One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
“Which road do I take?” she asked.
“Where do you want to go?” was his response.
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”

How frequently do I try to decide which way I’ll take when I don’t even know where I’m going?

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:5-6

Ofcourse, the most important “map” is Jesus Himself. When I don’t know which way to go, what choice to make, I must remember to choose to follow Jesus above all else. If I’m not doing that, it really doesn’t matter what I choose. Ultimately, I won’t be going anywhere.
Today, in case you hadn’t guessed already, is the birthday of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are full of “quotables”. Try these:

“The horror of that moment,” the King went on, “I shall never forget!”
“You will, though,” The Queen said, “if you don’t make a memorandum of it.” (Through the Looking Glass)

“The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today.”

I hope you have some jam today and remember all your horrors without writing yourself a note. As for me, I have no jam and the King and I must be about the same age.

Today is also the birthday of Ann Taylor (b. 1782) who along with her sister Jane published several books of poems for children. Among the poems she and sister Jane wrote was the well-known Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I found an online copy of a book of the sisters’ poems entitled Little Ann. I liked this poem best. Most of the poems are about little children who misbehave and what will happen to such naughty little boys and girls–refreshingly politically incorrect in this day and age when we’re supposed to pretend that they’re behaving even when they’re not.

The Chatterbox by Ann Taylor

FROM morning till night it was Lucy’s delight
To chatter and talk without stopping:
There was not a day but she rattled away,
Like water for ever a-dropping.

No matter at all if the subjects were small,
Or not worth the trouble of saying,
‘Twas equal to her, she would talking prefer
To working, or reading, or playing.

You’ll think now, perhaps, that there would have been gaps,
If she had not been wonderfully clever:
That her sense was so great, and so witty her pate,
It would be forthcoming for ever;

But that’s quite absurd, for have you not heard
That much tongue and few brains are connected?
That they are supposed to think least who talk most,
And their wisdom is always suspected?

While Lucy was young, had she bridled her tongue,
With a little good sense and exertion,
Who knows, but she might now have been our delight,
Instead of our jest and aversion?

The illustrations, by Kate Greenaway, are delightful.

Tonight we read Winnie-the-Pooh in honor of the birthday of A.A. Milne. I love Winnie-the-Pooh, maybe because I often feel like a “bear of very little brain.” I also love this article by Sam Torode from Boundless magazine about how he discovered Winnie-the-Pooh in college. No, Pooh wasn’t in college; Sam Torode was.

Favorite quotations:

“It’s a litle Anxious,” Piglet said to himself, “to be a Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water. Christopher Robin could escape by Climbing Trees, and Kanga could escape by Jumping, and Rabbit could escape by Burrowing, and Owl could escape by Flying, and Eeyore could escape by – by Making a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and here am I, surrounded by water and I can’t do anything.”

“And how are you?” said Winnie-the-Pooh. Eeyore shook his head from side to side. “Not very how,” he said. “I don’t seem to felt at all how for a long time.”

Pooh looked at his two paws. He knew that one of them was the right, and he knew that when you had decided which one of them was the right, then the other was the left, but he never could remember how to begin.

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best — ” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.

“I don’t see much sense in that,” said Rabbit. “No,” said Pooh humbly, “there isn’t. But there was going to be when I began it. It’s just that something happened to it along the way.”

And if you don’t see much sense in this blog, just remember that there was going to be sense when I started, but something happened along the way!

Winnie-the-Pooh can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.