I just had to share this beautiful artwork with you. Yesterday we were all over the place on the Silk Road, with only a passing mention of India, so this is a continuation in a way, of saluting one example of stone tracery found at a mosque in India, designed and built by an Ethiopian master.
Beautiful intricate work. The tree of life seems to be a concept in many cultures. Now more than ever, it's good to see.
And here's our local tree rising over the roofs, now leafless for winter.
This tree has helped me on countless difficult early mornings. A few minutes, and the day is much better, my spirits start to rise, I can manage. Never fails me.
Speaking of life, here are the first shoots of those fingerling potato peels I planted.
I'll add potting soil when it arrives here.
And lacy crepes for breakfast, with cane sugar and lemon juice.
They're very organic (!) in shape because the batter is thinned. Very much like the ones my mom made. They're too delicate to roll up, at least I can't do it. But they're a festive hot breakfast.
Since yesterday, I've loaded on my Kindle some poems of Rumi and Hafez, and I wish I could read them in the original languages.
Rumi wrote in several languages, and I have to hope my translation is good. I have parts of the first book of his most famous epic poem the Masnavi. It was written in rhyming couplets, and my translation renders it that way, a bit awkward in English, but I guess a very difficult translation task. Anyway I'll stick with it.
Surprisingly often, his thinking is echoed in Christian mystics, and seen in Richard Rohr's teaching. Maybe another time when West plunders East.
I seem to be more timely than I realized. Born in Afghanistan, he died in Turkey on December 17, 1273.
So that's where we are today. I love to sit drinking my breakfast tea with the low-lying winter sun slanting across the wall.
Happy day, everyone!
