Picture Postcards
Postcard from Up North
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ~ Mt 7:7 (These words never felt truer, or more humbling, than this past weekend when Dan Shaheen and I were married Up North in Michigan. I can’t wait to share more with you…
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Thaw, with her gentle persuasion, is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces. ~ Henry David Thoreau (Little Traverse Bay responds beautifully to gentle persuasion, as we all do…. ) Thank you for your patience these months of work on my book, my dear friends. First draft is…
Read MorePostcard from Up North
They got up steam and proceeded calmly to the north where there seemed to be no people, but only mountains, lakes, reedy snow-filled steppes, and winter gods who played with storms and stars. ~Mark Helprin, A Winter’s Tale (The winter gods have been playing well Up North. The tundra is buried in snow, but beautifully. Just…
Read MoreHappy Valentine’s Day
In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. ~Buddha (Valentine’s Day, we love your hearts and candy and roses, but most of all your message. It is akin to the message of Buddha and of ice-glazed…
Read MoreHappy New Year, and something extra special
There are years that ask questions, and years that answer. ~Zora Neale Hurston (First: thank you all so very much for the many gifts you shared here in 2013. Your presence and comments are a treasure! Also: here in front of the Christmas tree on Main Street last night, the extraordinary man of my heart…
Read MorePostcard from Up North
The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero (May the coming days fill you and yours with heavenly peace. Here’s winter solstice inspiration, morning steam rising off of Little Traverse Bay.)
Read MoreHappy Thanksgiving
Gratitude . . . goes beyond the “mine” and “yours” to the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit…
Read MorePostcard from Up North
Love is the most necessary of all virtues…the fire of love of God and neighbor–it will work wonders. ~St. Anthony Mary Claret (On the feast of All Saints this week, I’m thinking of St. Anthony Claret of Spain. He took the road less traveled when he founded the small but powerful Claretian Missionaries. I worked…
Read MorePostcard from Up North
Should you fall even fifty times a day, never on any account should that surprise or worry you. Instead, ever so gently set your heart back in the right direction. ~Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (Morning mist rising off of Pickerel Lake. Gazing on gentle beauty encourages the gentle recalibration of the heart.)
Read MorePostcard from Up North
On pavements and the bark of trees, I have found whole worlds. . ~ Mark Tobey (Peak leaves, fallen, front steps. Moments like these, one wonders how we survived without such color til now, and how we’ll possibly get along when she is gone.)
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