Tag Archives: home
The grand finale
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”— Lauren Destefano The weather here is finally cooling off enough that we are getting some splendid fall color, though it was still over 70 degrees several …
Nourishment
“There is nourishment in books, art, history, philosophies—in holiness and in mirth. It is in honest hands-on labor…And it is in the green world—among people, and animals, and trees for that matter, if one genuinely cares about trees.” —Mary Oliver Do you pay as much attention to your psychological nourishment as you do to …
The month of expectation
“March is the Month of Expectation.The things we do not know – …” —Emily Dickinson In springtime, we rejoice in what we do know, or have reason to expect: the reflowering of blooming trees and annuals, the lengthening of daylight, the gradual warming and the sheer delight of those first mild, sunny days. Until …
Rejoice in spring
“I rejoice in the spring, as though no spring ever had been.” —Theodore Roethke Spring was later to arrive this year than I can ever remember. Or did it only seem that way because I was so eager for it? A bit of photographic research gave me the picture above, which I took on March …
Do something
“A good way to rid oneself of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.” —William Morris William Morris certainly earned the right to give us this advice. He …
Wonderful silence
“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full …
Someone’s home
“Whenever you go on a trip to visit foreign lands or distant places, remember that they are all someone’s home and backyard.” — Vera Nazarian I love staying in bed and breakfast inns, especially if the hosts live in or very near the home where the guests stay. I don’t go for the pricey or frilly …
Two parents who love
“If you have two parents who love you? You have won life’s Lotto.” — Augusten Burroughs As promised (or perhaps I should say threatened) I am posting something entirely new, though its theme has been found at this site again and again. I am approaching the seventh anniversary of my Mama’s death, so I decided …
Absolutely, positively, certainly 2016
I’m still here. Hope you’re still there! Another reblog; originally posted on November 27, 2012: “In our rush for newer, quicker, better, we seem to be missing out on what we fundamentally crave, a calmer, gentler, sweeter and more gracious life. Is it easy to achieve such a life? Definitely not. Is it possible? Absolutely, …
The house shelters
“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming…the house allows one to dream in peace.” — Gaston Bachelard I saw this quote from Bachelard on a Celestial Seasonings box of Sleepytime tea. I found it charming, and at first I agreed with it. Then …
At this time and this place
“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place. Like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.” —Azar Nafisi Now that Jeff is retired, we can sell our Alexandria townhome …
Autobiography, journal, scrapbook
“Each of us is eccentric because each of us is unique and no one else is like us. We can best express our individuality in unusual, uncommon ways at home. Our home is an autobiography, a journal, a scrapbook…Living at home is a dynamic, creative process.” — Alexandra Stoddard I really miss the days when …
Bloom indoors
“I bloom indoors in winter like a forced forsythia; I come in to come out. At night I read and write, and things I have never understood become clear; I reap the harvest of the rest of the year’s planting.” – Annie Dillard One of the best things about being an adult at Christmas is …
In familiar surroundings
“As much as I love to travel and see new things, I’m also a homebody. No matter how far I wander, I’m always eager to get back to my own nest. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as the little surprises that can pop up in familiar surroundings. I find a great deal of pleasure right …
All about us
“It seems to me that people are forever traveling great distances, and journeying to strange countries, to see things that, if they only knew it, exist beside their own doorstep…Whether one goes to nature for truth, or for beauty, for knowledge or for relaxation, these things can be found in a yard in the city …
The past is beautiful
“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.” ― Virginia Woolf Reading this quote, I can only wish that Woolf had thought of these words before she took …
Wherever I went
“I had always believed that I left a bit of me wherever I went. I also believed that I took a bit of every place with me…And the only possible explanation I could find for that feeling was that a spirit existed in many of the places I visited, and a spirit existed in me …
Outdoors in
“Bring the outdoors in. Plants make for a happy home.” – Mr Jason Grant There were a lot of ways my mother created a happy home for us, and one of them was the way she loved plants, indoors and out. She was often joked about spoken of in regard to her composting and organic …
Like an inheritance
“Avoid providing material for the drama that is always stretched tight between parents and children; it uses up much of the children’s strength and wastes the love of the elders, which acts and warms even if it doesn’t comprehend. Don’t ask for advice from them and don’t expect any understanding; but believe in a love …
Bring us back home
“If we had a feminism that caused us to get out of the house, is there not also room for feminism that would bring us back home, so that our homes would reflect ourselves and would once more have soul?” — Ginette Paris “It’s acceptable to call yourself a “stay at home mom or dad,” …
In the yard
“My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’ ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.’” — Harmon Killebrew This is a perfect time of year for this quote. The All-Star break is coming up, and many lawns …
Home for the holidays
“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays…” — Al Stillman As of last night, we are HOME. Though we are exhausted, I can’t remember a time when we’ve been happier to be here! Thanks for being here with us! One year ago today Like of each thing This post was first published seven …
Defeat Despair 