The phone calls started the night before and continued well into the morning: “Are you going?” “Do you think the roads will be safe?” “What does your husband say? What does your mother say?” I had been watching the weather forecasts just as intently as everyone else. And I was just as torn up about…
It is the Sixth Day of Christmas. Without, the world is cloaked in gloom, dripping with rain and endless mist, but within the lights on the tree and the candles scattered about gleam with increasing warmth. I love this point in the season, when the rooms are tidy and set to rights, the greenery is…
This flurry of plansis over, over.And I’m sorry and glad together. Our bustling houseis sane now, sane now.And I’m sorry and glad together. “Sorry and Glad Together,” Karen Peris This lyric by Karen Peris of The Innocence Mission perfectly articulates my feelings on this ripe and radiant November day. It’s the first “normal” Monday I’ve…
It is the afternoon before Thanksgiving and I’m sitting for a moment by my kitchen fire with my tea (and a wee drop of sherry, just to celebrate all that’s been accomplished thus far!). The cranberry conserve, with its aromas sacred to this day since time immemorial, is simmering away on the stove, and the…
No joke—we were supposed to be spending St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland. We made the plans months ago, as soon as the date was settled for my Awards Ceremony in Oxford at the end of March: we would visit beloved friends in Northern Ireland and catch our Rabbit Room chum Andrew Peterson in concert. We…
Greetings, Friends! I really can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since I’ve written here! Not for want of good intentions, or even ideas, I assure you, but from an utter lack of time. Life has been good the past year—hard in some places and demanding in others—but intensely full. Back in January I found…
I started this post on Saturday and only finished it today. But here’s a glimpse into our Thanksgiving–easily the most meaningful of my life. I do hope that each of you had a special and restful holiday… Oh, how I love this time of year; this happy hobnobbing of autumn and Advent, the lingering glow…
Dear Friends, Greetings on this October afternoon-almost-evening. I’m sitting in the den with my tea, windows open to the brisk sweetness of an autumn breeze and the house fragrant around me with the scent of tonight’s pot roast supper. From the barnyard comes the occasional plaintive bleat of a sheep who’s decided it’s high time…
April 8, 2018 I’m writing this post from my sunroom, looking out over the last golden remnants of a brisk-but-beautiful spring day. Behind me, the dogs are snoozing on the kitchen floor, and I know that my husband is sitting at his desk in the den beyond. Yes, my friends, we are HOME. Last Wednesday…
That’s how a dear friend described the stage we’re in with our rebuild, and it could not be more apt. After making a place together for 18 years, Philip and I are re-making it–in nine months. And while much of that re-making has felt like an endless slog towards a never-to-be-realized dream, since the beginning…
Just popping in to say that I’ve finally completed and dispatched the first installment in what I hope will be a weekly newsletter chronicling our restoration story. I’m still overwhelmed by your response to my query, and I sincerely hope I didn’t miss anyone who asked to be included. Please do not hesitate to let…
January 3, 2018 It is the tenth day of Christmas, and the third of a brand new year. I’m sitting at my little desk in the waning light of a January day. Even from this distance, I can hear the sounds of hammerings and saws coming from the house, the occasional pounding, the muffled noise…
Dear Ones, Just popping in on this early December morning to say that I haven’t forgotten about the newsletter! I’ve been working away on the first installment (which includes a brief history of our house) in the few spare moments this phase of the restoration affords–and taking pictures of absolutely everything! But I will say,…
It’s a most unusual Thanksgiving. Instead of the typical flurry of preparation, I spent the morning scouring the internet for antique slag glass lamps (I’m obsessed) and historic wallpaper patterns. Afterwards, a leisurely ramble through the pasture with the animals, and lunch in the yard—it’s mild enough here in the South to eat outdoors, at…
October 26, 2017 Five months ago this night I innocently threw a load of sheets and towels in the dryer, and the next thing I knew, my house was in flames. “Contents fire,” the forensics experts agreed, with clinical detachment. In other words, they had no idea what aberration in that whirring mechanical heart caused…
This is the year, with fallen faces, we learn we’re not enough, This is the year to hold each other up. ~Eric Peters, “The New Year” The first two weeks after the fire are a total blur to me now. If it weren’t for the incoherent—almost compulsive—scribblings in my journal, I honestly would not…
Dear Friends, In purely musical terms, a burden is a good thing: a continual refrain rounding up and affirming the essence of a song. And if the song embedded in this season of life is a bit difficult for me to make out at times, the burden is unmistakable: thank you. In the nearly eight…
Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. ~Frederick Buechner This is not the next post I expected to write, and it’s certainly not the post I want to write. But you dear readers have followed my journey here in sunshine and in shade, and I feel the need to…
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