Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Yesterdays morning musing prompted some conversation over on Phetasy with @Cwaves and @Emilyjoy . It is always good to chat with our digital neighbors and the question was asked if the dichotomy between life as gift or given doesn't leave room for the experiences, trials, hills and valleys of life. I think in the formative years of life it does not, but I think as we age we tilt towards some mixture of gift and given as our attitudinal compass.
A bit of morning perspective from Jean Bass below with a few follow up thought of mine.
BEGIN
Begin on the path, even if it winds.
Even if you do not know at first where it is going
and if it appears as a maze, a puzzle, a bewilderment.
The geese that fly south in winter,
north in spring, know their journey innately,
yet still use the stars to guide them.
Follow your very own star.
The one you have always wished upon.
You can find your way home. —Jean Nicole Bass
I think follow you own star is sound advice as long as the star is not limited to your own reflection or feelings. It needs to be something outside of yourself and clearly larger than yourself. It is a someone or something to which you strive. Your star can be God, some other Higher Power, your muse or ideal but it has to be something great than the perceived self and some imaginings of what you might become or where you might be. It shouldn't discount the good that might already be present in your life, but the pondering that there might be more to pursue, more to discover, more to find in surprise and delight. It doesn't discount the trials or hardships, they are all part of the story after all and often the most interesting part after we have lived through them.
Happy Wednesday ADD Irregulars, WSN Curators, Friends & Refugees, PHAM and Misfits and all the rest of you fine souls on Locals. This final quote came to mind in my morning thoughts and reflections.
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. - T. S. Eliot
Winter path photo from the interweb.
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
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