed

you. It’s the last person

in the world you think

you should love.

 

Photograph by Engin Akyurt via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Marvelous Mundane – Steven Lee at Desiring God.

 

4 Reasons You Might Think the Bible is Boring – Mitch Chase at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Saturday Good Reads - Sept. 7, 2024

It’s a little-known, small chapter in American history. Fairly early in the Civil War, the Union instituted a national draft. A monastery in western Pennsylvania wrote to President Lincoln, seeking an exemption from the call-up. Lincoln said no, and monks faced the military draft This is what happened. 

In 1666, right about this time of September, a fire started at a baker’s shop in the City of London. And thus began what came to be known as the Great Fire of London. But like all major and catastrophic events, a number of legends grew up. Jo Rowan at Sky History describes nine little known facts about the fire, including where it actually began.

 

The biggest scourge afflicting America, if government is to be believed, is misinformation, and especially misinformation about the upcoming election. All kinds of committees, think tanks, plans, and schemes have been devised to combat it. The question is – who defines what misinformation is? We know what happened during the COVID pandemic – what passed as medical orthodoxy, harshly enforced on social media and against almost anybody questioning it – turned out to be misinformation itself. Abigail Shrier at The Free Press looks at social media and government censors and how well they do, and don’t, work.

 

More Good Reads

 

Writing and Literature

 

“The Crocodile,” Dostoevsky’s Weirdest Short Story – Emily Zarevih at JSTOR Daily.

 

Classical Education and Great Literature – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

Reinstating Mystery to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Tim Major at CrimeReads.

 

What T.S. Eliot’s Letters to Emily Hale Reveal About the Poets’ Romantic Past – Sara Fitzgerald at Literary Hub.

 

Human Dominion in Kipling’s Just So Stories – Michial Farmer at Front Porch Republic.

 

American Stuff

 

250^th Anniversary of the First Continental Congress – Emerging Revolutionary War Era. 

 

Book Notes: Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence – Civil War Books and Authors.

 

Life and Culture

 

A Rural White American’s Reflection of White Rural Rage: Resentment is Toxic – Bradyn Srawser at Front Porch Republic.

 

My experience as a homeschooler – Ella Johnson at The Spectator.

 

Negative Epistemology and the “Outer Ring” – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

Poetry

 

The Shallows – poem by Michael Stalcup at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Jude Bloomfield’s Poems of Place – Spitalfields Life.

 

Wombwell Rainbow Book Interviews: Poet Kelly Davis – The Wombwell Rainbow.

 

“London, 1802,” poem by William Wordsworth – Adam Roberts at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

All Things – Sovereign Grace Music

 Painting: The Love Letter, oil on canvas (1878) by Haynes King (1831-1904).

 

Knowing the theory

After Luke 10:25-37 

He knew the answer

before he asked the question;

after all, he’d studied, and

trained with, and by,

a knowledgeable teacher,

he’d been rewarded

with praise and

commendation, so he knew

the answer, the answer

in the book, and he 

expected more praise and

commendation. Instead,

he received a mild, if

loving, rebuke. He knew

the theory; he had yet

to learn the practice.

 

Photograph by Egor Myznik via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Hymn VI – poem by Ann Griffiths at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

The Unfinished Building of the Church – Michael Kelley at Forward Progress.

 

A Sycamore Tree, A Car Crash, and God’s Provision – Seth Lewis. 

 

A Holy Warrior – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative. 

Some Thursday Readings

Murders for September – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine. 

On the name ‘Hamlet’ – Adam Roberts at Adam’s Notebook.

 

Podcast: The Inland Campaign for Vicksburg – Tim Smith and Chris Mackowski.

 

Poet Laura: Poems for Liminal Times – Michelle Rinaldi Ortega at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Alexandre de Moraes is no hero – Elijah Grant at The Critic Magazine.

 

Why Thrillers Matter – Mike Maden at CrimeReads.

 

New Titanic photos show major decay to legendary wreck – Amarachi Orie at CNN.

 

Allan Pinkerton’s Civil War Legacy: Justified or Overblown? – Michael Stroud at The Historians Magazine.

 

Who is the best British novelist? – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

“A History,” poem by Tom Hood – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Photograph: The Titanic leaving Queenstown, Ireland, one of the last photographs taken of the ship.

“Write & Publish Organically” by Catherine Lawton

Sometimes I think more people write about writing than actually write. I follow several writer blogs, web sites, online magazines, and Substack listings, and just keeping up with those can be overwhelming. I’ve read and read lots of books on the subject. This is all in addition to the writing itself. 

