HI THERE! I'M BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI, FREELANCE WRITER, HISTORICAL RESEARCHER, & PERPETUAL SEEKER OF THE HUMAN CONDITION. WELCOME TO MY SPACE WHERE I SHARE THE BOOKS I'M READING, MY SPIRITUAL FINDINGS, FLOWERS IN MY GARDEN, AND LOST STORIES. ALL ARE WELCOME HERE.
So excited for this one! I joined the introductory class with Mirabai Starr and Matthew Fox on Shift Network last Thursday. I’m so excited to learn more about Julian of Norwich and her “showings”. She is Richard Rohr’s favorite mystic, and wrote much about the femininity of God, and as I’ve gone full-fledged mystic myself … Continue reading The Showings of Julian of Norwich : A New Translation by Mirabai Starr
First, you might wonder what this image is, it is the Holy Face of Jesus, the image that appeared clearly on the veil of Veronica. It is a powerful meditation and relevant to this post because how can one be a good watch person when their senses are destroyed like the senses of Christ were … Continue reading Book of Ezekiel
I have no authority to teach you. These are my own contemplative thoughts, you may disagree and that’s OK! “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness, and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of … Continue reading The book of Lamentations
Currently reading! I searched for this book in every bookshop for years—it was probably the only book of Maugham’s I didn’t own. He is a favorite of mine. I eventually found it in @johnkingbooksdetroit , a surprising find since I had looked multiple times before this with no luck. King’s always has a good supply … Continue reading Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
Saw Billy Collins recite his poetry for an audience at Oakland University after he was named Poet Laureate. I fell in love with his work then. Love him still!
The absence of God leads to a life of vanity & vexation. This is the main theme of Ecclesiastes. What are we filled with when God is absent from our souls? Ego, pride, vanity—the ‘self’. When we are consumed with ‘self’ all we produce and put into the world is filled with ‘self’ and therefore … Continue reading The book of Ecclesiastes
A SONG OF FREEDOM by Alice Mulligan . . . In Cavan of little lakes / As I was walking with the wind / And no one seen beside me there / There came a song into my mind / It came as if the whispered voice / of one, but none of human kind … Continue reading Irish Poem…
One more tidbit... possibly more as these letters are hilarious. To his best friend, Sir Horace Mann, who apparently had not responded to his letters for two weeks so Walpole became “angry” and wrote that he won’t continue to give news reports to Mann, because “he’s not a newspaper.” And he repeatedly told his friend … Continue reading Another Hilarious Tidbit from the Letters of Horace Walpole
. As you can see, I do!! I started keeping a diary when I was about 9. Most of what I wrote was complete nonsense, and more than once my friends would chime into the pages saying obscene things to be funny. I think I will burn all of these someday, but for now they … Continue reading Journal or Diary writing..
I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” -2 Samuel 6:21. . . We should not be ashamed to make fools of ourselves for God’s sake. We may have seen people preaching on the street, holding signs, singing in church, … Continue reading The Second Book of Samuel
BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI 