Saturday, September 27, 2025

Valle Cochamó

 



I was young when I was first introduced to Valle Cochamó in Chile. The adults around me at the time felt it was inevitable that the area would eventually succumb to development.

More than thirty years later, it looks like conservation efforts may ultimately succeed. I think there are roughly two months left to raise the funds needed to purchase this land and protect it?

An incredible combination of luck and effort over decades made this precious moment of hope and possibility a reality.






Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Days Of Awe

 



pushing off from the bank

after a long scout

oh, the nerves

in the calm water

above the rapid

lining up landmarks

in anticipation

as the river pulls you

towards the horizon


Monday, September 22, 2025

An Idea

 



Ben is drawing in a new style I think would translate beautifully to rugs. I found a company in India that can make them in a 5' by 7' size for 30,000 rupees a piece. I want to investigate options further before pulling the trigger, but I like the idea of one of these in his room.




Tuesday, September 16, 2025

気休め

 


The luminous world of Hiroshi Yoshida woodblocks


in a time of madness and horrors.


Also meeting the moment, tales of magic and heroes.


Thursday, September 11, 2025

Artichoke

 



O heart weighed down by so many wings



Tuesday, September 9, 2025

My Brother, Published Author

 



MY BROTHER CO-AUTHORED A BOOK.

Dude. How cool is that?! He really worked hard on this and what I have read so far is rad.

Buy it here. You can't? Oh, that's right--

IT'S SOLD OUT.


Monday, September 8, 2025

Earth Wobbles

 



This NYT article has me asking, "Who even am I?!"

Given zodiac sign descriptions, it appears that our family has tracked with the stars rather than the seasons. Sagittarius, Cancer and Libra fit far better than Capricorn, Leo and Scorpio.

But what do we do with that information? This is where I get confused.


Thursday, August 14, 2025

TNT

 



I found it unexpectedly moving to watch this conversation between Tay and the Kelce brothers...


 

I am struck by the way they each center humor, authenticity, freedom of expression, boundaries, and connection in their lives.



And I appreciate the purity with which these three celebrate accomplishments-- their own and those of the people they love.


Monday, August 11, 2025

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Risk Taking





 "Trust your anger. It is a demand for love."
- Natalie Diaz




Tuesday, July 29, 2025

What Ever Happened To Never Again?

 



I refuse the discuss why genocide, torture, rape, abuse, dehumanization are never justifiable.

This species. We are truly a piece of work.

Monday, July 28, 2025

Jag ♥️ Sommarhus

 


I am ready to summer at max like it's the 1970s.

Let's find a cabin on the water somewhere wild and park it for the entirety of the season's heat. 

The slap of screen doors as kids head outside. No phones. Porch swings. Walking or bicycling a few kilometers down the dirt road to a small store.

I want that life.


Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Too Much


Episode 3 where he says, "I'll be your curtains" and can't handle the loss of Uncle Pastuzo...

 



Tuesday, July 15, 2025

On Loop



Imagine you must survive 

without running? 

- Ada Limón



Monday, July 14, 2025

Whole Against The Sky

 


Two narratives that skillfully and beautifully weave together themes of girlhood, womanhood, motherhood, exile and homecoming.




Thursday, July 10, 2025

Iranian Fisherwomen




Countering notions of what women can and cannot do in present day Iran, these women fish ocean waters and rivers to provide for their families. 



Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Paying Homage

 


I love that Cop Shiva invited his mother to play with him on these vibrant homemade sets for his current photo exhibition in Bangaluru-- childhood nostalgia beautifully indulged.






Thursday, June 5, 2025

Inspire/Expire




It is snowing!
I see it through a hole
On the paper door

All I can think of
Is that I am lying
In a house in the snow.

- Masaoka Shiki, d. 1902

John Green has written a beautiful book about a horrific reality, namely that we have let 150 million people die of tuberculosis since a cure for the infectious disease was discovered in the 1950s.


"Your pleasure signals our death."

- Sukanta Bhattacharya, d. 1947


Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Adulting

 



It's been a minute since I was in my twenties, but becoming an adult is hard. That truth is forever.


