Hello friends, What does it mean to survive? To build a life against grim odds? To grow beautiful, despite hardship? To band together with others like you, however distant? On a recent walk, I stopped, mid-conversation, to wonder at the beauty of a circle of succulents growing from a rock wall. Amazing, that such a beautiful thing could find a way to live in what would seem to me to be difficult conditions to thrive. Not only was there scant soil—between the cracks, somehow?—but the plant...

Note: this missive is one day late because I was so out of it yesterday from round two of a shingles vaccine, I completely forgot! Hello friends, The world lost two powerful, compassionate people this past week, Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson and Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy. Both of them found power in the world around us and in the human experience. “If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater...

Hello friends, Folklore tells us of magical cities and villages that appear out of nowhere, and disappear again. I like to think that these stories are rooted in real events and real communities. I myself, have found magic in such places, time and time again. Last week, I was off grid at a lovely camping event in a small valley surrounded by tree filled mountains. There was a creek, and on the forest paths, some community members had planted ceramic toadstools, squirrels embracing acorns, and...