This year was full of tumult and change, yet grounding me in all things is reading. And what a year for incredible books to read, to study, to contemplate, to wonder! Favorite authors (Ian McEwan, Colum McCann, Sue Monk Kidd, Barbara Kingsolver, Ocean Vuong, Han Kang), heart-breaking stories (“All The Colors of the Dark,” “Grace,” …
I read the following short paragraphs recently. They resonated with me as I contemplate this season of my life, thinking about family, friends, what home looks like after decades of wandering: “Beyond careers, roles, and responsibilities lies a new chapter—one filled with possibility, purpose, and profound transformation. At this stage, something deeper calls. A yearning …
Point Lobos State Nature Reserve I did a thing today, six years in the making. I returned to Highway 1 along the California coast near Carmel to run the Big Sur 11-miler race. In 2019, I had a very good day running this same race along the narrow road above the Pacific Ocean, climbing and …
Reading is a lifeline to me, as much a part of me as breathing, as vital as running, as familiar as my sons. As each year begins anew, I never quite know what books I’ll read throughout the year, whether Booker short-listed or finalists, Pulitzer Prize winners, recommendations from “The Guardian’s” Sunday book section, selections …
The fog was beginning to shroud the mountains to the west. Mars rising, its beacon bright as a full moon lit the backdrop. Christopher and I walked above the Eel River. It meanders through meadows and dairy farms at this point in its journey to the ocean. The evening winds rustled the several lone pine …
My first impressions, primarily through photographs, of our family’s journey together in northern Italy: Trento, Italy: Castle Buonconsiglio contains some of the most significant International Gothic frescoes in the world. The twelve frescoes in the Eagle Tower (Aigle) depict the “cycle of months,” each fresco representing a month of the year in the fourteenth century; …
As I woke the first morning in our new house in Chapel Hill, I wondered how many “first mornings” Doug and I have had since we’ve been married? How many places have we called home? I count at least fourteen houses, almost as many temporary apartments (is two years temporary?), in almost thirty-eight years of …
When I was about nine years old I wanted a room of my own, tired of sharing a bedroom with one of my older sisters (five children, three bedrooms, my oldest sister, Anne, usually had her own room). There wasn’t a space IN the house so I decided to create a room in our garage, …
Reading about elephants in preparation for being surrounded by elephants As I reviewed the more than eighty books I’ve read this year, the fullness of the literary talents displayed by so many authors caught my attention. My reading is eclectic, heavily influenced this year by my trip to South Africa and the desire to learn …
Avenue of Kirstenbosch lined with Camphor and Morton Fig trees In my mind’s eye, the terrain of South Africa is brown: dried grasses; elephant-damaged trees, blackened shadows against the open sky; lichen-covered rock outcroppings; murky ponds with hippopotamus eyes peeking above the water line; rutted and dusty dirt roads; barren mountains rising above the rolling …