On This Day
1148 – Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade.
The siege of Damascus took place between 24 and 28 July 1148, during the Second Crusade. It ended in a crusader defeat and led to the disintegration of the crusade. The two main Christian forces that marched to the Holy Land in response to Pope Eugene III and Bernard of Clairvaux’s call for the Second Crusade were led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. Both faced disastrous marches across Anatolia in the months that followed, with most of their armies being destroyed. The original focus of the crusade was Edessa (Urfa), but in Jerusalem, the preferred target of King Baldwin III and the Knights Templar was Damascus. At the Council of Acre, magnates from France, Germany, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem decided to divert the crusade to Damascus.
The crusaders decided to attack Damascus from the west, where orchards of Ghouta would provide them with a constant food supply. Having arrived outside the walls of the city, they immediately put it to siege, using wood from the orchards. On 27 July, the crusaders decided to move to the plain on the eastern side of the city, which was less heavily fortified but had much less food and water. Afterwards, the local crusader lords refused to carry on with the siege, and the three kings had no choice but to abandon the city. The entire crusader army retreated back to Jerusalem by 28 July.
Born On This Day
1242 – Christina von Stommeln, German Roman Catholic mystic, ecstatic, and stigmatic (d. 1312)
Christina of Stommeln (24 July 1242 – 6 November 1312), also known as Christina Bruso and Christina Bruzo, was a Roman Catholic mystic, ecstatic, and stigmatic.
Christina is believed to have been born on July 24, 1242, to farmers Heinrich and Hilla Bruso in the village of Stumbeln (now Stommeln), northwest of Cologne. At the age of five, she began to experience religious visions. When she was twelve her parents wished to arrange her marriage, but she left home without their permission and joined a Beguine community in Cologne. At the age of fifteen, she manifested stigmata on her hands, feet, and head. This, combined with other mystic experiences, convinced others in the community that she was insane and she was treated with contempt, leading her to return to her home village in 1267.
On her return to Stommeln, she was taken in by the parish priest, Johannes. While in his care, Christina met Peter of Dacia, a Dominican, who became a lifelong friend. Following Peter’s death in 1288, Christine’s mystic experiences ceased. She left the priest’s household and moved into a small cloister, where she lived a quiet life until her death at the age of 70 on November 6, 1312. She was first buried in the Stommeln churchyard, but her remains have been moved several times: first into the church, then in 1342 to Nideggen, and finally in 1569 to the Propsteikirche (Provost’s Church) in Jülich, where a monument to Christine still exists. Her relics survived the destruction of the Provost’s Church during the Allies’ air raid on Jülich on November 16, 1944.
Pope Pius X beatified her on 8 November 1908 and her liturgical feast was affixed to the date of her death.
FYI
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By Colin Marshall, Open Culture: Give Duke Ellington the Pulitzer Prize He Was Denied in 1965
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Courtesy of Lori Deschene/Tiny Buddha
1. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: WHAT OTHER PEOPLE DO.
You can control: Whether you participate in their behavior or enable them.
Some specific things you can do: Trust other people to make their own decisions and accept that you’re not responsible for their choices or the consequences of their actions. Consider that their choices and outcomes are somehow necessary for their growth. Recognize that you can accept their behavior without condoning it, participating in it, or enabling it. And set boundaries if their actions are hurtful to your physical, emotional, or mental health.
2. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: HOW OTHER PEOPLE SEE YOU.
You can control: How you show up in your relationships and how you see yourself.
Some specific things you can do: Make a list of traits you’d like to embody in your relationships—kindness, honesty, or integrity, for example—and check in with yourself throughout the day to ensure you’re being the kind of person you want to be. Take a little time every night to reflect on everything you did that day that made you proud.
3. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: HOW OTHER PEOPLE TREAT YOU.
You can control: How you internalize and respond to their treatment.
Some specific things you can do: Recognize that their behavior isn’t personal; it’s more about them and their own pain and limitations than you. Communicate how their behavior affects you, set boundaries around what you will and will not accept, and plan what you’ll do to enforce those boundaries and what you’ll do if someone crosses them. If the other person regularly treats you with callousness or disrespect, create distance in a relationship or end it altogether.
4. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: WHETHER OTHER PEOPLE LIKE YOU.
You can control: How true you are to yourself.
Some specific things you can do: Remind yourself that no one is liked by everyone and that you don’t have to win anyone’s approval. You just need to be yourself so you can find likeminded people—people who accept and appreciate you just as you are. Also, list what it means to you to be true to yourself and check in with yourself regularly to see if you’re adhering to your list.
5. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK, FEEL, AND BELIEVE.
You can control: How you engage about your different opinions, feelings, and beliefs.
Some specific things you can do: Set boundaries around conversations (which topics you won’t discuss, or what you’ll do to stay calm when hot button issues come up). Remind yourself that it’s not your job to change people’s minds. Look for common ground—something you can both agree on, even if you think differently. And remember that you don’t need to see eye-to-eye on everything to have a strong relationship; you just need to respect each other.
6. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: HOW OTHER PEOPLE INTERNALIZE THINGS YOU SAY AND DO.
You can control: Your intentions and how you respond when you unintentionally hurt someone.
Some specific things you can do: Communicate how you feel if you fear you’ve upset someone and clarify your intentions if you think there’s been a misunderstanding. Also, trust that other people will tell you if they’re upset, and recognize it’s not your job to read their minds if they don’t speak up.
7. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: WHAT HAPPENS TO OTHER PEOPLE.
