Grace Nuth (she/her)

Apple Juice. lol

Artwork of an adorable rotund brown furry monster with antlers laying on his side in the middle of a circle of trees on a pile of moss. A white moth flies overhead.

May you find a place to rest in the circle of trees.
May their branches twine to wall out those who hunt you, hurt you.
May the moss cradle you with verdant cotton softness, smelling of good wet soil.
And may the moths whisper gently to you “keep on, someday it will be better.”

Art by Dan May

A close up image of two fingers holding a blue plastic faceted gem pinched between them.

Today’s glimmer: Yesterday I was offered a sapphire by a child pixie. She bartered it for ink and paper.

(A mom had $.30 in copies and forgot her wallet. Her 5 year old daughter came up and placed this the desk, and her mom said “can we pay with this?”)

It was the most whimsy I had all day.

A golden rabbit with white eyes is at the center of an oval image. A text scroll wraps around him that reads “We’ll be fine, all we gotta do is be brave & be kind.” Small text below the oval explains the words are from a song by The National.

Rabbit rabbit rabbit. Things are very hard. And honestly there really is no guarantee that all of us will be fine. But being brave and being kind is still the road to travel.

May March bring no lions.

Art by Liz Anna Kozik

A dark early morning bedroom, with me sitting cross legged on an unmade bed. I’m hugging a soft beige stuffed rabbit with my head buried in the fur.

Today’s glimmer: I believe that one way to keep hold of childlike wonder (and comfort) is to still sleep with stuffies. One is never too old for it. Introducing my new comfort friend, still nameless but not for long.

Me laying in bed still groggy from the night sleep. My profile can be seen at the lower left of the photo, and my arm is lifted with my black cat Ella curled into a tight tight ball, pressed against my arm.

Today’s glimmer: this little soot sprite, successfully comforting me after a bad dream.

Ew.

White smooth snow is interrupted by the long footprints of a hopping rabbit. He jumped over a brick border, and by a frozen bowl of ice.

Today’s glimmer: evidence of the hoppity-hops of my favorite animal through the back yard snow. I hope he stays safe, and found something to eat in my sleeping garden.

Your gentle spirit makes every day brighter, dear

A portrait of my father done over 50 years ago when he was in college, by artist Alan Cober. He is wearing his magician’s tux, balanced on a rock, and performs a different magic trick in each of his seven hands. There is an eighth magic trick: can you spot it? The magician casts no shadow.

A photographic portrait I did to emulate my father’s portrait, photo by Kevin James. I am wearing my dad’s tux and antique top hat from college.

Today’s glimmer: I am reading a book by the wordsmith Patricia McKillip, and a character is known as “the magician’s daughter.” For a moment I paused, thinking of how poetic a description that is. Then I realized: that is literally who I am. And it made me feel so very magical for a moment.

I love the Merlin app for that…I need to download it back on my phone. Eventually I’d love to know by hearing who is who, but I hope that will help me learn!

Today’s glimmer: yesterday was grey and the snow fell to cover the growing snowdrops. But this morning I woke up to this beautiful bird song right outside my bedroom window. (Sound up)

Today’s glimmer: creative compliments from a stranger. A few I’ve received lately:
“You look like a book character! Perhaps from Ivanhoe.”
“Oh lord, immabout to run over Barbie!” (woman in a Walmart riding cart)
“You look so elegant!”
Compliment a stranger today. It has more impact than you think.

Ten Years With Adley Flora Froud — Grace Nuth Toward the end of the year last year, I neglected to celebrate a very important milestone and date. November 21st, 2024 marked the ten year anniversary of when Adley Flora Froud came into my life.

Today’s glimmer: my troll girl, Adley. We recently celebrated 10 years of her in our household. She was manifested by Wendy Froud.

www.gracenuth.com/blog/ten-yea...

A shot from a car window of brown grass, a tree line, and stormy grey clouds that resemble mountain peaks

Today’s glimmer: these clouds on the drive into Columbus. The photo does them no justice, but they were layered like cloud mountains in the distance.

A cheerful table with colorful bouquets of crocheted lilies, carnations, sunflowers, roses, daisies, tulips, and more.

The vaulted glass ceiling of an arcade built in the early 1900s. You can just see a crowd of people browsing a farmers market at the photo’s lower edge.

Today’s glimmer: I went to a farmer’s market last night in a glass vaulted arcade from the early 1900s…just renovated and reopened. The first table I saw was a woman selling crocheted flowers, a dozen or more types, tucked into buckets like a flower stall. My heart immediately lifted.

Mossy rough bark of a hawthorn tree limb. A rusting metal crown is wrapped around the wood.

Today’s glimmer: Going out to the garden in the morning to see the melting ice, and taking a photo of the crown I placed around Lady Hawthorn two summers ago when I had a tea party there. The crown is rusting beautifully and she wears it well.

YouTube video by rich963 The Seekers - Morningtown Ride (HQ Stereo, 1964/'68)

Today’s glimmer: the sound of a train in the distance. My Midwestern city still has a train line that runs right through the center of it. I think you can track the comfort of this sound back to my favorite lullaby of childhood. I have a recording of my mother singing it to me.

No other person who has existed before or after would write the same list of glimmers. You might get serotonin from model trains and the smell of grass. Your best friend needs the smell of salt water ocean and the tang of taffy on her tongue. We exist to experience this world completely uniquely. 2

Today’s glimmer:
One of the things that gives me the most comfort-serotonin in life is lying down in front of an electric heater with blankets or towels draped around me, listening to the grey noise hum. My mom used to let me do this after a bath when I was a child. It’s so specific. (1)

No other person who has existed before or after I have would write an identical list of glimmers. Your’s might be model trains and the smell of grass. Your best friend needs the smell of salt water ocean and the tang of taffy on her tongue. We exist to experience this world completely uniquely. (2)

Today’s glimmer: leaving for work I saw that my snowdrops are peering up their little green heads from the fallen leaves near my back gate. Several friends from warmer climes have shared their own photos of snowdrops already flowering. And I remember that we all bloom on different schedules. 🌱

Librarians aren't going to save us. Librarians aren't superheroes.

They're just people trying to keep largely underfunded and overwhelmed public services going.

Praise is nice; realistic expectations are better; material support is best.

Today’s glimmer: the sussurating whisper of these leaves on the forest trail. Nature is never entirely quiet, even in the sleep of winter.

Breaking Apart on Imbolc Morning — Grace Nuth This morning I went to the woods for Imbolc.

An extremely vulnerable but needed piece of writing about my Imbolc morning.

www.gracenuth.com/blog/breakin...

A woman’s hand extended out above a parking lot. The evening sun is beaming on her fingers turning them a gold color.

Today’s glimmer:
It is Imbolc, a time of shining our light against the dark, of celebrating the goddess. So I was very moved last evening as I was leaving work after a grey, rainy day…when the sun shone out in golden hour light and draped honeyed tones all over my skin.

Nature comforts us.

Today’s glimmer: the seven foot tall winter tree I still have up in my bedroom, and will until spring. Waking up to softly twinkling lights on a tree covered in forest animals is a huge glimmer right now in a dark time, and I’m very grateful for it.

A small brass rabbit figure in the palm of a woman’s hand

A small brass rabbit figurine sitting on a pile of books by a bottle brush tree in a teacup.

Today’s glimmer: this little brass rabbit figure. She’s one of my favorite fidget devices, fits nicely in my hand, and the weight is just right to feel comforting.

And I got her from a wonderful shop owned by really lovely people. (Old Mr. Bailiwick’s in Mt Vernon, Ohio)

How To Be Happy In A Genocidal Dystopia On A Dying World Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

Today’s glimmer is this article:

caityjohnstone.medium.com/how-to-be-ha...

But I’ll admit it’s hard to have any glimmers right now, hearing about the new executive order yesterday restricting gender affirming care to citizens age 19 and under.

Well said! I keep reminding myself that talking about hope and beauty tells people that they’ll be around at the end of this nightmare.