Gratitude Friday 12 26 25 The Final Weekly Gratitude Post for Now
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” ― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul I have been writing these weekly posts for five years and two months. This end of year post seems like a good stopping point for now. I am going to take a break and no longer post weekly. It has been a rewarding process for me. I practiced writing and learned a great deal along the way. One gets better at anything they practice
5 days ago4 min read
Gratitude Friday 12-19-25 – Standing Still in the Dark
Solstice - derived from the Latin sol ("sun") and sistere ("to stand still") We are in the darkest of days. We will pass through the Winter Solstice on Sunday, Dec 21, 2025, 10:03 AM EST. From here on out each day gets a little brighter until mid-June 2026. Those days will be bright indeed as there is travel for me on that horizon, but I digress. One of my favorite things this time of the year is seeing our home with all the warm glow of light on the mantles and front door
Dec 194 min read
Gratitude Friday 12 12 2025 Our American Cincinnatus and Establishment of National Norms
As a side note, last Friday was the five-year anniversary of this blog. I have written 261 weekly gratitude blogs. This is roughly equal to 130,000 words. I have more in me but perhaps not weekly. Thinking that at the end of the calendar year, I may break from weekly writing on gratitude and revisit from time to time One of the things I have done with this page is to find history that resonates with me and reflect on it. I have learned a lot in that way. In preparing this p
Dec 124 min read
GF 12 5 25 - Reprint from December 2021 - Go Forth You, for the Light That Is You
“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.” ― L.R. Knost This is a reprint from 2025 about a pretty significant week for me. The COVID Isolation had lifted a bit and I was able to spend time with people I respected. On that week five years ago, I was a
Dec 56 min read
Gratitude Friday 11 28 2025 Steeltown Kid
I grew up in a steel town, Bethlehem PA. My dad worked for “The Company” aka “the Steel” for 43 years. The company, of course, was Bethlehem Steel. Up until the mid-1990’s it would have been hard to separate the town from the company. Everyone was in some way connected to what at one point in American history was the second-largest steel producer in the United States. Bethlehem Steel reached its peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the company employed around 300,000
Nov 294 min read
Gratitude Friday 11 21 25 – The Noble of the Northern Forest Skies
“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, "What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?” ― Rachel Carson This gratitude Friday I am writing about Raptors. When I say this, most people think I am talking about dinosaurs. A raptor is actually a bird of prey . Most people are thinking velociraptor . Related, although distant cousins , far removed. Bird watching is one of the few things I can do that stop the chatter in my head and holds
Nov 215 min read
Gratitude Friday 11 14 25 Apollo 12 in the “Can Do” Era
" We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard " - President John F Kennedy September 12, 1962 President Kennedy made the " We choose to go to the Moon " speech before I was born. He said we would develop technology and get to the moon before the end of the decade. It was part of the space race between the US and the USSR, which started a few years earlier when the Russians put a basketball sized sa
Nov 143 min read
Gratitude Friday 11 7 25 Attitude of Gratitude
“ We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way .” ― Viktor E. Frankl It is Gratitude Month, officially in the United States. National Gratitu
Nov 74 min read
Gratitude Friday 10 31 25 All Hallows Eve
Yes it is Halloween. The holiday has roots in the Catholic Church, which designated November 1st as All Saints' Day. All Hallows' Eve, the evening before, was a time for religious preparation, including prayer and vigil. Name: "Hallow" is an Old English word for "holy" or "sanctified." Over time, the Christian observance blended with other traditions, such as the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. A historical note here, that kind of blending between religious beliefs occurs
Oct 313 min read
Gratitude Friday 10 24 25 Camusfeàrna
The beaches of Camusfeàrna are a treasure house for any man whose eye finds wealth at the sea’s edge. There are more shells than I have seen on any other littoral; a great host of painted bivalves of bewildering variety and hue, from coral pinks and primrose yellows to blues and purples and mother-of-pearl, from jewel-like fan shells no bigger than a little fingernail to the great scallops as big as a side-plate. – Gavin Maxwell For some reason, in recent weeks, I started t
Oct 244 min read