Musings & Meanderings

I don’t keep a record of them all, although I remember the dates most important to me.

Jeff’s post on 911 resonated most with me today.

For me 911 invokes, not only the threat to our society which it carried out, but also every brutal slaughter and execution lodged in my memory. I think of most of my family members dying under the Soviet regime, and this, just like 911, re-enforces to me the value of our freedom, and the extent to which I passionately believe in fighting to protect it.

Focusing on freedom today strikes me as a fitting tribute.

I’m reading more today on banned books, including sassymonkey’s third in a series on Banning Books In Schools on BlogHer.

If you want to join in reading about freedom today, here’s another place to start …the ALA Intellectual Freedom Issues page.

I used to sing this years ago, accompanying myself on the piano, when I was missing a loved one and feeling inconsolable.

Billie of course (1933-4):

Diamanda Galas’s version:

More Diamanda Galas here.

if i could have counted
the hugs and kisses would they
be more or less

My December was not a festive one, bringing, as it did, a new personal challenge. The posts I made since December 8th, one of which referred to the fact that I have not been able to walk since that day, were deleted, unfortunately, and the comments are not retrievable, although I do have the post texts on file. I won’t repost them here, but am keeping them for the archives of the new planned weblog, which has been relegated, together with several other non-essential projects, to a lower priority level for now.

So the old year ended with change for me. Will I walk again in 2007? This time around, a regular wheelchair doesn’t suffice, and the challenge is rather more complex medically. If application and determination will prevail once more, then walking will be one of my accomplishments in the year today begun.

Meanwhile, the unanticipated loss of physical activity has already delivered a gift, in the form of unexpected and welcome space for new thought.

New challenges. Better laid plans. Puzzles to solve and solutions to be found. The development of new and different perspectives. These I have always held as ingredients of the elixir of life.

Every ending is also a beginning.

May the coming year unfold pathways to new joy, happiness, and success in all our lives.

*****

”Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.”
Leonardo da Vinci