It looks the wireless adapter card on my 10+ year old laptop has died so I will be taking a break until I can replace it. I've tried disabling, enabling, and installing new drivers but nothing has worked. I'm writing this on my Kindle and it's painful enough that I know I won't be doing this more than once. I'm sorry that I probably won't be commenting on your blogs or replying to your comments but I hope to be back in a few days. Be well and I hope your technology is working!
I recently heard that the childhood home I grew up in will soon be on the market. These photos are from 2012 when my father sold it to move into assisted living. My SiL texted me and wondered if I was interested in it for Ryan, and my immediate response was, "No! I know where all the problems are!"
I got the following email from the NJ Dept. of Health late last week:
The Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris yesterday got me thinking about inaugural poetry. I thought it was a long-standing tradition, but only four presidents have had poets read at their inaugurations, John F. Kennedy in 1961, Bill Clinton in 1993 and 1997, Barack Obama in 2009 and 2013, and Joe Biden yesterday. I read all six inaugural poems and chose Robert Frost's "The Gift Outright" as my personal favorite. It has an interesting story behind it as an inaugural poem and you can find out more about it in the links below.
The Gift Outright
Poem Recited at John F. Kennedy's Inauguration
by Robert Frost
The land was ours before we were the land’s
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England’s, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she will become.
You can read more about Robert Frost and the inaugural poem he recited here.
You can read "Dedication", the poem Robert Frost wrote for the inauguration here.
Read all the inaugural poems here.
I wish you mindfulness, peace, good health, and the power of poetry as this week winds down.
Joining Kat and friends for a long-awaited Inauguration Day and Unraveled Wednesday, with some more teeth on the Hitchhiker. It doesn't look a lot different, just a bit longer, so I'll just show you a photo of my turtle progress marker in action. He's slowly but surely climbing up the edge. I'm wondering if he might be able to move a little bit faster as I hope to be less prone to just clutching my knitting in horror after the inauguration tomorrow. I have 36 teeth completed and ~ 23 teeth or so to go, or until I run out of yarn. With 29 days before Valentine's Day, I should be done in plenty of time to meet my self-imposed deadline.
I read a wonderful book this week, Committed by Adam Stern. It's Dr. Stern's memoir during his four years of psychiatric residency at Harvard. It's also the story of his growth from an unsure first-year resident to becoming (somewhat) more sure of himself and his abilities to practice psychiatry. He also grows as a classmate, teacher, husband, and human being. There is a quote that really struck me:
I knew I would never be the version of the mythical Harvard psychiatrist that had existed in my mind four years earlier. I had seen too many examples of shared humanity among the patients and those trying to help them to be hung up on formalities. The space where that psychiatrist has once existed in my mind had been filled instead with hard-earned truths about what it means to connect to those people around you, to commit to them, and to purposefully keep moving forward.
Those are words that all of us can live by whether we are psychiatrists, patients, or simply average people trying to maintain our connections with others. I was lucky to receive a pre-publication copy, but I think it's well worth reading after the publication date in July of this year.
What are you making and reading this week?
I'm not much for making lists of things to knit, books to read, or other things I intend to do (other than a daily loosey-goosey to-do list), but I was inspired by Sarah's post in the beginning of January. She made a list of 21 Things She Wanted To Do in 2021, and that got me thinking. If I had a list of things that I wanted to make, do, cook, read, or accomplish, it wouldn't have to be a rigid list of things I had to do. Instead, it could serve as a guide throughout the year, and I could add or delete things as I see fit. I've been working on it ever since I read Sarah's list, so here is my own list.
21 Things I Want To Do in 2021:
