Becoming our own wayfinders.
I have spent the majority of my life in a ‘grid’ city. According to Wikipedia, “In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. The grid plan dates from antiquity and originated in […]
“Flinging yourself straight into life” – or not.
Fyodor Dostoevsky in the book Crime and Punishment, writes “Don’t be overwise; fling yourself straight into life, without deliberation; don’t be afraid – the flood will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again.” Sometimes I wish I was a ‘fling yourself straight into life!’ person. Some of you reading this post […]
The Book of Revelation – and some Curry Soup.
My family growing up had a tradition on Christmas Eve of making my mom’s Curry Soup – which is really just a concoction of two specific canned soups juzzzzed up a bit with curry powder. I still incorporate the soup into my own Christmas Eve ritual. What makes the soup so magical is the […]
My Jack-o-Lantern and Your “thing.”
My sweet mom has an artist’s heart and one thing she loved to do in the mid 70s of my youth was paint ceramics. It was a thing back then to go to a ceramics store and get a piece of molded, but not yet fired and glazed, pottery. You would take the pottery home […]
Diet Coke and emotional caffeine.
I love Diet Coke. There, I said it. I know it’s not a particularly healthy thing to ‘love’ in this “we-know-better-so-we-should-do-better” day and age. I get it. And, in my defense, I drink A LOT of water, as well. I promise. I know a lot of you can relate. Caffeine, in some form or another, […]
Broken yolks and de-escalative laughter.
This morning I asked Darren to flip my fried eggs for me because 1) I wanted my yolks to remain intact, 2) I was too scared I would break them, and 3) he is notoriously much, much better than me at anything having to do with the stove. (The oven I have mastered – but […]
“A fine mingling of letting go and holding on.”
Jon J. Muth tells the story of “two traveling monks who reached a town where there was a young woman waiting to step out of her sedan chair [a portable covered chair that is designed to hold one person and is carried on poles by two people]. The rains had made deep puddles and she […]
57 degrees and Sunshine.
I live west of the Wasatch Mountains (a range on the western border of the Rockies) in a ski resort-filled area of the Western United States. We usually see an average of 4.0 months of ‘snow’ – typically from November 12 through March 12 – and in those 4 months about half the days are […]
Comfort, Ability, and a bit of Happiness.
I’m writing this from a desk in a room on the 40th floor of a 5-star hotel. It is one of my favorite places to work and write. I have been here so many times now that it feels like home away from home. My home away from home. I’ve been thinking a lot about […]
Seasons and a great big table.
When I moved into my first real stand-alone single-family on-it’s-own-lot house several years ago, I had so many decisions to make. So many. Thankfully, I knew exactly what I wanted in the kitchen – a great big table that could fit many, many people. My youngest brother volunteered to build me an 8’ by 4’ […]
