Quotes and Graces

68. July 3, 2013

 “It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.” 

― Abraham Lincoln

how much less complicated life is when
we pretend that people are uncomplicated.

That good guys are always only good, and those with vices are villains.

But we are all, as a friend once taught me, made of both mud and spark.

And there is pain in pretending that we are only always one or the other.

I hope that this week you know the deep joy

 of loving the people around you for the complicated

 mix of dark and light that they are.

And the deep wonder of being deeply loved 

for all of who you already are,

And for the hero you wish to be.

67. June 26, 2013

Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness...

Because there are things that must be retaught their loveliness, and things whose loveliness we ourselves must be retaught.

It's so easy, as we move through our days

to feel like all we do is one tedious, pointless, unlovely thing after another

until we wonder if it's we who have become tedious, pointless and unlovely.

but I hope this week that you relearn the truth of your own loveliness.

And the beauty of the ordinary people and things that fill your days.

I hope you relearn the beauty of what you do

when you nurture the people around you.

Even when you do that everyday extraordinary thing called making dinner.

Which is sometimes just dinner.

and sometimes is love

on a plate.

Galway Kennell

66. June 23, 2013

“Logic will get you from A to Z;

 imagination will get you everywhere.” 

Albert Einstein

And I want you to know that it's okay.

Okay to not quite understand the place from which you started.

And okay to not quite know where you want to end up.

And okay when what's hidden beyond the next bend

veers from exciting to scary to sad and back again.

It's okay that you don't control the road or the way it unwinds.

Because you control something more important than all of that.

You have so much power over the very most beautiful part-

So much power to choose

the sort of wonderful you you'll be

when you get there.

65.  June 19, 2013

“My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don't deny it. I'd rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh -- anything but work.” 

― Abraham Lincoln

 I hope by some summer alchemy

the things you must do this week become

things you want to do.

And that whether you're lost in the woods

or lost in wonder-

Whether you're chasing fires or chasing fireflies,

Whether you're busy mending or busy making,

I hope that once or twice this week this week you'll realize

(with a happy surprise!)

that the work engaging you is exactly everything

you'd rather be doing.

64.June 16,2013

"Stolen watermelon tastes sweeter"

But I hope that for you that the days just past have the right balance.

I hope that in the days to come if (and almost certainly when) there are sorrows and frustrations,
 that they are no more than the few grains of salt
 that draw out the week's rich flavor.

I hope that this week, any sadness dissolves, as salt should

 and you are left with days that taste like one slice after another

of solid sweetness.

63.June 13, 2013

"If you want to be successful, find someone

who has achieved the results you want 

and copy what they do"

 Tony Robbins

I'm hoping to copy my way straight into an original way of saying, oh, you know,

 love.

I'm hoping for a week, and a few dinners, that blend the best of individuality and imitation.

And I'm hoping that sort of week for you too.
I hope that maybe once or twice this week

you'll realize that you really are steadily becoming that authentic person you wished long ago to be.

And that the successes you used to only see in others

have become somehow your own. 

And I especially hope that even if it's one of your 364 unbirthdays, 

you feel loved and celebrated, both today

and for many happy days to come.

62.June 9, 2013                 If you ignore the rules people will, half the time,

 quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you." 

                                                             Terry Prachett

And I hope you had the fun (or terror) of smashing a few of your own unexamined rules.

And I want you to know that it matters. 

It matters every time that you grow and work and love in a way you once thought you wouldn't.

Or feared you couldn't.

It matters every time that you turn tedium to play, and routine into a wild rumpus.

And it matters every little time that you wrest 

from the jaws of what you were told was inevitable defeat

some unconventional sort of victory.

61. June 5, 2013

It is the beginning of wisdom when you recognize that the 

best you can do is choose which rules you want to live by

Wallace Stegner 

Learning and unlearning, holding up sets of age-old rules for examination and tipping the heaviest ones over.

These are tasks for younger people than I.

And yet.

I remain curious enough to question a few small rules .

And I hope you do too.

I hope this week, once or twice,

You practice some act of benign anarchy.

and set yourself a little free from customs that are cast in cement.

And maybe once or twice wonder

(As I in my most unruly moments wonder)

"What if the only rule that really matters

is love?"

60. June 2, 2013

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal"

Winston Churchill

I hope that the pieces of this week fit together on the first try.

I hope that when you try something new this week, it exceeds your expectations.

And I hope that this week, whether you find yourself creating

a spread or a spreadsheet, 

you can take a step back, admire the work of your hands

and tell yourself, with deep gratisfaction,

"yeah, I made that"

59. May 28, 2013

"Here's rosemary, that's for remembrance;
pray, love, remember"
Ophelia, in Hamlet, Act 4

William Shakespeare

It's so easy to forget, isn't it? 

So easy to forget how connected we all are-

how kindness or cruelty or courage ripple over and through our lives

like the circles from the splash of a stone.

I hope this week you can remember.

I hope you can remember a time (maybe even now) 

when you were surrounded by love.

When you were embraced with a fierce kindness that would fight tigers for you

or feed tigers for you.

When you were protected by a fearless wisdom that knew which tigers to combat, and which tigers to cuddle. 

even when all those tigers were you.

58. May 26,2013

 “I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” 

Eleanor Roosevelt

 I hope that this week, you open that expansive soul and that excellent mind to all of them.

I hope you give yourself permission to wonder "What if?"

What if you try that new thing, release that old pain, befriend those new people, pursue that old desire, learn that new way, revise that old opinion, open yourself to that new enthusiasm?

I know there may be deep rabbit holes, and terror as well as bliss may lie beyond the door labeled "what if?"

I hope you ask the question anyway.

After all, it may be that on the ninth attempt, curiosity actually did kill the cat,

but I'll bet not before that inquisitive cat learned exactly what it meant

 to feel like a lion.

57. May 22, 2013

Frugality without creativity is deprivation.

 Amy Dacyczyn

I hope you feel as if nothing is wasted.
I hope the time you spend returns you pleasure and rest.
I hope the effort you spend brings you achievement and recognition.
I hope the kindness you offer is met with appreciation.
And I hope the love you pour out on the people around you

nurtures the entire world.

56. May 19, 2013

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway

Mother Teresa

I hope that this week, whether you give and receive grand gestures or ordinary extravagances,

that you are able to relax into the giving and receiving of love.

And wonder with me if maybe this is the way we give ourselves to what and who we love:

paycheck by paycheck

plate by plate

word by word,

knowing that what we give is almost never the best there is-

and yet is often

the very best we have.

 55. May 15, 2013
                                                          We're connected, as women. It's like a spiderweb. 

 Sarah Addison Allen

 I hope this week that you too feel yourself connected by strong invisible threads to people who love you.

I hope you find yourself somehow in the company of those who see the luminous bits that lie deep in the depths of you.

Those who welcome the shadows and the lights of your story and your soul.

I hope you find yourself surrounded once or twice this week with understanding and laughter.

Because I hope that this week, whether you're in the company of men or the company of women, that you find yourself happily

in the company of friends.

54.May 13,2013

When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said. 

― A.A. Milne

Whatever memories this Mother's Day has brought to mind or brought into being, I hope that you know.

I hope that you know yourself to be treasured beyond telling.

I hope that you know that there is someone for whom you are the most exciting part of the day.

I hope that you know that when you love the people around you

and feed them all the best things you can, you're nurturing this weary little world

one little soul at a time.

53. May 9, 2013

“ eating breakfast, even if it's 5 o'clock in the afternoon, is a sign that the day has just begun and good things can still happen. Having lunch is like throwing in the towel.”

Johnathan Goldstein

Do you know what happens when you have breakfast for dinner? You scramble things up.

When breakfast is for dinner, it's no longer about trying to make your belly unempty before you dash out of the door. It's about fun and comfort, given and received.

 It upsets the accepted order of things, and gives you time to enjoy something that life usually requires you to rush through. 

It puts beginnings where endings ought to go.
I hope this week that you feel well breakfasted: sharp,and strong, and cared for; ready for a day full of possibilities. 

And I hope that this week, every breakfast you have, no matter when you have it,  

Feels like the dawn of a truly

 beautiful day.

52.  May 5, 2013

"When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest." 

― Ernest Hemingway,

I hope that wherever you are, whether winter is arriving or departing, this week gives you one or two of those delicious days that persuade you to forget your troubles.

 I hope for a week of spring. Full of life, and free of regrets and sorrows.

It's possible, of course, that there will be moments this week when you find yourself backed into an unpleasant corner, boxed in by mistakes and flaws; cooped up with only the most nettlesome parts of your life for company.

If, despite all my hopes, that dreadful circumstance occurs, maybe this week will give you the hope to open a new metaphorical window.

Or knock on a new metaphorical door.

Or step over a new threshold that may lead you to (who knows?)

your new kind of happy place

51. May 1, 2013

I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them; I make so many beginnings there never will be an end.

Louisa May Alcott

I wonder if for you too these last weeks have been full of the finding and facing of new things.

I wonder if for you too these weeks have been full of re-wording-

You know- replace, reassess, rearrange, reassemble, refresh, reboot, resume....

Words about beginning.

or beginning again.

And new beginnings can be a little....exey. You know-

exhilarating. or exhausting.

but if you look out your window, I'll bet you'll see the whole springtime world is re-working.

and I hope this week, once or twice, the whole reawakening world will find a way to give you courage, peace, and all the energy you need to, you know,

Restart.

50. April 1, 2013

“The cure for anything is salt water - 

tears, sweat, or the sea.”

Isak Dinesen

That little girl in the shell bikini- the one who grew up to be my brilliant, beautiful, cancer-kicking, life-living daughter? She once tacked this to her bedroom wall:

"One can always trust to time. Insert a wedge of time and nearly everything works itself out."

I think Isak Dinesen's quote could've been scrawled right underneath it. 

Because time and salt water can sort out a great many things.