But it is a good idea to step back from time to time and think critically about what you do and how you do it. And to figure out if you can do it better. A new book on writing that is aimed at Christian writers but easily applies to all writers is Write & Publish Organically by Catherine Lawton. And it is a gem. 

 

Lawton uses a rhyming scheme to explain what she calls organic writing and publishing.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Shrouded Veterans: A Soldier for the Pope and Lincoln – Frank Jastrzembski at Emerging Civil War.

 

“The Raven Days,” poem by Sidney Lanier – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Remembrance of What Is – Christine Norvell at The Imaginative Conservative.

Poets and Poems: Claire Coenen and "The Beautiful Keeps Breathing"

We recently bought a birdbath for the garden outside our kitchen window. Other than the things they don’t tell you, like how much maintenance it’s going to be (a lot), we’ve enjoyed watching a host of the feathered set come visiting – a pair of wrens, a bluejay that scolds everything in sight, and a dove, with our favorite being a mama cardinal, plunging herself into the water and enjoying a full bath. They don’t mind us watching, as long as we don’t make sudden moves. 

The lead poem in The Beautiful Keeps Breathing, the first collection by Claire Coenen, is entitled “More Beautiful,” and it could have been written sitting at our kitchen window. Coenen watches a mourning dove bathing “in the bowl of water, her underbelly / cradled by gathered rain, her bord body / unashamed of its plumpness.” Nearby is a dogwood “flaunting rose quartz blooms,” and an oak with its sprawling roots. And she sees all these everyday things from her porch swing.

To continue reading, please see me post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

The 2024 Society of Classical Poets International Poetry Competition.

 

The 2024 Society of Classical Poets International High School Poetry Competition.

 

Hartshead – poem by David Whyte.

 

Edges – poem by Lee Kiblinger at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Ghost of a Robin – poem by Margaret Koger at Every Day Poems. 

“A Summer’s Day by the Sea,” poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

“The Sin Eater” by Gary Schmidt

Cole and his father have moved to the Albion, New Hampshire home of Grandpa and Grandma Emerson, Cole’s maternal grandparents. Cole’s mother died from cancer sometime earlier, and his father decides it’s best to live where Cole’s mother was born and raised. His father has not come to terms with his wife’s death; it’s almost as if passing time has made the loss even greater. 

Cole’s not long at his new home when he hears the story of the Sin Eater, an old Welsh legend that seemed to have been lived by a local man. The Sin Eater collects a person’s sins, bakes them into a loaf of bread, and then eats the bread completely. Or so the legend goes. Cole is skeptical; it doesn’t sound particularly Christian to him. But there is a real connection to man who supposedly died in a farmhouse fire decades previously, and to several unmarked graves in the family plot on the Emerson farm, the same plot where his mother’s buried.

 

While his father spends most of his time in “the hired man’s room” above the kitchen, Cole becomes part of his grandparents’ daily life. He feels his mother’s loss as deeply as his father, but Cole has more of his mother in him, and not only his looks. He makes friends, he works the farm with his grandfather, he attends church, and he begins life at a new school. His father seems to be increasingly a ghost in the family, as if he were slowly vanishing with each passing day.

 

Gary Schmidt

The Sin Eater by young adult Gary Schmidt tells Cole’s story, and it is alternately tragic, sad, hysterically funny, and heartwarming. Like life. And sometimes it is all those things at the same time. Schmidt has a gift for characterization, and not only the main characters. And the stories his characters tell had me laughing out loud and wiping away tears, a reminder of the importance of stories in how we understand ourselves and our families. 

 

Schmidt, a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is the author of numerous young adult novels. He’s received two Newbery Awards, for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminister Boy (2005) and The Wednesday Wars (2008). Okay for Now (2011) was a National Book Award finalist. The Sin Eater was published in 1996. He received his B.A. in English from Gordon College and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

The Sin Eater is a wonderful story, full of humor, tragedy, pain, pathos, and life. You’ll fall in love with Cole’s grandparents and their friends, and you’ll find in Cole a boy determined deal with what life throws at him and keep going.

 

Some Monday Readings

Dark Tunnels and Moral Beacons - Bari Weiss at The Free Press.

The Government Spends Millions to Open Grocery Stores in Food Deserts. The Real Test is Their Survival – Molly Parker at The Daily Yonder.

 

How Did British Politicians React to America’s Attempts at Independence? Rather Poorly! – Sonja Anderson at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Conversation is an Art: Remembering Roger Scruton – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.