#l.r.knost

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Armand Tavernier - Winter in the Flemish Ardennes, 1899

* * * *

"Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful." L.R. Knost

[maslimanny]

The belief that being a parent imparts absolute control over another human being is a belief in tyranny, and it is human nature to rebel against tyranny.

The simplest and most effective way to prevent resistance, defiance, and rebellion in our children is to treat them with the same kindness, courtesy, and respect that we naturally give to adults.

[lioninsunheart]

“Get up off of your knees. Come out of your churches, your mosques, your temples. God can hear your prayers for peace, justice, and hope in this broken world just fine while you're out creating peace, working for justice, and giving hope to this broken world. When are we finally going to realize that humanity is the solution to inhumanity? When will we finally understand that we are all drops of the same ocean, hurting together, healing together, hoping together? Don't just pray for hands to heal the hurting. Pray with hands that are healing the hurting. Don't just pray for arms to help the helpless. Pray with arms that are helping the helpless. Don't just pray for feet to respond to need. Pray on feet that are responding to need. Don't just pray for someone to do something. Be someone who does something. Don't just pray for answers. Be the answer.” ~ ~L.R. Knost, L.R.Knost - Little Hearts/Gentle Parenting Resources

[katerobynmoments]

— L.R.Knost

“Some say they get lost in books, but I find myself, again and again, in the pages of a good book. Humanly speaking, there is no greater teacher, no greater therapist, no greater healer of the soul, than a well-stocked library.”

[alexstolyar]

Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful.

[simplyettad]

All Things Break

Photo Credit 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

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[msmarymillspaulos]

Andrea Kowch

"And just when the darkness

became too much to bear

and the struggle too hard,

the light broke through

and the caterpillar emerged

a butterfly

delicate but unbroken,

wild and gentle,

finally free to spread its lovely wings

and fly away on the wind.”

L.R. Knost

[reginacooks]

Day 244

Round about dinner prep time I remembered that I had a Zoom session with my Small Group Ministry, a group of us from my UU church who meet a couple of times a month to drop in around a subject. 

I stepped up and got dinner going. It was salmon and usually for me that’s practically a night off from cooking. I’ve been making the same salmon-under-the-broiler marinade for years now. The only other way I really like it is with fennel, from a recipe in the NY Times. The marinade I make goes like this: 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon each of powdered ginger, mustard, and soy sauce. Mix together and rub onto salmon and put under the broiler. That’s it. Tonight I also roasted a whole cauliflower in my new, favorite way: with olive oil and s&p on a sheet pan in a hot oven. I could eat a whole tray of this. I had a hankering for baked potatoes - haven’t had those in a while. And it didn’t feel like there was quite enough, and the meal was missing garlic, so I quickly sliced a zucchini, minced some garlic and sauteed those. The meal was pretty darn good, but I ate it in a rush so I could get to my meeting.

This is not a very pretty picture, but boy was it delicious.

Tonight in our group session we talked about healing. Lots came up, including talking about our childhoods, for some of us. Also, it feels like there’s so much hurt right now - the pandemic, the politics - that everyone seems to be in a constant state of trying to get through it all, to heal from it. I was thinking today that our current president has done so much damage in so many arenas, I wonder how many years - if ever - it will take to repair. One member in our group talked about how important it is just to name our feelings, and that he’s teaching his own children how to do that. 

His comment made me wonder if I’ve done that enough with our children. I’ve absolutely modeled feelings - anger, sorrow, joy, fear. When I think of the times that our children have really talked about their feelings, it’s always been times of spontaneous outbursts. Like when our cat Oliver died, we all cried so openly. So maybe that’s good, that they’ve taken opportunities to express themselves naturally. The times I’ve pressed them to tell me how they feel has never been easy. 

These were the closing words of our meeting tonight, by L.R. Knost (which I realized as they were being read that I wrote an essay about these words several years ago):

“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.”