This week, as I've been ladling out one cup of salt after another (and learning so much in the ladling!!!!) I've been thinking about the necessity of salt- the dangers of too much-

Alice, after all, nearly drowned in her own tears.
What- you thought I was going to mention
something about blood pressure?

And the importance of just enough. 

And that's what I hope. I hope for a week that's properly salted.

A week of piquancy, of work that breaks a creative sweat, a week of healing.

And I hope that this week, if there must be salt tears, instead of swamping you, they bear you up.

And float you safely toward home.

49. March 27,2013

I love you like meat loves salt.

folktale type 923

You've realized what the king realized, haven't you, on the night of the tasteless feast? That in seven simple words, his daughter had told her father that she savored her life more because of he was a part of it.

I wonder what it is that you love the way that meat loves salt.

What it is that adds flavor and zest and color to your life.

Maybe that stack of books by your bed.

Maybe the that puppy that spins in happy circles every time you come home.

Maybe (if you're lucky) there are a few people on that list too

And I hope that this week you get a moment or two to gaze quietly at those who are near and hold clearly in your imagination those who are far and think about how flavorless your life would be without them.

I hope you have a moment to think about the laughter and wonder  and astonishment with which they season your days.

And I hope that you can hug them close, and smile into their eyes as they smile into yours and hear yourself saying

i love ya like salt.
And i hope you hear it back.

48. March 25, 2013

“When there is noise and crowds, there is trouble" 

Dejan Stojanovic

You know what?

I can only imagine what's ahead for you this week. 

And I imagine that there's a chance that sometime this week you may  feel the hemmed-in, pressed-down frantic feeling that comes from being in an unfriendly crowd.

Maybe a crowd of people (little or big), all clamoring for something from you.

Maybe a crowd of chores and tasks and expectations that threatens to squeeze the air from your lungs.

Or maybe (and this is the worst crowd of all), a vicious crowd of your own merciless thoughts.

I hope that in the middle of the frenzy, in the midst of the maddening crowd, you can close your eyes.

And breathe. 

And gather all the determined love and quiet courage that you can find.

Because that place? The place where love and courage meet?

It's very rarely crowded.

47. March 20, 2013

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result"

I hope this week that if (and almost certainly when) you find yourself  teetering on the edge of reason, that you'll take a step back, pour yourself a comforting beverage and sit down with your own particular crazy cake.

I hope you find a way to name the ways you approach your life that make your days harder, and the quirky, inventive ways that you make life more fun.

I hope that as you do, you become less of riddle to yourself, and more of a wonder.

I hope that you find a way to harness all that crazy energy and make it take you where you want to go. 

That you plant your feet firmly on the line between crazy and creative and take a step forward. Because for you, maybe not always, but maybe for today, that line? 

It's a walk in the park.

46. March 18, 2012

A good head and a good heart

 are always a formidable combination.

Nelson Mandela

 Unassuming tools are often capable of moving the world in astounding ways.

 I've been thinking alot about that-

about dulling, and sharpening, and the people I'm lucky enough to know who possess and are possessed by strong sharp minds and strong brave hearts. 

I hope this week, as the world around you needs moving, or mending, or a steady hand to still it, that you feel (even if just for a moment) the sharp strength of the best tools you will ever call your own:

 your own heart and your own mind.

 I hope in that moment you know this; when you blend the keen resourcefulness of your strong mind with the compassionate courage of your strong heart, this ruined, wild, wonderful world had better take notice. Because it's about to be loved into order by someone really, truly

quite formidable.

45. March 12, 2013

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy that sustained him through temporary periods of joy

W.B. Yeats

And yet I've read enough Irish writing and listened to enough Irish music to wish you the luck of the Irish anyway.
I wish you the hope of a people who understand that beauty often lies deep beneath sorrow.
I wish you a wild freedom that defies norms and restrictions.
I wish you the vision of a people who live easily with things unseen.
I wish you the stubborn resilience of a people who carry passion and learning and love and art with them into exile.
Because to wish you brave, and free, full of passion and curiousity no matter where you go and no matter how oppressive your circumstances is to wish you

very, very lucky indeed.

44. March 11, 2013

“Life is what happens to you 
 while you're busy making other plans.” 

Allen Saunders

Do you know what I realized when plane plans changed this week?

That there was a plan under the plan.

That the immediate plan was all about accomplishing a deeper plan- a plan about loving people and being loved and have lots of fun in the loving.

And though one plan went awry, the loving and the fun still somehow happened.

 I hope that this week, if (and almost certainly when) you find yourself standing in the rubble of another carefully constructed plan, you realize the same thing.

I hope you see, through the dust of one fractured plan, the gleam of your bigger plans.

Your big plans to love people, to help the people you love love each other, and to have lots of fun in the loving.

I hope this week, if (and almost certainly when) that sort of love and fun happen, you maybe, just maybe, can step back, take a deep breath and a sip of coffee, and whisper to yourself

"Mission Accomplished"

43. March 6, 2013

Earth's crammed with heaven,

 And every common bush afire with God;

 But only he who sees takes off his shoes- 

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I hope that this week, while the rest of the world sits around and plucks blackberries, you see and hear deep things that others miss.

