“Music fills the infinite between two souls” ― Rabindranath Tagore (art by Akira Kusaka)

This morning I began the new year by opening that tome of world poetry and this is what I read. I love the repetition of "I am restored in beauty." Great way to start this year.

"And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected." - John Steinbeck

I have decided to give the new year to reading through this massive tome of poetry. How will spending time in the poems throughout time and cultures reshape and transform me?

The old year does not die with the arrival of the new. No, we carry them all within us. All of the memories, the joys & sorrows, the loves & losses - all that make us who we are.

Why do we write? A chorus erupts. Because we cannot simply live. - Patti Smith

I awoke early this morning, lit a small candle on my writing desk, and meditated on my word for the new year: devotion.

As the new year approaches, my latest post on why I will be seeking to create rituals not resolutions. This post is free on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/begininw...

"I have loved books all my life. There is nothing more beautiful in our material world than the book." Happy Birthday, Patti Smith

Stephanie Rew

If all life inevitably comes to an end, we must color ours with the colors of love and hope. - Marc Chagall

As the new year approaches, my latest post on why I will be seeking to create rituals not resolutions. This post is free on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/begininw...

Margaret Tarrant

Though not necessarily a Christmas movie, I am rewatching my favorite adaptation of Little Women. And, yes, I will ugly cry yet again when Beth dies.

While I'm reading

Thank you to all the kind Kindred Spirits who donated a copy of Charlotte's Web to all of my students for the holidays. I sent home 66 excited kids with their copies today for winter break.

One little girl who didn't like reading before she was in my class told me why she now loves to, "Because you get so excited about books that I wanted to see why and I found out you were right."

Marcin Minor

Rudolf Koivu

Sabra Field

This is definitely not the case in my classroom. They have fallen in love with reading. Thank you to those of you who have donated to my classroom library. My students get excited every time a new book arrives. www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...

Reading in bed wearing my Bluey pajamas

Thank you to those kind Kindred Spirits who donated copies of Charlotte's Web to give to my students for the holidays. I just finished wrapping them & will give them to my students next week before their break.

We had the second meeting of our after school third grade book club & the kids had a blast. They love Beverly Cleary's Beezus & Ramona. In an age where kids are on technology so much, I am thrilled that they are loving reading.

I agree with the essayist Benjamin de Casseres when he wrote, "Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality".

Richard Scarry

'Alice in Wonderland' illustrated by Tomas Hrivnac.

Jane Lydbury

The Wind in the Willows illustration by Inga Moore

Brian Paterson

If you'd like to give a book this holiday season to a kid in my class, I am hoping to give all 66 a copy of one of my favorites, Charlotte's Web. Thank you. www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...

One of my favorite authors was the gentle & wise E.B. White. I think about something he wrote a lot these days, "Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet". May we all choose love over hatred, love over fear, love over self-interest.

Sunday Feeling

"Barred Owl" cut paper art by Angie Pickman

Emily Duffin

Tatsuya Ishiodori

Others: What's going on in your head? Me:

Ying Shu

I believe in the transformative power of literature: how it connects the head and the heart. It connects us to the author, even those long dead, to the words on the page that speak to us as if by magic. And how it, ultimately, connects us to ourselves and the world around us.

Peonies in Moonlight by Kobayashi Noriyuki

The problem with adulthood is there needs to be more time for dilly dallying.

Me: GPS. Give me directions to Tiny Tales Books

The dream

I even had kids today, during fun Friday, picking to read in my reading corner.

Thank you to those of you who have donated from my classroom wishlist . I am delighted when I see the kids in my classes getting excited about the new books you provided. www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...

Anna Evans

It was simply that she was only fully alive when she devoted herself to her singular ability to draw, and when she drew she was naturally always alone. - Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins, was born on this day in 1914

"Alice in Wonderland" illustration by Wooh Na Young

Hashimoto Okiie's "Bamboo Grove"

Raindrops on a cobweb