A Sunday meditation

I came across the most well known of John Donne's poems again and thought it well to share it as a good reminder that as we look at the world around us, let is care fully and wisely for all of our companions in our journey.
And be not quick to inflict harm, but love as fully as we are able.

Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.


If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Duncan

Hogmany

Ah, to be in Scotland for Hogmanay! It has been noted that while the Scots do not celebrate Christmas in the same way as other countries do (due to the religious history of Scotland), they sure know how to bring in the New Year. A brief description of Hogmany from one of the online calendars:

Hogmanay in Scotland - ritual eating and drinking and the ceremony of "first-footing" - it was believed that if the first person to enter and bless a house after midnight was a handsome young dark-haired man, good luck would come the rest of the year.

May the first day of the New Year bring you blessings and set the days aright for the rest of the year,

Duncan