Whether the griefs and stresses that overtake you this week are ordinary or awful, I hope that one or twice you catch a glimpse of the beauty and wonder that so often hide behind them.

I hope that while the rest of the world refuses to see more than one thing at a time, you smile to yourself as you realize that, well, there's almost always more to everything than meets the

42. March 4, 2013

It's the picnic principle. Things taste better outdoors. 

Franny Billingsly

I'm hoping that tomorrow finds me picnicking on the sunny banks of a nearby creek,

and I hope it finds you adventuring too.

Even if it's just a little.

Even if it's only taking something familiar and enjoying it in a new way, in a new place.

I hope you feel the sun this week sinking through your skin into your winter-weary soul

 until you know in your bones that immense wealth of the gifts that you posses- those things with which you can nurture and feed the hungry ones around you- 

you absolutely, positively can 

take it with you.

41. February 26, 2013

May God give you the grace to never

sell yourself short.

William Sloane Coffin

Short ribs, short circuit, shortcake, shortbread, short sell, all of these I can understand. 

Selling yourself short? That took a little more thought. 

A little thought, and 11 short little words.

And here's what I hope:

I hope this week that you see how deeply this little world needs what you have to offer,

 and that you see the stunning strength and beauty of your offering.

I hope you live in the truth that stature does not determine signifigance. 

 I hope you meet the world this week with your soul, mind and hands wide open

and know yourself equal to its challenges.

And I hope that you never,ever underestimate the value of the love you can bring to the table.


40. February 24, 2013

Throughout the world sounds one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me the chance to do my very best.

Babbette's Feast

I hope that you remember.

I hope that you remember that you are, if you wish to be, an artist.

And as the comedies and tragedies of every day occur,

I hope you discover in yourself the writer, the producer, the director,the supporting actor, the star.

I hope that this week you step into a world in need of beauty

and find that in your mighty soul and your hard working hands

you posses all the talent your art requires.

39. February 20,2013

All of great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.

Leo Tolstoy

Someday, right after I figure out the difference between string theory and chaos theory, I'm going to figure out humanity.

I'm going to figure out why we all long to belong, and will go to such great lengths to fit in with those we want to belong to, and why we (at the same time!) long to be seen as a unique and original one-of-a-kind wonder.

Until then, I'm going to let you know that I know-

There are days when the things that need doing day after day become so tedious that you wonder whether the dreariness of it all is sinking into your very pores.

There are days so ordinary that you wonder if the poets who speak of your life as a shining, unique, original thing are perhaps a little wrong in the head.

The poets are telling the truth.

And I hope you feel that truth this week. I hope you breathe in and out, and understand that

just because a thing happens every ordinary day

Doesn't mean it's not extraordinarily beautiful.

38. February 18, 2013

Quick now, here,now,always-

A condition of complete simplicity

(costing not less than everything)

t.s. eliot\

I've just realized that I have actually taken a quote by one of the greatest literary minds of the 20th century and kneaded it into biscuits. 

I may have just baked my way into a sort of blasphemy. 

Except.... I understand that what Eliot says is true.

Simplicity costs.

Those simple things you do for the people you love? Those simple acts of caring, feeding and providing?

They are at times nothing less than acts of courage and nobility.

They are, quite simply, acts of love.

And love, like most simplicities, can be fearfully difficult.

Yet, brave soul that you are, 

I'll bet that you find yourself this week scoffing at cost and danger as you give and receive the simply beautiful sentence,

I love you.

 At least, I hope so.

37. February 13,2013

 The act of feeding someone is the ultimate act

 of care and affection.

 Sylvain Reynard

It's so goofy sometimes, all this giddy giving and receiving of love.

So reckless and impractical.

And yet I hope. 

I hope that this week you are fed, body and soul, by love.

I hope that whether you mark this day or wish to miss this day, you know yourself to be somehow, by someone, loved and cared for.

And that those you care for know beyond doubt the depth of the love that you hold for them.

A long time ago, one of Shakespeare's most lovesick losers sighed to his court musician,

"If music be the food of love, play on"

But maybe it's food that is the food of love.

And if that be so, then cook on my friends,

 cook on.


36. February 10, 2013

All people share the same passions.

They are merely manifest differently according to one's culture”
― Yasuo Kuwahara,

And a few hopes for the New Year, no matter what combination of solar, lunar, or Gregorian it may be:

I wish you health in body,mind and soul.

I wish you life that is full of life.

Prosperity.

Hope.

Love.

I wish you lots and lots of love.

Because our common passions and our common needs transcend shifts in time and geography.

And though this year our clocks, calendars and customs may diverge,

My hope for all of us is that our common humanity holds steady.

35. February 5, 2013

Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.

Louise Erdrich

I know that for all of us, what's real must sometimes surrender to reality.

I know that the authentic must sometimes give way to the expedient.

but maybe-

Maybe there's a line or two of Erdrich's poem that can be applied this week to the cracks and corners of our lives that most need this kind of kind advice.