You can control: How you show up for them when things get hard.
Some specific things you can do: Acknowledge that struggles help us develop strengths and can lead to pride and purpose, so you don’t need to shelter anyone from pain. When they’re hurting, hold space for them instead of trying to save or fix them, and let them know you’re there, you care, and you want to help however you can.
8. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.
You can control: Whether you attach to them, identify with them, or act on them.
Some specific things you can do: Accept that thoughts and feelings come and go, and they are never permanent. They also don’t mean anything about you as a person. Also, practice pausing before acting on a thought or feeling so you can respond from a place of calmness and clarity.
9. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: THE THINGS THAT HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED.
You can control: What you do in the present.
Some specific things you can do: Note what you’ve learned from the things you wish you could change so you can do things differently going forward, starting now. Reframe the past to find the good in what happened. Make amends if you’ve hurt someone or write a letter (to send or not) to someone who hurt so you can work toward forgiveness.
10. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: EVERYTHING THAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN.
You can control: How you strengthen yourself to handle the unknown.
Some specific things you can do: Schedule in your daily to-do list at least one activity to boost your mental and emotional health—like meditating, journaling, and connecting with your support system—so you feel capable of handling whatever comes at you. Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal offers a wide array of prompts, challenges, and exercises to help with this!
11. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: THE OUTCOME OF ANYTHING YOU DO.
You can control: Your efforts.
Some specific things you can do: Put in the time for anything that matters to you, even if it’s just a little every day. Focus on progress, not perfection, so you don’t end up feeling paralyzed. Lastly, remind yourself that you can only do your best, and your best is good enough; and that even if things don’t turn out as you hope, something good can come from the experience.
12. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: YOUR BODY AGING.
You can control: How well you take care of your body and how you think about it.
Some specific things you can do: Prioritize sleep, drink water daily, eat a moderate, mostly unprocessed diet, and move your body a little every day. Focus on how well your body serves you and how it enables you to do things you enjoy. And remember aging is far better than the alternative—and as the saying goes, “a privilege denied to many.”
13. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR HEALTH.
You can control: The preventative health measures you take.
Some specific things you can do: Stay on top of doctor’s appointments and schedule an appointment if ever anything concerns you—don’t wait. Prioritize rest instead of pushing yourself to always be productive. Minimize exposure to toxins, quit smoking if you’re a smoker, and wear sunscreen regularly.
14. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: THE INEVITABILITY OF YOU GETTING HURT.
You can control: How you treat yourself when you’re hurting.
Some specific things you can do: Remind yourself that there’s no way to avoid pain because the act of avoiding itself is painful. Practice sitting with your pain instead of numbing it with substances or addictive behaviors. Talk to yourself as you’d talk to someone you love when they’re hurting, and practice looking for the gains in losses so that every challenge and setback feels meaningful.
15. YOU CAN’T CONTROL: THE FACT THAT THERE’S SUFFERING IN THE WORLD.
You can control: Whether you contribute to it or help alleviate it.
Some specific things you can do: Work toward healing your own pain (since hurt people hurt people). Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. When you see someone hurting, offer your non-judgmental presence and ask how you can help. Commit small acts of kindness every day. Lastly, donate your time, money, or resources to causes you’re passionate about.
Recipes
By Patty Catalano, The Kitchn: How to Make Sour Cream
Little House Big Alaska: Crispy Air Fryer Fried Pickles
By Leanne Brown, The Kitchn: Recipe: Creamy Zucchini Fettuccine
Food Network Kitchen: Tomato Cobbler with Parmesan-Basil Biscuits
LaVerna Mjones, Moorhead, Minnesota, Taste of Home: Nacho Pie
Kitchen Mason: How to Make Rolo Cookies!
Just the Recipe: Paste the URL to any recipe, click submit, and it’ll return literally JUST the recipe- no ads, no life story of the writer, no nothing EXCEPT the recipe.
DamnDelicious
RecipeTinEats
- Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel June 12, 2026Firstly, thank you for the Jaffle love. 🥰 Hit the Jaffle button above to see what he got up to today! Secondly – cake. Specifically, Coffee Cake! A classic crumb cake with a jammy cinnamon ribbon, loaded with lots and lots of nubbly, extra crunchy cinnamon streusel. Outrageously good. Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel This... […]Nagi
- Introducing Jaffle! June 10, 2026Meet Jaffle! Future Chief Taste Tester. Son of a Dozer friend. A little bundle of golden, fluffy joy! 48 hours of instant happiness I didn’t expect to get a new puppy so soon after saying goodbye to Dozer. To be honest, I wasn’t sure when I’d be ready. And I had it in my head... […]Nagi
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 15 June 15, 2026Picture of the day Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 14 June 14, 2026Picture of the day Wulfenite crystals with calcite, found in the Erupción Mine, Sierra de Los Lamentos, Ahumada Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico.
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Welcome to the Stump the Bookseller blog!
Stump the Bookseller is a service offered by Loganberry Books to reconnect people to the books they love but can’t quite remember. In brief (for more detailed information see our About page), people can post their memories here, and the hivemind goes to work. After all, the collective mind of bibliophiles, readers, parents and librarians around the world is much better than just a few of us thinking. Together with these wonderful Stumper Magicians, we have a nearly 50% success rate in finding these long lost but treasured books. The more concrete the book description, the better the success rate, of course. It is a labor of love to keep it going, and there is a modest fee. Please see the How To page to find price information and details on how to submit your Book Stumper and payment.
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