oday’s mind sharpening anagram is a two or three word phrase. Can you unscramble the anagram to discover the two or three word phrase? It’s time to exercise your brain!
Today’s Anagram:
Month: December 2023
Today’s Inspiring Quote by Norman Vincent Peale, Enjoy the Wonder of Christmas
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale
The House of Christmas, a Poem by G. K. Chesterton
The House of Christmas by G. K. Chesterton
There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.
For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.
A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost – how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky’s dome.
This world is wild as an old wives’ tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.
To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.
DYK Smoking Causes Brain Cells to Shrink
Smoking Not Only Causes Lung Cancer and Heart Problems. Smoking Damages Your Brain
- Cigarette smoking causes brain shrinkage, and the more and longer a person smokes, the greater the damage is, according to a new study.
- Loss in brain volume raises the risk of cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
- Smoking cessation can help stop brain shrinkage, but it cannot be reversed.
- The study authors recommend that anyone at any age who smokes should prioritize quitting.
Cigarette smoking causes the brain to shrink, according to a new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO (WashUMed).
Brain shrinkage is also associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
The study’s results show that quitting smoking at any time stopped further gray matter loss. However, the brain does not recover its original mass once shrinkage occurs.
Today’s Joke: Joe Has a Great Joke to Tell Pete
Joe: “I have an autumn joke. But I decided not tell you.”
Pete: “Why won’t you tell me?”
Joe: “You wouldn’t fall for it.”
Journey of the Magi – a Poem by T S Eliot
Journey of the Magi
T S Eliot
‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins,
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on December 24, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets
Thinking Out Loud: Let Your Heart Take the Photos
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
NOTE: The beauty of life is all around us. Each evening after dinner I head out for a walk just as the sun is setting. The sunsets are strikingly beautiful. Each one is different. Each one fills me with awe. By the time I return home the evening stars are making their appearance. I don’t look down, I look up. My heart takes the photos my iPhone is not capable of taking. Become one with the beauty surrounding you. It makes a difference.
It’s Time to Exercise Your Brain – Take the Anagram Challenge
Today’s mind sharpening anagram is a two or three word phrase. Can you unscramble the anagram to discover the two or three word phrase? It’s time to exercise your brain!
Today’s Anagram:
