Category Archives: Words + Words of The Day

Word of The Day: Tsundoku

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This is the post I planned for Monday before we had that 5.2 earthquake. Since then, terra firma has been quiet around here, but I did finally install the earthquake warning app to be ready for the next one.

Here’s the word of the day…tsundoku.

I had no idea there was a specific word to describe a pile of unread books.

In Japanese, “tsundoku” means collecting books and letting them pile up, not for neglect, but for the joy of knowing they’re there, full of untold stories.

The word “tsundoku” is a combination of “tsunde-oku” (to let things pile up) and “dokusho” (reading books). 

My professor son has stacks of books all over his house and is guilty of acquiring as many books as he does plants for the garden. Half of them are for teaching and the others are for pleasure, he says. They live sort of near the guy who won a lot of money on Jeopardy, Tom Nissley, and he opened Phinney Books, which is cool. Both of the kids have shelves of books, too, so it runs in the family.

Here’s what’s on my bedside table. I confess that I actually NEVER read AB’s book in its entirety, but since I proofed the first draft, there’s a bit of me in there somewhere. Of course there’s Leon (I know, I’m so predictable) and gifted books about crystals and gardening. I didn’t include all my chick lit books because they’re immediately devoured. I get most of those secondhand from DIL because we enjoy the same authors. She’s a neuroscientist and those reads are a way for her brainy brain to unwind.

My stack of ladies-in-waiting.

What titles are in your tsundoku?

Three Butterflies

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Art credit to Annie Stegg  

The people of this world are like the three butterflies in front of a candle’s flame.
The first one went closer and said: I know about love.
The second one touched the flame lightly with his wings and said:
I know how love’s fire can burn.
The third one threw himself into the heart of the flame and was consumed.
He alone knows what true love is.

Butterfly photo by Enchanted Seashells

Word Of The Day: Lagom

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Here’s a thoughtful word to help us increase happiness and reduce stress with balanced living.

Lagom, pronounced ‘lah-gom,’ is a unique Swedish term that roughly translates to “just the right amount” or “not too much, not too little.”

It’s the art of finding a perfect balance in all aspects of life – work, study, socializing, and even relaxation. In tennis, it’d be the sweet spot. It’s similar to hygge, but different.

To my child-like self, it reminds me of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, as she searched for just the RIGHT bowl of oatmeal, chair, bed…

The concept of lagom can be found all around us and can coexist with another theory called the Goldilocks Principle or the Goldilocks Zone. Our planet earth is said to be in the Goldilocks zone, neither too far nor too close to the sun, in a “just right” place that is perfect to support life. A Goldilocks economy is when there’s enough growth to sustain the economy but not too much growth that causes high inflation. In politics there’s the well-known extremes of the left and right and the (all too quiet) center. The Goldliocks principle can be found everywhere.  Maimonides speaks of the Goldilocks principle when he advocates for the middle road in most areas of life, a sustainable and healthy balance that doesn’t go too far to either extreme. shabboshouse.org

How do you embrace the principles of lagom?

Featured photo curated from Pinterest.

Sunset Walks

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Beautiful days do not come to you. You must walk towards them.— Rumi

Photo by Enchanted Seashells

Small Delights | Kleine Freuden

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“Accustom yourself every morning to look for a moment at the sky and suddenly you will be aware of the air around you, the scent of morning freshness that is bestowed on you between sleep and labor.

You will find every day that the gable of every house has its own particular look, its own special lighting.

Pay it some heed…you will have for the rest of the day a remnant of satisfaction and a touch of coexistence with nature.

Gradually and without effort the eye trains itself to transmit many small delights.” –Hermann Hesse

The 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the German author Hermann Hesse.
Photos by Enchanted Seashells

Vernal Equinox – Happy First Day of Spring!

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“Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems.” – Rainer Maria Rilke 

I woke up at dawn to watch the arrival of the sun and the sky was spectacular! The birds are singing and my resident hawks are nest building. All around me, I see evidence of rebirth.

You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming.” – Pablo Neruda 

This year’s Spring Equinox on March 20 corresponds with Venus retrograde, Mercury retrograde, eclipse season, and Neptune’s entry into Aries for the first time in nearly 165 years.

“Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth. Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and the equinox!” — D. H. Lawrence

The vernal equinox marks the astronomical start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun crosses the celestial equator, resulting in equal day and night hours. 

This event symbolizes rejuvenation, new beginnings, and spiritual awakening — the perfect opportunity to embrace change and harmony between light and dark.

“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature; the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” — Rachel Carson

Many pagans today celebrate the spring equinox as ‘Ostara’, which is a Latin variation of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn, spring, fertility, and rebirth — Oestra (or Eostre) with roots in Germanic cultures.

New ideas are calling out to us. The animal world is buzzing with new life. This month is about trying new things out: What excites you right now? What are you interested in? What are you drawn toward?

Just like we plant seeds in the ground to watch them grow and eventually harvest fruit, flowers, or vegetables, which seeds will we plant in our minds and hearts? What will we manifest? What will WE grow?

Image curated from Pinterest. Credit to the artist.

Metta Mantra: Loving Kindness

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At this point in time with what’s going on here in the United States (not so united right now), I think we need to collectively try this as a meditation mantra.

I think it’s significant that there’s a full Blood Worm Moon during a total lunar eclipse on Friday. Hopefully, the power of these planetary energies will ignite transformation and remove the toxicity that’s permeated our country.

Again, as above, so below.

May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.
May all beings be free.

May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.
May all beings be free.

Art curated from Pinterest. Credit to artist.

A Thousand Ways

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There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground;
there are a thousand ways to go home again.
Rumi

“There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground;
there are a thousand ways to go home again.”
Rumi

Photo credit Enchanted Seashells

Sea Heart

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Photo credit Enchanted Seashells

“Heart is sea,
Language is shore,
whatever sea includes,
will hit the shore.” Rumi

Shades of Twilight. Colors of Dusk.

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“It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream.” Bernard Williams

Photo by Enchanted Seashells
Photo by Enchanted Seashells
Photo by Enchanted Seashells

These photos were taken before we had a few days of much needed rain. There was no flooding around here but I saw video of devastating mudslides in the fire-damaged areas around Malibu — in addition to a medium-sized 3.5 earthquake in the same same general vicinity.

Today was super sunny and warm, a perfect time to spend hours in the garden cleaning up from the storm and getting the raised bed ready for spring planting.

I haven’t had any visits from my coyotes or bobcats in about a month and I’m not sure why. Hopefully, they’ll return soon because I miss my animal family!