Maybe this week there's one thing you can do or leave undone that will strengthen your pursuit of the authentic.

One thing that will help you spend a little less energy worrying about who you expect yourself to be and a little more energy on becoming who you wish yourself to be.

That's what I hope.

Because that luminous you that you wish to be

is really, quite authentically, awesome.


34. February 2. 2013

Indulgence rare to pleasures lendeth zest

Juvenal

Sometime this year it's your birthday, isn't it?

And in honor of that sweet event, I hope that this week you find yourself the recipient of indulgent kindness.

The sort of cake and ice cream kindness that unwraps itself into peace.

I hope that you receive this week the very things you need most; things you never could have obtained by yourself; things that fit just right.

And I hope that you take all those beautiful things and regift them to the world around you-

Well, okay, maybe not the whole world.

Only anybody with a birthday.

33. January 30,2013

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes:

Nothing of him that doth fade

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.

William Shakespeare

Sea-change. Yet another phrase that Shakespeare, that wily wordsmith, snuck into our vocabulary. The dictionary says it means "a striking change, often for the better"

Striking or subtle, we all know what it feels like when unseen forces flow around us, transforming the everyday into the extraordinary, faded into fresh, loss into gain.

Maybe you'll feel that this week.

Maybe you feel it now- deep currents pulling you toward a different course that the one you'd charted. Pulling you toward something new and rich and strange.

Maybe it's time to hoist those metaphorical sails, mate, and let the quieting sea carry you to shore.

If you're lucky, you may even hear the mermaids singing.

32. January 27,2013

“A soup like this is not the work of one man.

It is the result of a constantly refined tradition. There are nearly a thousand years of history in this soup.”

Willa Cather

No matter what you cook this week, I hope that every day is a bowl of chili day-

Days full of simple, humble things that have the power to warm you, body and soul.

Full of tradition, imagination and love.

I hope that you are nourished and nurtured this week by things ancient and new, and that you find it easy to pass that sustaining stuff to all the hungry souls around you.

Oh, and if you could pass the nachos too, that would be great.

31. January 23, 2013

In the depth of winter I finally learned 

that there was in me an invincible summer.

Albert Camus

Do you know what's been making me smile for the last two days? 

Phil Dunphy's mangling of a famous lemony aphorism:

That and the phrase of Camus that has served as a talisman through many dark winters of the soul:

 "invincible summer"

Because the world can be a chilly place. Warmed a degree or two, maybe, by our every act of nurturing kindness.

 It might not matter much.

It might not matter any more than the sight of the sun after 3 gray days of rain.

Which, you know, matters.

 I hope that this week you discover ways to gather to yourself every scrap of love and hope and peace you can find. And when you do,  I hope you feel like you're carrying the sun in your weary hands.

 I hope you feel like you're carrying into every gloom your own invincible summer.


30. January 20, 2012

“I've never been lost,

 but I was mighty turned around for three days once.” 

― Daniel Boone

In the meantime, I want you to know that I know.
I know that you'll probably face problems this week far more baffling than making sense of a jumble of leftovers. I know that some of you may find yourself in tangles so dark and scary that even Daniel Boone couldn't blaze an easy trail through them.
And you'll take courage and hope and explore that new frontier step-by-step. A step back, toward who you know you love and who you know yourself to be, then a step or two forward, toward who you wish to love; who you want to be. With a  few crazy wrenching "right! no left!" turns thrown in for good (or bad) measure.
I want you to know that I know that you'll find your way through.
I know you will, pathfinder.
After all, haven't you gone fearlessly into Ikea (or something like it) and emerged to tell the tale?

29. January16, 2013

I want to go to there

Liz Lemmon

Some of you already know that my  pantheon of personal heroes is populated by, among others,  Lincoln, Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Wolverine.... and this guy

always a beautiful day in  his neighborhood

How I loved the grace and sense of play with which gentled his way through some of the darkest fears and deepest hurts of childhood. And the way he made feeding the fish and hanging up cardigans look fun. 

That's what I wish for you this week.

I wish grace and gentleness all around you in those moments when you are truly scared or very sad.

 And I hope that once or twice this week you'll find those other things- those heavy, tedious tasks of adulthood- upended by a sudden breeze of imagination and turned unexpectedly into play. 

And I hope that this week, once or twice, you'll find yourself laughing in delighted surprise when you realize that the thing that was a chore has become a game, and that the place you really, really want to go to is the place right where you are.

28. January 13,2013

Life is a lot like jazz - it's best when you improvise.” 

George Gershwin

Guess what?

Once, a long time ago, jazz legend and all around good guy Louis Armstrong said "Man, if you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know". 

And I can't tell you what jazz is either. I can't define for you  literal, musical jazz or the jazz that happens metaphorically throughout your day. But I can tell you how to hear it.

Some time this week (and  I can almost guarantee this) life will throw you something unexpected. Life will call out to you a wild, random, dissonant strain of music, and you'll be expected to respond.

 And you will respond.

