ONE BEAUTIFUL SUMMER DAY a few years ago, my husband and I were taking a long walk through a picturesque New England village in the mountains of New Hampshire. We have walked 11,000 miles or so together in our 31 years of marriage. Well, that’s what we estimated once. We have walked through city streets and leafy suburbs, on beaches and on empty country roads. No place that we have walked, however, has been more enchanting than this village, with its white clapboard buildings, its dark pond, its emerald common, its turreted inn, granite boulders and crystalline river, all overshadowed by the austere and noble White Mountains in the background. On this day, the sky was dazzlingly blue, and clear.

As we approached the bridge over the river, we saw people, about 15 or so, who were looking down over the stone walls of the bridge. They were gazing into the river and they were not speaking or smiling.

They were not dressed as hikers or other vacationers. They wore nice clothes; the women were in dresses and the men in sports coats. A girl of about 20 — a beautiful girl — turned from the wall and walked toward us. She was crying. She had turned from the wall in distress. (more…)

  READ more about this medieval English carol at A Clerk of Oxford. There Is No Rose of Such Virtue 1. There is no rose of such virtue As is the rose that bare Jesu; Alleluia. 2. For in this rose contained was Heaven and earth in little space; Res miranda. 3. By that rose we may well see That he is God in persons three, Pari forma. 4. The angels sungen the shepherds to: Gloria in excelsis deo: Gaudeamus. 5. Leave we all this worldly mirth, And follow we this joyful birth; Transeamus. 6. Alleluia, res miranda, Pares forma, gaudeamus, Transeamus.

SALLY writes:

I was deeply touched by the story concerning Meredith. Your succinct summing up of the value of a life struck a deep chord in me. I am referring to your statement that,” Now more than ever, there is nothing important Meredith can’t do.” How true!  That one truth reveals the importance of gratefully living the life that God has graciously granted us in spite of all the troubles we experience. The material things we lust after and the status we seek are ultimately unimportant.

My oldest child has a very rare genetic disorder. He is moderately physically and mentally disabled. Unfortunately, his condition is progressive albeit slowly and his prognosis is unclear. Before Brandon
came into my life, I am ashamed to say that I thought disabled people were lacking in some essential ingredient as if the value of a soul can be weigh and measured. (more…)

JIM writes: I enjoyed the recent post about "Peanuts," and the reference to Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher. I have used one quote from that book many times over the years. It is a favorite, and although it may not be literally true always, it does say a lot. It goes something like this: A man's leisure time decreases in direct proportion to the number of labor saving devices he owns. A very thoughtful point, but I'm not giving up my chainsaw!! My donation should head out in tomorrow's mail.

  [UPDATE: My modest fundraising goal has been met! And then some. Thank you very, very much. Additional donations are most welcome.] MY MODEST FUNDRAISING goal is still not met. I need the equivalent of two Fat Cats*** to donate $25 (or more) to keep this website as is without reverting to a paid subscription system. (You can get a free subscription now through the link on the sidebar and links to new posts will be delivered to you by email.) If you would like to contribute, see the Paypal link below or write to me at thinkinghousewife@msn.com for a mailing address. Donors who would like to give less than $25 are most welcome too! Their contributions will be added to the pot so that we can get this thing done! Thank you to all who have contributed. I greatly appreciate your support. Tony sent a generous donation and wrote: Thank you for giving hope to those of us who fight to hold back despair as we make our way through this modern deranged and degenerate culture (if one can even call it a culture). And thank you! *** (The use of this term is not meant to demean real feline readers or those who eat too much pizza.)             

K.H. sends a $10 donation towards my ongoing fundraising drive (we're getting close!) and writes: I have been reading your blog since 2011. You have helped me discover and learn about a world of tradition lost to modernity. I no longer subscribe to the false god of secularism. Thank you for all you've written.

WHEN I was a newspaper reporter in my twenties, I worked in an office in the Pennsylvania suburbs with another young woman named Meredith.

Meredith was bright, pretty and she was small like me. She was a hard worker and ambitious.

Eventually, I moved to another office and Meredith took a job at another newspaper in North Jersey. We both married and had children. We both left journalism, but while I stayed home, Meredith pursued a new career as a clinical psychologist.

She became very successful in her career. She joined a busy group practice in an affluent area and had many clients. They came to her for advice about all kinds of things. She would sometimes tell me about her conversations with them, without revealing identities. People in this world often have no one to turn to for comfort, advice or wisdom. When once they might have gone to the woman next door, sitting at the kitchen table, or a priest now they pay fantastic sums to go to psychologists.

One of her clients was a woman who had tragically lost a young child in a car accident. Meredith helped her adjust to driving again. She seemed to have many clients with difficulty handling their children. Once she had a boy who was about 11 and who could not adjust to returning home from school to an empty house every day. He was eventually given some kind of hypnosis to help him cope. Once a young couple came to her and asked her if it was okay if they didn’t have any children. (more…)

A COUPLE in Louisiana sent a donation last night and wrote:

This is a donation from George and Lily, who met through your site in 2014. We were married in May 2017 and are hoping to have children soon! We hope that if we have a girl, we can name her after you! Have a blessed day! (more…)

  IF YOU offer your hand, she will take it. You are the child you always were. She is the mother she always was.

