Resistance Advent Calendar, bonus square

Pro-democracy protestors held massive protests in South Korea demanding the impeachment of President Yoon.

"I wanted to bring the brightest thing into the darkest of times." "President Yoon Seok-yeol has turned back history, but the protests are evolving." 

Resistance Advent Calendar Day 8

Syria celebrates the fall of the Assad regime.

It All Makes Sense at the End

Many many thanks to Molly Lewis for this beautiful, brilliant, and funny piece about breaking up with Wikipedia. I laughed and saw every minute of my most recent (doomed) relationship, too, which made it that much better. 

Keep rocking girl.

Some things

Some things:
I believe that grace is in our daily lives and in our choices if we so choose.
There is grace in integrity, a grace of dignity if we choose to make commitments and live by them.
There is grace in simplicity, a grace of elegance in finding the least that we need and living in that arc between too much and too little, an elegance of enough.
There is a grace to ongoing revelation, a grace of intimacy that comes only when there is an abundance of mystery without secrecy
There is a grace to presence, a grace of identity that happens when we are still enough to witness without ego.
This is how a utilitarian Taoist cyberpunk monk ends up in the silent meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

First Snow

As the first snow began to fall, nothing amounting to much yet, I hit send on the submission of the critiques for the workshop's December pieces, putting a period on my obligations for my first term as an MFA student in creative writing.

Tonight is the Friends' Winter party, and we are all looking forward to gathering in the dark to share love and warmth, food and friendship.

Pound Cake

Pound Cake This classic recipe is so simple a kid can do it. The original calls for a pound of each: eggs, sugar, flour and butter and makes two loaves. This recipe is half that, for simplicity, but if you want to make the full batch, simply double it and bake two loaves at once -- one to keep and one to give away.

Ingredients 5-6 eggs 1 ⅔ cups organic raw sugar 2 c. all purpose flour 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 1 lemon 1 Tablespoon Madagascar vanilla extract ½ teaspoon sea salt Equipment Loaf Pan, thoroughly coated with butter Mixing bowl Wire Whisk Wooden Spoon

Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the mixing bowl, cream the softened butter until fluffy. Add sugar and mix well until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing to incorporate each before adding the next. Add the vanilla and the juice of half the lemon. Zest half the lemon into the batter. Mix the salt into the flour and then add to the batter, stirring just enough to incorporate. Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.