And if you find yourself responding to that call with all the bluesy hope and creative power you can summon; if you find yourself spontaneously expressing beauty and love and composing that, somehow, into something you can offer the people around you, that's jazz. 

And you're an artist. A metaphorical musician.  

Cause, it's like Thelonius Monk said: 

"The piano ain't got no wrong notes"

27. January 9, 2013

It ain't necessarily so....

george gershwin

nd that's what I've been thinking about all week. The weight of our assumptions-

How we grow up, and pack into our lives one unexamined, untested assumption after another about what's tasty, what's yukky, what's healthy, what's harmful,what's important, what's trivial, who's smart, who's stupid, who's wrong, who's right...

until it all gets pretty heavy- 

(and it doesn't even have wheels)

Maybe, just maybe, there'll be a time this week when one of those old assumptions that weigh you down will come out of the shadows and show itself. And if you have the time to pin it down and find out if it's telling you the truth, maybe you'll find out that you and the world around you are more right and more ruined and more beautiful than you ever assumed possible.

Those assumptions-especially the heavy ones, the ones that hurt? Take a closer look, okay? Because, well, they ain't necessarily so...

26. January 6, 2013

"Too much of a good thing can be wonderful"

Mae West

Surpluses. Kind of a crazy week to be thinking about that,isn't it?

Because it's just after Christmas, and everything's.... spent.

And maybe today it really does feel like everything. All your money, all your time, all your energy, all your everything, just...spent.

But I hope that as you move through the days of this week you realize the vast power you still hold.

Because you still have the power to give something away, even though you may not feel that you have anything left at all. 

That smile, those words spoken kindly, that act of nurturing, that gratitude, that wordless hug, that courage, that love.

 The world is in deep need of those things.

I hope that you notice yourself this week, freely giving the world what it so desperately needs.

And I hope that it comes right back at cha.

25. January 1, 2013

every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

supersonic

 Fish. vegetables. and no biscuits or pasta. Some things fall away, some things remain. And entirely new things start.

  And they matter, I think.

The things you choose to keep, the things you choose to let go of, the things that change because of those choices. All your endings, all your beginnings, all your losses, all your gains.

The ones that you realize are important and the ones you don't.

They matter because you matter. Because your life matters.

And I'm wondering if maybe that old middle school joke was right. Maybe I should make like a tree. No, not make like a tree and leaf-

Make like a tree and...

release.                                                retain.                                       renew.

Repeat.

24. December 31, 2012

things are unchangeable, and at the same time

 are being constantly transformed

Yukio Mashima

 I'm wondering if maybe underneath all the broken resolutions of years past- all those discouraging attempts to resolve ourselves, there's a deeper wish to transform ourselves. You know, a wish to change the form  of our lives.

And you know what?

Maybe we do have the power to reshape some of the things in ourselves we long to change.

Because I'm pretty sure that right now, today, you have at least the power to transform elements as ordinary as peanut butter and jelly and bread into happiness this big:

And if you've got that kind of power, who knows what wonders you may yet perform?

23. December 25, 2012

"With great power

comes great responsibility"

Uncle Ben

it's odd, isn't it.

The peculiar lassitude that can settle in after all the prezzies are opened and the food's consumed and the tree is dimmed and the whole year is being folded up like wrapping paper.

I hope that as the frantic activity of the season subsides, you'll find that you're left with sweet peace and love and at least a little joy and hope. And memories that remind you that all of those beautiful things are really, truly possible for you.

I know they are, because I baked them for you.

And I might have superpowers.

And if I do, I'll bet you do too.

Merry Christmas!

22. December 23, 2012

Memory and Hope have one daughter,
and her name is Art.

w.b. yeats.

Well look, it's Christmas Eve.

And before I hang the stockings by the chimney with care, I want you to know that I hope...

I hope your memories of the year past are happy ones that fill you with gratitude and wonder.

 And if they don't, if memories of the year past are filled with darkness, I hope that you will find somewhere in that darkness a memory of love, of beauty,of life lived artfully.

And that you'll gather those memories together, watch them spark into hope and pass that hope to those around you.

like this.

21. December 19, 2012

Not all of us can do great things. But all of us can do small things with great love.

Mother Teresa

t seems that there are more little tasks in these last few days before Christmas than anyone can count, let alone accomplish, doesn't it? A million small things to be done- but if you look closely, I'll bet you'll see that each one is somehow evidence of the deep love you carry for the people around you.

I hope that even if you've reached the edge of exhaustion, you recognize in yourself that resilient, determined love, and find yourself pouring that great love on all kinds of small things that need loving.

Even dinner.

Stay sane, my friends, stay sane.

20. December 17, 2012

Travel is a two way street

And I want you to know that it matters.

Whatever you do today, or tomorrow, or did yesterday, to nurture the world. It matters.

 To nurture is to feed and protect. And when you do that, in whatever way you can, for any life that crosses your own, you administer an antidote to harms and hungers of all kinds.

What you do to love and feed and heal the world around you, even and especially the world nearest and most familiar to you, it matters.

Practice random acts of nurture. Maybe we can change the world.

