As we were leaving our local library, an unassuming looking book on display jumped into our hands: Lenapehoking: An Anthology, a reference to the the native American Lenape homeland on which our own home — all of New York City — is built. In it, we found this remarkable passage on seeds…
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I caught the passion for ramps over 40 years ago at my first West Virginia Ramp Supper whose menu was laced with bacon and cornbread. For decades, I’d travel down there to get a transformative blast of ramps, both raw and cooked. Although I’ve cooked ramps in all sorts of ways, my go to method for using them in all sorts of preparations is Italian-style, braised in olive oil.
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Recently, I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see a single painting, a practice I learned long ago from my father. (Though to look at just one work is also the practice of a centuries-old secret society.) For me, it was a way to revel in the perfection of an Agnes Martin painting, even as Martin’s words described the experience, in art and in life.
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At the end of cherry blossom season, as the petals were falling to the ground like pink snow, we found the perfect haiku written 300 years ago by the great poet Issa. We found the gist applies to way more than cherry blossom season…
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Forced by a virus to endure a long convalescence in bed, it was impossible for Elisabeth Tova Bailey to imagine a future; “All of life was out of reach.” Only it wasn’t. A forest snail that took up residence on her nightstand, living in a pot of violets, would change her life and become the impetus for a remarkable book.
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In our long life, we’ve learned a great deal about New Years resolutions from abandoning them so many times that we finally got with the fact that they generally didn’t work. We relate mightily to this wise, funny little video we found in Instagram…
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Over the years, we’ve written about many forms of improvised “guest books”, i.e. ways to memorialize the visits of friends. Cecil Beaton tattooed a bathroom’s walls with the handprints of friends, displaying humanity’s most essential signature…
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We’ve stumbled on a few things recently that mightily deepened our view of the Christmas trees that are everywhere now, including a remarkable video of the birth of a pine tree and haiku written hundreds of years ago: Our improvised holiday card to you…
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Lately, we’ve been hearing about glimmers, tiny moments of awe and beauty that spark joy, calm, well-being and help our nervous systems feel relaxed and balanced (the opposite of stressors and triggers.) Glimmers can be the seemingly ordinary things, as well as very unexpected ones.
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We’ve never read a more perfect description of foraging for wild mushrooms or for ideas than this from John Cage. It’s from the sublime John Cage: A Mycological Foray.
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During the months we’ve been slowing down in an attempt to decipher and heal an illness, potent writings on the theme of slow have come to us randomly, lending insight into what we’d been discovering but didn’t quite yet know, and a kind of guidance.
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Hazel Beeler’s extraordinary letter to the New Yorker about pockets is rich with ideas and revelations including extraordinary improvisations she makes to her clothing — including undershirts…
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When I heard Wendell Berry reading his poem “How to Be a Poet”, I thought: that’s exactly what I’ve been doing to heal myself of the strange illness I’ve been dealing with.
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Writing about the public rating of her feet on the celebrity foot database wikiFeet— who knew?!— She describes the strange reality of social scrutiny and all the shit it puts in our heads and that we have to find ways to antidote. Which she does, in the last beautiful paragraph…
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Recently I came across two things that have upped my homekeeping game hugely. Robert Montgomery’s brilliant artwork “All Palaces” put it all in perspective.
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The Years by Annie Ernaux was published in 2008 and won the Nobel Prize in 2022, 14 years later. THAT’s how complex and original its vision and ideas were; it took a long time to be seen. One passage haunts us, or perhaps better put, has become a question we ask ask ourselves daily.
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Dr. Vivek Murthy, 21st Surgeon General of the United States and a Yogi Bryan, a wild man meditator we recently discovered, share their quick meditations for regaining connection and calm. Similar practices, VERY different approaches.
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The story behind Olia Hercules’ A Case for Eating Herbs as if They Were Vegetables in the New Yorker is well worth reading. But the title conveys the vital message. A platter of herbs offered alongside other dishes in a meal is an invitation for guests to enjoy herbs primal and fragrant with abandon.
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We’ve watched this beautiful clip many times, delighting in the late, legendary dancer Jacques d’Amboise’s insights into the rituals that define friendships and social interaction. We hadn’t known we were dancing…
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The very best letter of apology we can imagine is a strangely wonderful love letter artist H.C. Westermann’s wrote to his wife Joanna Beall Westermann. “Dear Sweety”, it starts. Then he goes at it. It got us thinking about apologies…
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