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We cherish things, Japan has always known, precisely because they cannot last; it’s their frailty that adds sweetness to their beauty. In the central literary text of the land, The Tale of Genji, the word for “impermanence” is used more than a thousand times, and bright, amorous Prince Genji is said to be “a handsomer man […]

THE MORE LOVING ONE by W.H. Auden Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth indifference is the least We have to dread from man or beast. How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us […]

We are inundated with advice on where to travel to, but we hear little of why and how we should go, even though the art of travel seems naturally to sustain a number of questions neither so simple nor so trivial, and whose study might in modest ways contribute to an understanding of what the […]

Light and Heat. At dawn, the world rises out of darkness, slowly sense-grain by grain, as if from sleep. Life becomes visible once again. ‘When it is dark, it seems to me as if I were dying and I can’t think anymore,” Claude Monet once lamented.”More light!” Goethe begged from his deathbed. Dawn is the […]

Inherit. I had an inheritance from my father, It was the moon and the sun. And though I roam all over the world, The spending of it’s never done.” ― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls In 2019, I wrote: What will I leave behind? What will I pass down? Sometimes it feels very […]

Steal Like An Artist. (I stole this whole post from myself in 2019 who stole the idea from Austin Kleon.) “Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.”– Austin […]

The Blank Page. To some people, this empty room symbolizes something profound, mysterious, and terrifying: the task of starting with nothing and working your way toward creating something whole and beautiful and satisfying. It’s no different for a writer rolling a fresh sheet of paper into his typewriter (or more likely firing up the blank […]

(I apologize for the late posts but I thought they were published.) Questions, Dinner Parties, and Conversation. Be patient with all that is unresolved in your heart. Love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given […]

On Woman. There is no good answer to how to be a woman; the art may instead lie in how we refuse the question. ― Rebecca Solnit, The Mother of All Questions But how can I want my independence and feel taken care of? How can I want to stay small and safe while yearning […]

Gifts. I often tell the following fable. When I read my post from 2019 and talk about each of my children and their gifts, I am reminded of this fable once again. The Animal School: A Fable by George Reavis Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the […]