19. December 12, 2012

"If everything seems under control,

you aren't going fast enough."
Mario Andretti

"There is more to life than

increasing its speed."
Ghandi

Handel's Messiah,

 Some of the most glorious music of the season. And this season is, in so many ways, not only filled with music, but is itself like music.

Look again at those crazy wild notes followed by measure after measure of resting. Then more crazy, then more rest. Amazing!

And it all fits together and fills all available space with beauty.

That's what I hope for you this week. That you'll find the rhythm of this season. Clamor and quiet, intensity and calm, activity and rest, giving and receiving.

I hope that you'll find a way to ease into the the quick, quick, quick, slow rhythm of these days.

And I hope that you'll realize (maybe to your own surprise) that the beautiful music you're dancing to is coming from deep inside your own amazing soul.

18. December 10, 2012

                   The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”                                                                                                      W.B. Yeats

Sometimes I read that Yeats quote, and I wonder. If the world is full magic that waits for us unnoticed (and I've never known Yeats to not tell the truth)  what is it, I wonder, that dulls us.
Maybe  sometimes it's all the things that rush at us. All the demands and expectations and appointments and disappointments. Maybe the harder they bump into us, the duller we become.
It's a crazy time to wish this, but I hope that this week, against all odds, it's not that way for you.
I hope with all my too often unsharp heart that this week love and hope sharpen your senses until you feel yourself alert and alive to the wonder that surrounds you. The wonder of loving, and of being loved.
because I'm pretty sure that whatever magic it is that waits for us,
it's love that's casting the spell.

17. December 4, 2012

Everything you possess of skill, and wealth, and handicraft,
wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?”

― Rumi

The Rumi quote- it's a lovely mindspin, isn't it?

The idea that so much of what we hold dear in our lives began as a thought, or a quest.

And it's no accident that the word quest- to seek- is the source of our word question.

It's not surprising then that so many of our questions, even the itty bitty ones like "what's for dinner?" prove to be the beginning of a journey.

So I hope that this week you're able to ask yourself and the universe questions both large and small, safe and scary. And don't be too surprised if your questions lead you to quest- to think and wonder and hunt for things that astonish you.

 And I hope that no matter how thorny the questy path becomes, it leads you (eventually) to knowlege and grace and peace.

And everything else worth hunting for.




16. December 2, 2012

                                           Celebrate what you want to see more of. 

                                                                                     -Thomas J. Peters

So. What do you want to see more of? (ok, besides time and money)

Maybe it's a who that you want to see more of. Or a place.

Or maybe it's love, peace, joy, hope, passion or meaning....

Anyway, I hope that today you see it, whatever it is you wish to see more of.

And I hope that in the moment that you recognize it for what it is, in the moment before it slips away, you become its celebrant,

and throw a three second celebration in its honor.

And maybe later you cook it dinner,

and it comes back.

And never leaves again.

15. November 27, 2012

This gray spirit, yearning in desire

to follow knowledge like a sinking star

beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
Tennyson

You'll be careful, won't you, with the Tennyson poem? I recited the wanderlusty thing over all my children when they were small and now not one of them lives closer than 4 hours drive away.

I painted it on my  daughter's bedroom furniture, and it turned out to be a part of home that she'll carry with her forever.

and I get to be the one who gets to be the mum
of all three of their wandering, knowledge-seeking selves.
I'm pretty sure I couldn't be more grateful about that.

Besides hoping that you're very careful indeed about how you handle dangerous poetry.....

 I hope that this week, if you're spirit is light and happy, and especially if your spirit is very gray, you'll lift your head, and see some small bright star of knowledge worth following.

I hope that you chase it, that bright bit of knowledge about the world you inhabit. I hope you catch it before it slips below the horizon and that you hold it close. I hope that (even if it burns a bit) you  hold it close enough and long enough to realize that you- you yourself, are becoming luminous.

November 26, 2012

                          A feast is made for laughter....

Guys, I hope, in the words of my friend Chrissy, that your holiday gave you food that filled your soul and your tummy til you were satisfied and then some.
And if it didn't, then I hope that this week brings you peace and recovery.
I hope that as you sort through the metaphorical leftovers, you find an unremembered moment of adventure, wonder, happiness, gratitude.
I hope what you remember is love.
Everything else is just gravy anyway.

14. November 20, 2012

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Shakespeare, Henry V

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more-

Summon up all your courage and face down that exhausting car trip, that impossible schedule, those worries about next week, those inlaws that set your teeth on edge, or even that lonely table for one.

I'll bet, if you close your eyes, and breathe, and summon up whatever love you can find, you'll have found all the courage you need. The courage to fight your own particular tigers like a tiger.

At least, I hope so.

happy thanksgiving, guys-

13. November 18, 2012

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”

A.A. Milne

I want you to know that believing that there may be an audience who thinks that one has something worth saying is part of what gives one a voice. So, for that- for the pleasures of words, and food, and friends with whom to share them, I am more grateful to you dear ones than I can say.

