at the brink?

lighting a candle against the darkness.

We here in America are waiting.

Let us be gentle with ourselves in the next few days...

Do not overdose on media.

Take a walk.

Chat with friends whom you admire and respect.

Listen to music.

Catnap.

Eat well.

Breathe deeply.

Hope.

postponing dreams

Well, dear friends, it's official. We have taken our CT house off the market. We will try again next spring. This was a disappointing decision for us to make, and we have worked hard to find some peace with it. Once we finally get to the end of this real estate adventure, I'll tell you the whole story, but right now, I'd just like to let it rest.

Batman and I are resilient, we share a vision of our future and we support one another in this "being patient thing". (That right there is a huge blessing that I do not take for granted).

As the weeks pass, I'll spend less time here in VT, and more back in CT. I'll make the best of it...catching up with friends, getting back into my studio, volunteering and having more time with my sweet Batman.

I continue to work on mindfulness, gratitude and being present.  For me, it's the best way forward. 

Oh, but, part of me is so very sad...

love is love

today is the 25th anniversary of national coming out day!

some of my best friends and family are 

part of the LGBT community

and because i am a fierce ally, i am too.

i've been a proud member of the 

Human Rights Campaign 

since 1996.

HRC works to ensure LGBT people of their basic equal rights, 

and can be open, honest and safe 

at home, at work and in the community.

read about the HRC here,

and if you already belong...hooray!

if you don't, please consider joining today.

thank you from the bottom of my wide open heart.

xo

holding the little things

lake champlain at shelburne farms,

for this opening.

"You did not have to understand miracles to believe in them, and in fact Mabel had come to suspect the opposite. To believe, perhaps you had to cease looking for explanations and instead hold the little things in your hands as long as you were able before it slipped like water between your fingers."

-Eowyn Ivey, The Snow Child

a grandparents' quilt (with a new picture!)

my buddy potts became a grandma this summer.

annell arrived in july.

i wept when i saw pictures of the new baby.
i just couldn't stop for a while.
then, when i looked at the pictures again later,
there were still more tears.
such a mush am i.

i just had to stitch a little something to celebrate 

the birth of this special girl.

a quilt to keep at grandma and grandpa's house

 for playing on, snuggling with, being wrapped up in...

i am not there in person to welcome wee annell,

but my love and hope is stitched into this quilt that has 

crossed the miles to the midwest. 

the next generation of love and friendship.

such an exquisite blessing.

xo

(a photo of sweet annell, posted with her grandma's permission)

transience

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I woke this morning, the view was "almost peak".

At noontime it was "peak".

And now it is barely "past peak".

What an extraordinary day to pay attention.

To soak it all in.

To appreciate the transcendent.

To be present.

"them"

no radio news for me today.

i want no part of their disfunction.

if i could feed them all, i would invite them to come up

and have supper with me.

we would picnic on the ground and be humbled 

by this simple and exquisite beauty.

they would be put to shame.

every one of them.