I grew up celebrating Midsummer on the June 21st solstice, and it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized there were other days in June to celebrate the triumph of the sun. The feast day for John the Baptist, known in Norway as Sankthans (Saint Hans), falls on June 24th, so naturally there […]
The old Nordic tales reference a race of supernatural beings known as the huldrefolk, the “hidden ones” who live in an unseen world running parallel to human habitation. They’re invisible, except to those who have the power of sight, and their true name is never spoken. I’ve thought of them often this past year, while […]
One of the most popular pilgrimage sites in North America is El Sanctuario de Chimayó in New Mexico. It’s a small, unassuming adobe church nestled in the mountains north of Santa Fe. We drove to Chimayó on a hot day and took turns visiting the church and the Stations of the Cross, since we had […]
When we bought land in New Mexico, we knew we had about a year to build our house–which meant we had about a year to experience as much of Colorado as we could. On our list: the fourteener. Colorado boasts nearly 60 mountains that reach 14,000 feet or more. We chose Mt. Evans, originally named […]
Do people still use the expression “salt mines” to describe tedious work? I’m always on the hunt for interesting idioms, and spending time with The General (age 90+) has enabled me to discover some choice archaic phrases, like “brown study,” a melancholy reverie. But we’re not talking about brown today; we’re talking about pink. My […]
So, you may have noticed that I’ve been missing in action for some time. My excuse is that we’ve moved to New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, where we’ve built a house on the edge of a great arroyo. We still haven’t unpacked all the boxes we’ve brought from Colorado, and I don’t have the […]
After my friend Michael Levy died, we decided to spend a week in Wisconsin and Minnesota, visiting loved ones and attending Mike’s memorial service. Crossing the Mississippi River at Wabasha, we drove up to Lyster Church in nearby Nelson, Wisconsin, where my grandparents are buried. There’s an old barn nearby that I’ve always loved. But […]
New York is a city we’ve seen in images so many times, there’s a very real danger we won’t actually see it when we visit. I was thinking about that last night as I read Alain de Botton’s book The Art of Travel. I realize de Botton divides the masses, but I rather enjoyed his […]