Wishing the good people of Greenland, ruled by Denmark from the early 18th century, and inhabited primarily by Inuits and residents from Denmark, a very Merry Christmas, and blessed, peaceful holidays! 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ #Greenland 🇬🇱🇩🇰

“I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” – Anne Frank, 1929-1945. Ukrainian concert pianist Anna Fedorova performs Frédéric Chopin, Nocturne in B major, Op. 9 No. 3, composed in 1832. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

Sharing this heartfelt Christmas message from a dear friend of mine, who is a teacher and school principal on the Lofoten Islands in Norway. He too, lost his dad recently. May his words of wisdom resonate with us all. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ Translated from Norwegian. 📷 Ole Gunnar Søstrand©️

Christmas is a bit bittersweet in our household. For years, my late father, a retired protestant minister and theologian, would take the train to Budapest, and share his eloquent thoughts with us, expounding his call for amity, compassion, and forgiveness. Miss you, dad. ❤️‍🩹🕯️🕊️

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. — Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, 1923. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ 📷 Photo by Ákos Dornics©️ | Erdei Utakon

"The mind is attuned to truth when it listens to silence." — Pythagoras of Samos, c.570-495 BCE Claudio Abbado and Lucerne Festival Orchestra perform the breathtaking choral finale of Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 2, composed in 1894. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 EuroArtsChannel©️

"Enjoy the quiet moments of beauty, like these winter bell jellies, this season. There’s wonder in ocean life, and caring for it helps us all." 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ 📷 Monterey Bay Aquarium©️

"The Rainbow-bearded Thornbill has a narrow, multicolored throat patch that can appear dark until it catches the light just right and explodes into glittering iridescence. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru." 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ 📷 Photo by Faber Mosquera Alvarez©️ | Wondershots

Dear Diary, Everything, always, everywhere is about Trump. The media, pundits, blogs, substacks, podcasts obsess about Trump. Our feeds are flooded with Trump. Our discussions are incessantly about Trump. Everything, always, everywhere is about Trump. Stop this train... ✍️🏼🚫🚂

"Where light stays still for a moment." 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Photo by Katrien Janssens©️

"The service stairs of Teréz körút 9, in the 6th district of Budapest. This historical apartment house, built in 1887, was designed by Sebestyén Messner and Rezső Arndt for Emil Lyka." 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Building Tell Tales©️

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." — Leo Buscaglia Pavel Chesnokov, Salvation is Created, composed in 1912. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

“Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love.” — Jane Goodall, 1934-2025. Lithuanian-American pianist Rūta Kuzmickas performs Frédéric Chopin, Ballade No. 4, composed in 1842. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

Claude Monet, French painter, 1840-1926. The Seine at Vétheuill, 1879. Oil on canvas. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France | Painting and Fine Arts

John Atkinson Grimshaw, English painter, 1836-1893. Moonlight on the Lake, Roundhay Park, Leeds, 1872. Oil on canvas. Private collection. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

"Life itself is the miracle of miracles." — William Blake, 1757-1827. British conductor Mark Elder and London Philharmonic Choir perform Edward Elgar, The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38, composed in 1900. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

My wife @zazimadiary.bsky.social, a tv producer in Budapest, came up with a lovely idea to send her mom on a top-secret mission to Paris, France, for a 'Grandma Surprises Her Grandkids for Christmas,' special. The two-part episode airs on RTL Reggeli in Hungary. All the feels. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️

Arthur Rothstein, American photographer, 1915-1985. Heavy black clouds of dust rising over the Texas Panhandle, 1936. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ 📷 Fotograficamente©️

"Frosty morning in the foothills of the Julian Alps in Slovenia." 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ 📷 Photo by Piotr Skrzypiec©️

"Miracles, in the sense of phenomena we cannot explain, surround us on every hand: life itself is the miracle of miracles." — George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950. Swedish conductor Mikael Wedar and St. Jacob's Youth Choir perform Morten Lauridsen, O Magnum Mysterium. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️

Francisco de Zurbarán, Spanish painter, 1598–1664. Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose, 1633. Oil on canvas. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ 📷 Norton Simon Museum

Claude Monet, French painter, 1840–1926. Valley of the Creuse, 1889. Oil on canvas. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ 📷 Museum of Fine Arts Boston | Painting and Fine Arts

"Thank you to my friend, Jóska Pálnik, who in 1960, on the second step of the water slide pool, told me how babies are born, and I wanted to die under the weight of this discovery." — László Krasznahorkai, in preface to 2025 Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

"Peace in ourselves, peace in the world." — Thich Nhat Hanh, 1926-2022. Lithuanian-American classical pianist Rūta Kuzmickas performs Frédéric Chopin, Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23, composed in 1835. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️

French painter Claude Monet by his waterlily pond in Giverny, France. 1905. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ 📷 Painting and Fine Arts

