Category: Winter Letters

Joy Let a joy keep you.Reach out your handsAnd take it when it runs by. . . . Carl Sandburg What a frightening, discouraging year.  We hoped—on many fronts:  that the vaccine would bring us…

Love is the constant Whereby we endure all winters and all storms. The seasons will always turn, The clouds will gather, And the cold will come. We will survive them. We will grow regardless of…

“I have sailed across a sea of words to ask if you will come with me.” Tonight, in one earthly dimension, I see a twisted and gluttonous season—frightening, heartbreaking, monstrous. And in another, I live…

Facing the Light In 1978, when I worked for the National Park Service in Washington DC, the National Portrait Gallery organized an exhibit and a catalog comprised of mid-nineteenth century daguerreotype images of famous Americans. …

Dawn Light* 2017 began on a deeply cold, snowy December night–right after I’d written 2016’s winter letter titled “Gratitude.” That evening my quirky hiatal hernia twisted a bit more.  And spawned pneumonia; Christmas in the…

For all that has been, Thanks! For all that shall be, Yes!                         Dag Hammarskjold This gray November day, all thin light and hopelessness, I am grateful. Not by ignoring our fear and weariness, the…

“We are all connected by fire,” he said, one quiet line in the midst of a wry, wise tutorial. We sat on wet grass above the breathing heart of Mauna Loa—Pele’s house—to learn from Kumu…

Alight . . . somehow I’m learning to listen To a sound like the sun going down In the magic that morning is bringing There’s a song for the life I have found . ….

It’s All Grace If I could live my life again awakeThink of all the chances I could takeI’d love with all abandon just the same‘Cause that’s the game . . . . The seconds whisper…

Roads, Songs, Words I believe in love and dangerI believe the truth is strangerI believe that fear is much too strong I believe the best will find meWhen I leave the rest behind meOut on…