'"Here I am!" Stillwater called from the tree.'

Subject line source: Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth (2005), a picture book featuring a panda (yclept Stillwater) imparting Zen Buddhist parables to a trio of kids. Beautiful watercolor-and-ink illustrations.

(Coincidentally, Muth also illustrated Eric Kimmel's Gershon's Monster, which was the "story for all ages" a friend read aloud at the Rosh Hashanah-inspired service I helped lead at UUCC two Sundays ago.)

Another picture book on my dining room table: Satoshi Kitamura's When Sheep Cannot Sleep: The Counting Book. Droll and cute.

My favorite Arthurian legend is probably the one about Gawain and the hideous woman who becomes his paramour. I came across Ruth Berman's Death of Gawaine earlier this morning while looking for something else: it's heartbreaking and perfectly wrought. (For lighter fare, do try Gerald Morris's Squire's Tale series if you haven't already -- intelligent irreverence, with plenty of in-jokes for those of us familiar with Malory, the Mabinogion, et al/etc.)

"Walk around feeling like a leaf."

This past weekend, I happened to reread innerslytherin's Regions of Kindness, which features stanzas from Naomi Shihab Nye's poem "Kindess" as its epigraphs.

On Monday, a friend emailed a copy of the same poem after hearing it at church the morning before, and one of the other recipients responded with Nye's The Art of Disappearing, which ends with:

You will never catch up.

Walk around feeling like a leaf. Know you could tumble any second. Then decide what to do with your time.


Onwards.