Darrell Pursiful

Sunday Inspiration: The Function of Freedom The function of freedom is to free someone else.—Toni Morrison

Sunday Inspiration: True Power You will continue to suffer if you react emotionally to everything that is said to you. True power comes from stepping back and observing with logic. When words control you, others control you. Breathe and let things pass.—Bruce Lee

In Saynim, humans are an exoticized race of literal outsiders.

Sunday Inspiration: Everything for Granted In a culture that pushes us to focus not on what we can give, but on what we can take, what we tend to take is everything for granted.—Andrea Gibson

Sunday Inspiration: Accumulating Books He who accumulates books, accumulates dreams, and if you have many dreams, you are still young even when you are eighty years old.—Ugo Ojetti

Sunday Inspiration: A Brave Faith I don’t want an easy faith, I want a brave faith. I want a faith that takes risks, that asks questions, that experiments, that evolves, that thrives amidst change and obeys amidst doubt. I want a faith that engages both my heart and my head, a faith that operates…

Sunday Inspiration: Peace Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.—Thomas Merton

Sunday Inspiration: The Divine Image Every person bears the divine image, and so when anyone is injured, the heart of God is wounded.—John Calvin

Sunday Inspiration: Do Not Be Daunted Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.—The Talmud

Sunday Inspiration: Gratitude Since I’m not sure of the address to which to send my gratitude, I put it out there in everything I do.—Michael J. Fox

It might not be a golden calf, but it sure looks like a golden Nebuchadnezzar.

Sunday Inspiration: More Light Every positive thought we pass between us makes room for more light.—John Lewis

Sunday Inspiration: Love and Truth Do not accept anything as truth that lacks love, and do not accept anything as love which lacks truth. One without the other is a destructive lie.—Edith Stein

Sunday Inspiration: Gratefulness I no longer want to have anything to do with love that forgets to be grateful.—Thomas Merton

Sunday Inspiration: Miracles Where there is great love there are always miracles.—Willa Cather

I'm certainly not an expert, but do I understand correctly that threatening a war crime is itself a warcrime?

Sunday Inspiration: Kindness Ah, kindness. What a simple way to tell another struggling soul that there is love to be found in this world. —A. A. Malee

Sunday Inspiration: Dreams Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly. Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.—Langston Hughes

#books #reading #writingcommunity #wolves #funny #booksky

So I’m probably not being pretentious when I code-switch with the waiter at El Sombrero, but I probably am when I code-switch with my non-Spanish-speaking friends.

Sunday Inspiration: The Purpose of Human Life The purpose of human life is to serve, to show compassion and the will to help others.—Albert Schweitzer

Sunday Inspiration: Making a Difference You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.—Jane Goodall

Sunday Inspiration: Beginners We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!—Thomas Merton

Sunday Inspiration: Inventing Our Lives All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don’t, our lives get made up for us by other people.—Ursula K. Le Guin

Real Magic No "scare quotes" necessary. Dr. Andrew Henry is a specialist in magical practices in late antiquity and has some opinions about how our favorite fantasy franchises handle magic. It's well worth a watch!

I literally had to take a moment to decide that this was, in fact, satire.

Random Thoughts on Percy Jackson Season 3 I just finished listening to the audiobook of The Titan's Curse, the third book in the Percy Jackson book series and thus the basis for the third season of the Disney series. Here are some random (spoiler-free) thoughts. There is a surprising divergence…

Sunday Inspiration: True Wealth True wealth is not measured in money or status or power. It is measured in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire.—César Chávez

Sunday Inspiration: Reading Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.—Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Quote skeet a gif with a clue of where you're from...

A Blast from the Past Thanks to Nellie Thorne for her review of Children of Pride. It’s nice to know that my first novel is still finding an audience as it comes up on its twelfth anniversary! In part: Overall, this is a beautifully crafted portal fantasy that balances adventure, mystery, and…

Sunday Inspiration: Our Job Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.—Thomas Merton

Sunday Inspiration: Like Brothers We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.—Martin Luther King Jr.

Big Four Bridge In the Caretaker Trilogy, the Big Four Bridge, formerly affectionately known as “the bridge to nowhere” before it was repurposed for pedestrians, hides an entrance to the domain of the Merlady, the supernatural gangster who rules from this part of the Ohio River.

Sunday Inspiration: Keeping Silent It is not easy to keep silent when silence is a lie.—Victor Hugo

Sunday Inspiration: Our True Destiny Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone… We find it with another.—Thomas Merton

Sunday Inspiration: Kindling a Light As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.—Carl Jung

Sunday Inspiration: What Lies within Us What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.—Henry D. Haskins

Sunday Inspiration: Grace All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.—Flannery O’Connor

Sunday Inspiration: Books You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.—Ray Bradbury

Or you can upsize it and also receive the Four Seasons Landscaping medal of distinction.

Sunday Inspiration: Indifference Indifference is the one thing that makes the angels weep.—William James

The library kinda misses the small time lawyer who used to come in to use our legal database and books. He switched over to AI for research. His disbarment is next week.

Sunday Inspiration: The Soul The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.—Marcus Aurelius