  CATHOLICS who reject the papacy of "Pope" Francis and his Vatican II predecessors, as well as the new forms of worship, don't just exist in Europe and America. Though small in numbers, they are all over the world. In these fascinating videos, courtesy of True Restoration, (here and here), Nigerians explain how they arrived at their position and their efforts to convert others in their country.

FRANK sends a second donation and writes: The truth is heard and needed even in the godless Germany I live in. There are still some Germans who love the truth.

  GWEN sends a donation and writes: You are an encouraging and confident voice to me, a stay-at-home mother of faith. You have filled a void left by my mother, a feminist. I am forever grateful. I am emboldened to continue pursuing a life of feminine grace and virtue.  

NITIDA STELLA (Transl. Clear Star)

Clear star,
happy girl,
you are the flower of flowers;
O Blessed Mother,
Virgin Mary,
Pray for us! (more…)

SUSAN-ANNE WHITE writes from Northern Ireland:

I would like to ask your opinion on an event which took place this week in the UK. It was the British Fashion Awards.

I saw links to it on Youtube although personally I have no interest in modern fashions as most are immodest and vulgar and sometimes frightening.

At this year’s ceremony the Duchess of Sussex (Meghan Markle) was an unexpected guest and she presented an award to the woman who designed her wedding dress. The woman who announced the appearance of the Duchess is an actress called Rosamund Pike and in my opinion she looked androgynous. Some of those in the audience looked likewise strange and evil.

Meghan Markle is a feminist and, in my opinion, a dangerous woman. She was dressed immodestly and made a point of drawing attention to her pregnancy. Feminists love to wear tight, clingy clothes when pregnant to convey the message that pregnancy will not change their lives or inhibit their activities in any way shape or form. Some feminists wear such clingy T-shirts when pregnant that their umbilicus is clearly seen bulging through the fabric.

Gone are the days when expectant mothers dressed in lovely feminine smocks etc and took things easy so as not to harm their unborn babies.

The pregnancy of Meghan Markle is worth commenting on because something doesn’t seem right. Some commenters on Youtube have declared it a fake pregnancy. I do not know, but it does seem strange that in some photos over the weeks since her pregnancy was announced she either doesn’t look pregnant at all or she looks further along in her pregnancy than her due date dictates. (more…)

  A READER sends $50 and writes: I have been reading your blog for years and so admire the thoughtful and fair-minded approach you take to the topics you write about. Thank you for creating such a beautiful place on the Internet. PS: My daughter (29) also thinks your "awesome." Laura writes: Thank you for your appreciation!  You and your daughter are now officially Thinking Housewife Fat Cats. I am deeply grateful, and hope this generous donation will bring unforeseen -- and unseen -- benefits to you. To others: Please donate today and become a Fat Cat for a mere $25! You won't regret it. The views expressed here are absolutely, 100 percent guaranteed to make you different and stand out from the crowd!! Thank you for your kindness and generosity.                 

  DO you see these peanuts? Do you know what I could have done if I were a successful advertising copywriter with a few rhetorical tricks to get you to buy them for Christmas? I would have convinced you, with just a few words, that instead of possibly being made in a peanut sweatshop somewhere by people who have never heard of Virginia, they were roasted in an "artisanal" workshop.  I would evoke craftsmen in black aprons roasting nuts over a roaring fire. Once I used the words "artisanal" or "hand-picked," I would have you, and then could basically lather it up with the "sea salt," which would evoke images of yourself in the open air, instead of stuck in traffic or on the sofa, exhausted from the daily grind. The "bacon cheddar" flavoring -- possibly not made from much of anything from a pig or a cow, but in a laboratory  -- would be a problem. But I would use the word "small batch" before the "bacon cheddar." That would divert your attention from the "artificial flavors," which evokes smokestacks and people in labs. Words like "handcrafted" and "small batch" and "artisanal" unfailingly work in advertising even though large numbers of people basically realize they are shams. They work because everyone instinctively wants to live in an artisanal world. We were made for a "small batch" economy. We despise the conglomerization of everything, whether we know it or not. Some…

  A READER sends a donation and writes: [This is] from a Protestant couple who knew they were a perfect match when they discovered that The Thinking Housewife was one of several reactionary blogs that they both perused regularly. Keep up the good work! Laura writes: Thank you! Ha! I'm thrilled you found each other and wish you much happiness.

CHRISTOPHER in Paris sends a donation and writes: Thank you, Laura, for your excellent work in gently guiding right-thinking people towards the difficult truths that they must acknowledge in order to be set free from the monstrous lies that are the foundation of today's world.