I hope that you too carry with you an awarness of the light,mercy, beauty, love, healing, joy,compassion,humor,adventure- the graces- that are being breathed into and out of your life.

And I hope the awarness of graces recieved and given rests easy on you, and fills your Very Small Self with enough gratitude to fill your whole Very Big World.

12. November 14,2012

 "We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents."

Bob Ross

Serendipity. It's the ability to make desirable discoveries by accident.

And it comes, sometimes, to those who step (or mistep) bravely (or timidly) towards the unknown and imperfect.

It comes to adventurers like you.

I hope it finds you and you see it- today's accidental happiness.

And I hope you find yourself, in that moment, defying gravity.

11. November 10, 2012

Epiphany:
noun.
a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
epiphanies, epiphanic, epiphonous

  We'll be trying this again, and soon. Maybe even next week, when my carnivorous adult-type children will be making me happy by bringing their hungry tummies to my house. (yay!)

I know, I know, craziness lies ahead. Still, I hope.

I hope that maybe twice this week, you are epiphanically struck by the truth that this season is, at its core, about loving, and being loved. And that you're an important part of the loving.

I hope that maybe once a day, you're gently aware of the kindnesses that salt your days.

And that the awarness unfolds into gratitude for those whose kindness you receive, and whose company you enjoy.

even, and especially, if the company you find yourself enjoying is your own. 

10. November 7, 2012

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.” 

          Calvin Trillan

Hey gang, you know what we're doing here, right? We're taking  bits and pieces that in themselves, to most people, would seem stale, uninteresting, used up, and we're transforming them into something beautiful and nourishing.

I hope you feel the power in that.

I hope you feel that power in the (sadly inevitable) moments of your day when you wonder if you yourself are the stale,uninspired, used up thing that sits on the back of a shelf in the fridge.

Because, you know, even if it doesn't happen every day, or all the time, the power to turn boring into beautiful, uninspired into interesting, and stale into nourishing is the power of an artist.

so. go practice your art, you artist you. whatever it is.

9. November 3, 2012

Since Eve ate apples,

much depends

on dinner.

                                     Lord Byron

Guys, I hope that as you collect memories of this weekend, that you find some Honeycrisp moments- moments as ordinary in their beauty and as beautiful in their ordinariness as a perfect apple .

  I hope that this week, you're able to hold those memories with you, as if in the palm of your hand, and that they shimmer through any lonliness or exhaustion like stars on a cloudy night.

8. October 31, 2012

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Happy eating and happy cooking everyone- I hope that this week holds for you lots of space for explorations- whether large or small, whether interior or exterior, whether charming or terrifying.

 And I hope that this week when you return, changed by your exploring, to a familiar place, you'll know it as a place of peace and grace.

7. October 28, 2012

Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes -

The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries

Guys, I hope that maybe three times this week, good food and good friends act as a balm on the bruises of the day.

 I hope that at least twice this week, you realize that you're listening to someone who passionately loves the work that fills their days.

 And I hope that maybe once this week, as you're listening, you realize that that passionate, loving voice you're hearing is your own.

6.October 23, 2012

"Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary"

Louisa May Alcott

I hope that this week you're treated like a friend by the company you keep, even and especially if you find yourself alone in your own company. I hope your days and your meals are full of fun and love and goodness.
And don't overdose on the sprinkles, okay?

5.October 21, 2012

variety is the spice of life.

I hope this week your life is perfectly spiced, with change to hold your interest, and constancy to hold you together.And I hope your meals and your days hit just the right spot between bland and chaos. 

4.October 17, 2012

Happy eating and happy cooking everyone. I hope that at least once this week, you gather around a good meal with people you love, and love being with. I hope that whether you’ve been apart for a day or a year, the reunion is a sweet one, and the food says “I love you”

3.October 14, 2012

Friends are the only real means for foreign ideas to enter your brain.

nicholson baker

I hope that this week, you spend time with people who love you, and that the people who love you fill your mind and heart with one good thing after another. Think a few foreign thoughts, and think a thankyou.

 2.October 10,2012

Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” 

Rainer Rilke 

 I'm hoping that this week, loving all the parts of your life, small and large, comes easy. And I even hope that you feel some of the parts of your life, small and large, loving you back.

1.October 6, 2012

"We cannot seek or attain health,learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique."

John Dewey

I hope good meals and good memories filled the week past, and that this week starts well for all of you. I hope that the tasks greeting you in the morning are managable and meaningful, and that the things you learn each day are things filled with love and wonder.

 september 26,2012

Inspiration is like a cool breeze on a hot day. You can't count on it, and you can't tell where it'll come from- all you can do is welcome it gratefully when is arrives.

I hope that at least once this week, the love you have for the tummies you're cooking for (even if it's just your own) transforms cooking from a chore into an adventure.

September 23, 2012

Hope that the fall equinox landed at your house as soft and welcome as a brightly colored leaf, and that you're starting the week well fed and well rested.

 September 19, 2012

Food, like a loving touch or a glimpse of divine power, has that ability to comfort.

Norm Klopas

September 16, 2012

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

Dwight Eisenhower