A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Every day a new surprise! Today's was a lovely visit with my longtime friend and editor Caitlin Doyle, to whom I am forever grateful for contacting me about writing books for Harper Collins, UK. Eight books later, we finally found a spontaneous opportunity to catch up in real life after at least two decades!! Hot on the heels of World Honeybee Day, here we are posing with two books we helped bring into being for HC- The Little Book of Bees, and The Little Book of Honey. Today's poem, borrowed from today's edition of The Writer's Almanac, is also an ode to the humble honeybee.
Liturgical: Readings for the Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope
"Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Pius X, Pope (1835-1914). Joseph Sarto was born in humble circumstances at Riese, a small village in Venetia, on June 2, 1835. He was successively curate, parish priest, bishop of Mantua, Patriarch of Venice — offices to which his keen intelligence, hard work, and great piety caused him to be quickly promoted. He was elected Pope on August 4, 1903, and took the name of Pius X. As chief pastor of the Church he displayed untiring self-sacrifice and great energy; he was an intrepid defender of the purity of Christian doctrine. He realized to the full the value of the liturgy as the prayer of the Church and the solid basis that it furnishes for the devotion of Christian people; he worked for the restoration of the worship of the Church, especially plainchant, so that Christian people, as he put it, might find beauty in their public prayer. He spared no effort to propagate the practice, so great an aid to holiness, of early, frequent and daily communion. He died on August 20, 1914, and was canonized on May 29, 1954.
Human: 392 AD – Eugenius became a Roman emperor. He was a Latin rhetoric, then a secretary at the court of Valentinian II. Formally a Christian, but actually a follower of ancient gods; Hawaii became the U.S.’s fiftieth state– 1959; 1745 Future Russian Tsar Peter III marries Ekaterina Alexeievna later Catherine II (Catherine the Great); 1929 Painter Diego Rivera (42) weds fellow artist Frida Kahlo (22); 1940 Death of Leon Trotsky
The Writer's Almanac edition today.
Natural: The color tour of northern Michigan planning has already begun! Here's a guide.
Italian: Fango (mud)
Quote: "Virgil's Bees", by Carol Ann Duffy
Bless air's gift of sweetness, honey
from the bees, inspired by clover,
marigold, eucalyptus, thyme,
the hundred perfumes of the wind.
Bless the beekeeper
who chooses for her hives
a site near water, violet beds, no yew,
no echo. Let the light lilt, leak, green
or gold, pigment for queens,
and joy be inexplicable but there
in harmony of willow
herb and stream,
of summer heat and breeze,
each bee's body
at its brilliant flower, lover-stunned,
strumming on fragrance, smitten.
For this,
let gardens grow, where beelines end,
sighing in roses, saffron blooms, buddleia;
where bees pray on their knees, sing, praise
in pear trees, plum trees; bees
are the batteries of orchards, gardens, guard them.
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