Author: Joanne Corey

Please come visit my eclectic blog, Top of JC's Mind. You can never be sure what you'll find!

SoCS: Animalia

When our older daughter E was in elementary school, there was a wonderful program called PASTtimes. PAST stood for Parents and Students Together. About once a month, there would be an early evening program for families centered around books. It was great because we could bring along our younger daughter T and have a fun evening together.

One of the books to which we were introduced through PASTtimes was Graeme Base’s Animalia. It is an alphabet book featuring fun and complex captions for fantastical paintings. For example, the letter I:  “Ingenious Iguanas Improvising an Intricate Impromptu on Impossibly Impractical Instruments”.  For V, a sign reading: “Victor V. Vulture The Vaudeville Ventriloquist Versatile Virtuoso of Vociferous Verbosity Vexatiously Vocalizing at the Valhalla Variety Venue”.

How could you not fall in love with such a book?

We went on to purchase Animalia and several other Graeme Base books for our home library. I think my favorite may be The Eleventh Hour, but it is hard to choose.

Even though our daughters are long grown, his books have remained on our shelves in the living room. I did look up the quotes above; my memory is not that good!

Wishing everyone some happy book memories today.  Have one to share? I’d love to hear about it in comments.
*****
Linda’s prompt for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “an-“. Join us! Find more information here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/29/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-3016/

SoCS badge 2015

This post is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Visit here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/30/just-jot-it-january-30th-an-socs/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

What Is Truly Jihad?

Many people think that the word jihad means terrorism, violence, and killing, but that is a not its true meaning to Islam. Please read this excellent post from Amra Ismail to discover what jihad means and how it is lived daily by Muslims around the world.

Thanks, Linda!

This should probably be my Sunday post, but it’s never too early for gratitude…

A huge THANK YOU to Linda for creating, organizing, and shepherding Just Jot It January!

I’ve actually not missed a day (yet), which is unusual for me as I am not generally an every day poster. I do intend to post for the next two days, but tomorrow is Stream of Consciousness Saturday and, perhaps, by Sunday I will finish a post that I have been intending to work on for the last several weeks, but which still has only a few sentences completed.

I love that Linda is so creative in her ways of building and connecting the blogging community. I’ve found new blogs to follow through Just Jot It January and am grateful that other bloggers have visited Top of JC’s Mind because of it. I have gained some new views, likes, comments, and follows, which are always much appreciated.

For those of you who have been seeing this graphic

JJJ 2016

on my posts this month but haven’t joined in yet, the invitation still stands! Visit here first:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/29/just-jot-it-january-29th-ghost/.  To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

Again, many thanks, a round of applause, and a standing ovation to Linda! (You can imagine a cute, celebratory gif here. I am lucky to get regular photos and badges to post correctly. Images that move are too scary for me!)

My New Website @ aopinionatedman.com

People who visit HarsH ReaLiTy by Opinionated Man, aka, OM, aka Jason Cushman will want to visit this post so that they can continue to read his blog which is moving to a new platform.

Links to Merrill’s poems

I’m re-blogging this post with the links to all Merrill’s poems, because it wound up posting on the draft date rather than current date. Enjoy!

Joanne Corey's avatarJoanne Corey

As promised, here are the links to all of Merrill Oliver Douglas’s poems which have been featured this week by Eunoia Review.

“In the Basement”
“High Tide”
“Crab Apple”
“What the Dream Reveals About Her Father”
“King’s Point, Delray Beach”
“I Love You Too Much to Wear Those Earrings”
“March”
“Cleaning Miller Pond”
“Song in Gray July”
“Woodchuck”

Way to go, Merrill!

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Saint Francis Prayer

Because I have been (somewhat uncharacteristically) posting every day this month as part of Linda’s Just Jot It January, I have been more proactive than usual in planning my posts. I had a topic picked out for today and had written most of the post in my head.

Then, today happened.

My mom asked me this morning if I could send her a copy of the Prayer of Saint Francis, which a friend who recently passed away had chosen for her prayer card. I wrote a note to remind myself to do it and set out on a day of errands, a meeting, and an appointment.

I wasn’t expecting it, but it became a day when human needs for peace, love, compassion, healing, strength, and joy were placed before me again and again.

The best that I can hope to offer is to share the words of the Saint Francis Peace Prayer, which, while it is a Christian prayer, can also speak in large measure to people regardless of their belief system.

Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Shared for my mom, for Wilhelmina, and for all those in need of any of the gifts that Francis calls for in this prayer.

In peace,
Joanne
*****
To join Just Jot It January, visit here:   http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/28/just-jot-it-january-28th-serendipity/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

One-Liner(ish) Wednesday: outsider

“The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing.”
~ Richard Rohr

During this time of tensions, if not outright hostility, between some individuals and groups that they deem as “outsiders” due to differences of race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, gender expression, etc., this quote is especially meaningful. It reminds me to show respect for everyone, even when disagreeing on fact or principle with their viewpoint.
~ JC

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/one-liner-wednesday-it-really-sucks/

This is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Visit here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/just-jot-it-january-27th-mendaciloquent/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

#Blesstival on Love

My friend Jamie of Sophia’s Children has begun a blessing wave for 2016. It is called a Blessing Sadhana or Blesstival and this post is my contribution to the wave.  Everyone is invited to join in! You can read more about it here:  http://sophias-children.com/2015/12/23/blog-blesstival-add-your-blessing-to-start-the-new-year/

The blessing that I would like to share is Love.

Love with a capital L encompasses all that we love but extends beyond those we know to those we don’t know, to those who came before and those who will come after us, to all creatures, to the earth itself, to the universe.

From my religious tradition, I name this Love “Divine Love” or “God” but other cultures and traditions name Love in other ways, such as Great Spirit or the Universal. Secularists or scientists may speak of the Unified Field or Energy or simply the Universe.

Fans of Douglas Adams may know Love as the real answer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Forty-two was just shorthand.

It is a profound sense of connection and unity that has been expressed by religious thinkers, philosophers, and scientists over the centuries.

One of the spiritual authors I have read in recent years is Richard Rohr. He writes an online series of daily meditations and his theme for 2016 is Love.  Here is an example of a recent daily meditation by Richard Rohr on Love.

As I have been contemplating writing this blessing post, I have been noticing Love everywhere, including this piece from Ilia Delio, another favorite spiritual writer.

I have been thinking about the universality of Love more often since attending a conference on Interspirituality, where I was privileged to meet Jamie in person. Whether one comes to it from a spiritual, philosophical, scientific, or secular viewpoint, our connection to one another and to Creation as a whole is profound.

I wish everyone the blessing of Love for 2016 and beyond.

Signing off with Jamie’s usual closing,

Big Love,
Joanne
*****
I want to spread the Blesstival as far as possible, so this post is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. You can find out more here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/26/just-jot-it-january-26th-oneness/

Poem by Marilyn McCabe

I’m sharing this link to a blog post from one of the Boiler House Poets, Marilyn McCabe. She loves sharing poetry in a multimedia way as she does in the short video here: https://marilynonaroll.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/word-up/

Check it out!