Love this @jimmykimmel.com segment with the delightful @markhamillofficial.bsky.social. "I read on the internet he was in a jet ski accident." Mark, thank you for... being you. We're all better for it. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️

Castro ruled Cuba for 49 years. Dictators in Africa remain in power for decades. Kim Il-sung ruled North Korea for 46 years. Other despots: Mao Zedong 27, Lukashenko 31, Stalin 24, Putin 26 years. Alas, we should consider ourselves *lucky* to suffer only two terms with Trump. 🧐

"The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil." — Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BCE. Iván Fischer and Budapest Festival Orchestra perform I. Allegro moderato, Franz Schubert, Symphony No. 8 in B minor, composed in 1822. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

"And as I've gotten older, I've had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things.” — Martin Scorsese, American filmmaker. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️ 📷 Le Cinéma World

The Godfather, 2025, gangster film, crime drama, tragicomedy, set during widespread corruption of MAGA-era in Washington, D.C. 🎞️🔞🏴

All I want for Christmas is for America to return to sanity. ✅

Born on this day, December 16, 1841. Anders Andersen-Lundby, Danish painter, 1841-1923. Oil on canvas. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Virtual Art Museum

Winter Trees, William Carlos Williams, 1921 All the complicated details of the attiring and the disattiring are completed! A liquid moon moves gently among the long branches. Thus having prepared their buds against a sure winter the wise trees stand sleeping in the cold. 🙏🏼🌎🕊️

“But we cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever.” — Haruki Murakami, 1Q84, 2009. 🙏🏼🌏🕊️

John Atkinson Grimshaw, English painter, 1836-1893. Extensive Meadow Landscape with Geese by a Stream, 1892. Oil on panel. Private Collection. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Painting and Fine Arts

"The most important thing is that you be a good person and you live by the golden rule of do unto others. If you live by that, that's all I care about." In Memoriam, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. Clara-Jumi Kang performs Méditation, Jules Massenet, Thaïs. 💔🕯️🕊️

"Gemaal de Ronde Hoep, the Netherlands." 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Photo by Spaski Schippers©️ | Cloud Appreciation Society

Wishing all my Jewish friends far and near a very happy first day of Hanukkah. James Zamora, American, b.1988. Menorah, 2022. Oil on Panel Private collection 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Maryellen Brown | Masters of Modern and Contemporary Art

"Beautiful, bucolic landscape in the Slovenian countryside." 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Photo by Piotr Skrzypiec©️

If the sky That we look upon Should tumble and fall Or the mountains Should crumble to the sea I won't cry I won't cry No I won't shed a tear Just as long As you stand Stand by me Rob Reiner, 1947-2025 A heartbreaking, devastating loss. 💔🕯️🕊️

Haunting image from 1945 of devastated, war-torn downtown Budapest. It is heartbreaking that Ukraine is facing similar destruction in 2025. Russian aggression must be thwarted, so peace & prosperity may return to the European continent. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Attila Szabó©️ | Fortepan

“The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.” — Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948. Lithuanian-American classical pianist Rūta Kuzmickas performs I. Toccata, Johann Sebastian Bach, Partita No. 6 in E minor, composed in 1725. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

Horrific scenes at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Terrorists fired into a crowd celebrating the first day of Hanukkah, caused widespread death and injury. In the eternal battle of good vs. evil, we must unite and stand against the dark forces trying to rip us apart. 💔🕯️🕊️

"Our country has reached the point where we can no longer wait. We can no longer remain silent. We must act." — Péter Magyar, Hungarian opposition leader Budapest, December 13, 2025, at massive demonstration in support of victims of child abuse at state-run facilities. 💯📢✊🏼

The power of a grassroots, democratic political movement; of the people, by the people, for the people. ‘Tis high time to chase away oligarchs, populists, and authoritarians, around the globe. 💯📢✊🏻 📷 Péter Magyar©️

Tens of thousands of civilians joined democratic opposition leader Péter Magyar on the streets of Budapest this afternoon, to raise their voices against the systematic abuse of children in state-run facilities, which came to light recently through leaked videos. ❤️‍🩹🧸 📷 @telexhu.bsky.social ©️

Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter, 1853–1890. Oleanders, 1888. Oil on canvas. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Metropolitan Museum of Art | Painting and Fine Arts

Paul Gauguin, French painter, 1848–1903. Bouquet of Peonies on a Musical Score, 1876. Oil on canvas. Private collection. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Painting and Fine Arts

“Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 161–180 CE. French classical violinist David Grimal performs IV. Andante, Édouard Lalo, Symphonie espagnole in D minor, composed in 1874. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

“One should search for nature at its simplest..." Ivan Shishkin, 1831–1898. Pine Forest, 1866. Oil on canvas. Private collection. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Painting and Fine Arts