Endlessly fascinated
Women gather outside an Istanbul mosque, 2008
“If you approach each new person you meet in a spirit of adventure, you will find yourself endlessly fascinated by the new channels of thought and experience and personality that you encounter.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
Even within a single culture or location, there are no two people alike. In fact, I’ve never known any two people who were even close to being identical in personality, interests or beliefs. Given the number of people in the world, this is pretty amazing to me. And each person has a unique history and a complex, multi-faceted story. So many potential friends…so little time!
Something of the marvelous
Mendenhall Glacier, near Juneau, Alaska 2000
“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” — Aristotle
I’m not a cold weather person, but I love the beauty of snowy landscapes. From the lacy brilliance of an ice-covered branch catching sunlight, to the stark magnificence of Alaska’s glaciers, frozen water takes an endless variety of forms, each a singular masterpiece.
Color forever
A Paris market in December, 2005
“Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever.” — Paul Klee
In wintertime, I find it especially helpful to surround myself with color to brighten my mood. Adding color to life is easy and need not be expensive. Color-rich items such as dishes, throw pillows and magazines can be purchased for very little, but also we can add color to our lives without spending a penny. Take “field trips” online and in real time: visit photographic websites and blogs, or browse through grocery-store floral departments and specialty stores with attractive displays of items from all over the world. Let your eyes feast on color to your heart’s content. If we think of color as a sort of visual vitamin, making sure that we get our minimum daily requirement of beauty, we help to ensure ourselves against the winter blahs that can easily overtake us at this time of year.
January beckons
I took this photo at 8:20 p.m. from the front porch of our Alexandria home, January 2011
“January, the month of new beginnings and cherished memories, beckons. Come, let winter weave her wondrous spell: cold, crisp, woolen-muffler days, long dark evenings of savory suppers, lively conversations, or solitary joys. Outside the temperature drops as the snow falls softly. All of nature is at peace. We should be, too. Draw hearthside. This is the month to dream, to look forward to the year ahead and the journey within.”
— Sarah Ban Breathnach
For some of us — perhaps many of us — it would be easy to fear the coming year. Reeling from unforseen sorrows, or carrying on valiantly through months and years of hardship, we may want to avoid thinking about the future. Yet January also offers the promise of “the New Year full of things that have never been,” in Rilke‘s oft-quoted words. Whatever else we resolve today, let’s promise ourselves that we will pay attention to the good, the beautiful, the blessed and the eternal. My hope is that my photographs and words, and the words of others, will encourage all who join us here to choose joy each day. Philippians 4:4-9
Ring out the false, ring in the true
Church bells in Mykonos, Greece 2008
Verses from In Memoriam A.H.H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
There is not much I can add to Lord Tennyson’s eloquence. May 2013 bring you renewed hope, deep joy, and the peace that passes understanding.
Silence so deep
Our back yard in the snow, 2010
“You wake up on a winter morning and pull up the shade, and what lay there the evening before is no longer there–the sodden gray yard, the dog droppings, the tire tracks in the frozen mud, the broken lawn chair you forgot to take in last fall. All this has disappeared overnight, and what you look out on is not the snow of Narnia but the snow of home, which is no less shimmering and white as it falls. The earth is covered with it, and it is falling still in silence so deep that you can hear its silence.” ― Frederick Buechner
There is something magical about awakening to a world that looks radically different than it did when you went to sleep the night before. No matter how much trouble snow may ultimately cause, or how gray and dingy the drifts become before melting away, the first sight of an unexpected snow always takes my breath away. Perhaps the new year has something of the beauty of freshly fallen snow: a blank canvas as yet untouched, framed by familiar surroundings that wear an added sparkle.
To see takes time
“…in a way – nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time…So I said to myself – I’ll paint what I see – what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it – I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.”
— Georgia O’Keeffe
What small, unnoticed gifts will we take time to see today? How can we help others to open their eyes to unseen treasures hiding in plain sight?
Try again
Drew and his teammates after his final high school baseball game,
a close and well-played loss, June 2002
“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett
I have always loved this quote. It acknowledges the predominance of failure along with the crucial importance of tenacity. From the early explorers, to Abraham Lincoln, to Thomas Edison and countless other examples, world history teaches us that the ability to fail repeatedly without giving up has been the foundation on which all human progress has been built.
As we close out another year and look back on our blessings and disappointments, let’s remember that our resolutions for the coming year must be fortified by the understanding that very little, if anything, will come easily. May we all enter 2013 willing to fail better; to remain steadfast in our attempts at improvement and to be content, when necessary, with gradual steps in the right direction.
God’s furniture
Yukon territory, Canada 2000
Who has not found the heaven below
Will fail of it above.
God’s residence is next to mine,
His furniture is love.
— Emily Dickinson
Regardless of my personal circumstances (and probably even more so when times are difficult), I never feel the love of God so directly as when I am outdoors amid “His furniture.” May the year ahead bring many opportunities for us to visit with God through His creation. Romans 1:20
To select well
My beloved attic hideaway, filled with far too many old things
“To select well among old things is almost equal to inventing new ones.”
— Nicolas Charles Trublet
On the day after Christmas, many of us are sifting through our old belongings to make room for the new gifts we received the day before. But some of us have a hard time parting with things, even if we no longer need them. Learning to practice discernment about what to keep or discard can help us make use of what we already own, eliminating the overwhelmed confusion of finding and choosing among too many possessions. Today, I challenge myself (and you) to create space for new things by choosing at least five items to donate or throw away, and to start using, TODAY, at least one or two articles that you’ve been saving for someday.
Unconditional joy
A London mall at Christmas, 2005
“Joy to the world! Whether the world deserves it or not.” — Ashleigh Brilliant
Wishing you a beautiful day full of the unearned graces that can only come from above. Merry Christmas!
Joy shall be yours
A Placerville, California bed and breakfast inn, all decked out for Christmas 2003
“Villagers all, this frosty tide,
Let your doors swing open wide,
Though wind may follow, and snow beside,
Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;
Joy shall be yours in the morning!”
— Kenneth Grahame, from The Wind in the Willows
Christmas Eve has long been my favorite day of the year, but I have some dark and heavy memories associated with that day as well. Perhaps this is appropriate to the theme of “joy in the morning.” Whether your fireside tonight is real or only imagined, I hope you will pull up a chair and draw near, literally or deep in your heart, to loved ones and happy memories. I wish you an evening filled with all that is best about this season, and most of all, I wish you great joy in the morning.
You can’t buy Christmas
Christmas decorations made by our sons during their first years of school,
saved and lovingly re-used for decades. (Photo taken in 2004)
“You can’t buy Christmas: you have to make it.” — Ashleigh Brilliant
Store displays can amuse and inspire, but each Christmas is a home-made treasure. Here’s hoping that you are creating a happy one this year.
The gift not yet opened
Our Christmas tree, 2011
“The most splendid Christmas gift, the most marveled and magic, is the gift that has not yet been opened. Opaque behind wrapping or winking foil, it is a box full of possibilities…Often what precedes is better than what follows, even when, like Christmas Day, what follows is good.” — Gregg Easterbrook
As with other happy events, the anticipation that builds during the holiday season is often just as exciting (or more so) than the day itself. As the old saying goes, “getting there is half the fun.” If the stress of shopping, baking, wrapping and decorating has you undone, try slowing down long enough to actually savor the tasks themselves. Perhaps it will help if we think of the future as a gift not yet opened. Rather than focusing on what irritates or worries us, let’s enjoy the wonder of the present, and the hope for beautiful things that may lie ahead.
As if it cost a fortune
Dancing at Fezziwig’s party, at The Dickens Christmas Fair, San Francisco 2002
“He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ’em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune.”
—Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
In a book filled with memorable quotes, this description of the jolly Mr. Fezziwig stands out as one of my favorites. Over the years I have often reflected on these words with respect to both my employers and those employees I have supervised. But the truth expressed here goes beyond employment, touching all our relationships with others. The power we have to brighten or darken each other’s lives is wonderful and a bit terrifying. In countless small ways, we can create happiness as great as if it cost a fortune. Let’s use this power wisely.
Every year I dream
Me in 1958, already dreaming my Christmas dream
Lyrics from the song A Christmas Dream by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
Recorded by Perry Como
(You can listen to the song and see some beautiful Christmas photos here.)
Watch me now, here I go, all I need’s a little snow
Starts me off, sets the theme, helps me dream my Christmas dream
Every year I dream it, hoping things will change
An end to the crying, the shouting, the dying
And I hope you will dream it too
It’s Christmas, remember? We’ve got to remember
The whole world needs a Christmas dream
We need it to warm us, to calm us, to love us
To help us to dream our Christmas dream.
I fell in love with this song instantly, on first hearing a bit of it in the movie The Odessa File in 1974. I searched for a copy of it for years until I finally found it online. I have listened to it countless times, every Christmas season since. For me, it captures so many of the emotions I feel at this time every year. It’s filled with the optimistic merriment of Christmas, but acknowledges wistfully that so many things are not as they should be. I hope this song will help you dream a few dreams of your own.
Any simple thing
At the Dickens Christmas Fair, San Francisco, 2003
“Christmas in 1949 must compete as never before with the dazzling complexity of man, whose tangential desires and ingenuities have created a world that gives any simple thing the look of obsolescence—as though there were something inherently foolish in what is simple, or natural.” — E. B. White, in The New Yorker, December 1949
We are sometimes misled into thinking that the struggle for simplicity is a new one; that our generation faces dilemmas never seen before. Yet quotes such as this one remind us that details may evolve and grow ever more elaborate, but the essential human flaws and pitfalls remain remarkably unchanged. Now, as in decades and centuries past, we must beware the tendency to covet the newest shiny objects, while dismissing the simple or natural as less sophisticated. Today, I wish you eyes that are open to the value of blessings overlooked by those who rush to the next Big New Thing.
Give freely and abundantly
“Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.” — Annie Dillard
Don’t count me among the cynics who think the holiday season is primarily a commercial enterprise. I love the way people give each other gifts at this time of year. Yes, there are too many dollars wasted on items bought from a feeling of obligation rather than appreciation. But there are so many genuine expressions of love in December, when we stop and take the time to let people know how much they mean to us. Choirs sing for us; bands pay music for us; children create one-of-a-kind artwork and people sit down to write annual updates to send to friends who are geographically far away but close in heart and memory.
Today I hope you will find some small way to join in the widespread goodwill that is there to be seen by anyone who looks for it. Write a brief note to a faraway friend, give a sincere compliment to someone who needs it, or buy an inexpensive but useful gift for someone you appreciate, and wrap it grandly. Joy to the world!
Like of each thing
Pasha watching the snow fall at Christmas time, Alexandria, Virginia 2010
“At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.”
—William Shakespeare
When we moved to Virginia from California, I missed having roses in December. Yet I was happy to be living once again in a climate similar to that of my home town, where each season brings its familiar but ever-fresh charms. Wherever you are living, whatever your weather, I hope you will be gladdened today by the natural adornments of the season.
You have to be a child
Jeff and Matt at FAO Schwarz on Christmas Eve 2002, San Francisco
“You have to be a child to know how wonderful is a store window filled with dolls and sleds and other toys. And this wonder came free to Francie. It was nearly as good as actually having the toys to be permitted to look at them through the glass window.” — Betty Smith, in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
There is more than a little of the child I was, still very much alive inside me. Perhaps that explains my sheer delight in the Christmas season. Like Francie in Smith’s wonderful tale, I enjoy looking at things as much or more than I enjoy owning them. During this season, I wish you the unlimited enchantment of looking at colorful displays and capitvating objects with a joy unrelated to any desire to own them.
Not a has-been
Drew with Daddy Oscar, his great-grandfather, 1985
“I am not a has-been. I am a will-be.” — Lauren Bacall
Everybody you know is a work in progress, no matter their age. No exceptions.
“…and what we will be has not yet been made known.” (1 John 3:2, NIV)
The books themselves
Drew at Shakespeare and Company bookstore, Paris 2005
“I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them–with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself.” — Eudora Welty
I can think of few sorrows for which I cannot find solace in books. Through the words recorded by others, I am connected with people who amuse, instruct or understand; transported to places that fascinate, captivate or terrify; carried beyond the confines of my own circumstances into a realm of unbridled ideas, possibilites and imagination. Reading changes lives.
Always springtime
A view from Rancho Palos Verdes, California 2004
“It is always springtime in the heart that loves God.” — Jean Vianney, the Curé d’Ars
Spring brings growth, renewal and rebirth. Yet it also brings rain, mud and labor. Keeping springtime in our hearts does not mean denying or ignoring the difficult and painful. Rather, it means looking ahead with hope and expectation, even when the sun is not shining.
Curiosity conquers fear
Monkey business in Roatan, Honduras 2011
“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.” — James Stephens
I’m not a particularly brave person, but my curiosity about almost everything knows no bounds, and I can vouch for the truth of Stephens’ observation about its power to overcome fear. Through the years, my curiosity has often met with disdain: “Why should you want to know that?” or “Curiosity killed the cat!” even when my questions are focused on ideas and the world at large, as they almost always are. People who are not innately curious may find it hard to understand the benefit of such an inquiring spirit, but it has kept me from despair more times than I could number. The world is just too fascinating a place for me to stay immersed for very long in my personal grief.
Live faithfully a hidden life
Calligraphy artist, Chinatown, San Francisco 2004
“…for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
—George Eliot, from the closing lines of Middlemarch
Look around you today. You are surrounded by saints, cleverly disguised as fallible human beings. Indeed, you may be one yourself.
Defeat Despair 