“I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.” - Johnny Cash

I've been house-sitting at a friend's farm for the past week, hunkering down and attending to my own writing and creative process. I'm so grateful to finally have this kind of time.

“Live in each season as it passes: breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.” Henry David Thoreau

Summer is in full tilt here, and luckily, we’ve had lots of beautiful weather to enjoy. I’ve been relishing time spent just reading! I've read a few books so far with the eye of “How are they organizing this? How are they putting this together?” It’s helping me move towards organizing my own writings and has inspired me to offer a new series centered around a writing process book by John McPhee starting July 19th.

"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been."
Rainer Maria Rilke.

I hope you're finding some ways to stay cozy this winter, wherever you are.

What's ahead for you for the new year? Hard to say. I know...unsettling. I love this cartoon that one of my writing class participants posted this week. The dialog went like this:

Creature One: "Aren't you terrified of what 2022 could be like? Everything is so messed up..."
Creature Two: "I think it will bring flowers."
Creature One: "Yes? Why?"
Creature Two: "Because I'm planting flowers."

Now We Are 60: Reflections and Gratitude. This past weekend I celebrated a big milestone birthday. We had a campfire party in the backyard that I called "Now We Are Sixty," my nod to this poem that I love and my mother used to read me:⁣

During July, I've been exploring the theme of Pilgrimage and Place. In the last newsletter, I asked you to reflect on what kinds of places you are drawn towards visiting. I shared how going anyplace can be a pilgrimage if you think about it that way. It’s all about your intention, your reason for heading off in that direction. It’s about going someplace you feel called to go, even if you’re not sure why. Below is a story about the value of listening to the power of place, and a few tips to try.

Place as Pilgrimage

Whatever your plans are this summer, I hope they include making a few jaunts to a special place or two that you've been missing over the past year. As we've been considering places to go ourselves, it makes me think about how each place holds its special quality: it’s medicine.

Writing is one of the paths that can help you process experiences. Taking time to find your stories and craft them in a way that is so detailed that it nails a moment in time can be so rewarding. It helps you think things through and make sense of your life and your world. Then, sharing those stories so that others may gain a glimpse of what you feel and experience is a powerful act of real connection. And that's something that many of us have been missing in our world lately.

Unexpected. That seems to be the word that wraps up 2020. Each time things shifted, it was always followed with unexpected deep lessons to learn. For almost everyone, it's been a time of re-evaluation -- both of who and where we are.

The title song is dedicated to all the people who "provide alternatives to selling off the family farm." It's a story song, not a preachy song. It's crafted so the listener draws their own conclusions about the changes or losses they see in the world.