Tuesday, June 3, 2025

The Middle Passage

 

Over 12,000 ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean carrying approximately 12.5 million enslaved Africans to the Americas. 



Of those kidnapped people, an estimated 1.8 million died on the journey west, their bodies consigned to ocean waters. 



The Slave Wrecks Project unites institutions and people from around the world-- scholars, archeologists, photographers, divers.




Their efforts help bring this history up from the depths and into the light.


Monday, June 2, 2025

Spring, But Feels Like Summer

 

 
It's rare to find a children's chapter book that slays. This is one (by an author who wrote a brutal, magnificent memoir prior to this tonic). Pairs well with a rhubarb shrub on a warm day with a light breeze and the smell of lilacs in the air.


Friday, May 23, 2025

The Sirens' Song



The poet, Mary Oliver, tells us that voluntary attention is the beginning of devotion and we know that involuntary attention --our startle reflexes-- evolved to enable survival. Attention is thus the birthplace of connection and critical to our wellbeing as humans. 

The advent of attention-shredding technology is recent and rampant, a commodification which exploits our biology (fearful vigilance and loving focus) for profit. In this climate of innovation, we are assailed by agnostic, risk-indifferent baiting which seeks to capture our attention.

We become habituated to diversions which interrupt our ability to have a rich sensory experience of the world. As with any addiction, heeding the pull of social media or our phones soothes the discomfort of being alive. The rub is that regularly ceding our attention to the compulsion of the moment ultimately leaves us fundamentally bereft.

How do we evade the sirens' song when it is no longer confined to a rock in the sea? When lashing ourselves to the mast and stuffing cotton in our ears is no way to live a life? How do we evade shipwreck as we seek passage through this hunger with its legacy of alienation? 

Chris Hayes, Oliver Burkeman, and Jonathan Haidt have written books on the subject. Ironically, I haven't paid them much mind. Predatory competition for our attention exacerbates an age-old paradox-- we are not always interested in what we have a vested interest in.

The consequence of our aggregate hijacked attention is one of the most pressing issues we face, one that will require a personal and societal reckoning. It's just that there are so many romance novels to read in the meantime.


Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Foregiveness



Forgiveness centers release and acceptance.

Open palms, facing up.


Friday, May 16, 2025

Abuna Yemata Guh



According to local lore, Ethiopia's monolithic church, Abuna Yemata Guh, was hewn roughly 1,500 years ago. Its murals date back to the 1400s.



Located at approximately 8,500 feet above sea level and known as the "church in the sky", it still functions as a place of worship today and welcomes all visitors who scale its cliffs.




Thursday, May 15, 2025

The Alchemy Of Transformation




the intensity of 

chemical reaction

fumes

changed materials 

reconfigure


Sunday, May 11, 2025

I Am

 

I am the only daughter of an only daughter of an only daughter. 


I am the eldest daughter in my family and the eldest child. 


I am the eldest granddaughter in my family and the eldest grandchild. 


I am Anna, daughter of Léa. My mother is Léa, daughter of Léa.


Monday, May 5, 2025

One

 



The chemical reaction of fertilization releases zinc, a flash of light at the moment of conception. This "zinc spark" marks the ignition of self, the origin story of our wholeness, for we are replete unto ourselves from the beginning.


Warm regard for the innate dignity of the whole acts as binding agent, whereas contempt drives disconnection and degradation. We protect the sacred within via boundaries whose permeability we control so that we can connect with ourselves and others from a place of reverence.


Mercy is the granting of space to be, a fundamental respect. We dwell in the ease and spaciousness of our breath and boundaries until we release what's ours and return to the indivisible.



Sunday, April 27, 2025

One Way To Keep The Chickens Out



Huck rotten fruit out the door and let them feast.


Wednesday, April 23, 2025

The Choice To Love




Set on a fictionalized Macquarie Island, halfway between Australia and Antarctica, this novel pays beautiful homage to humans choosing love in impossible circumstances, buffeted by the extreme weather events of a warming planet.


Friday, April 18, 2025

Jordan Casteel

 


The paintings of Jordan Casteel.




I am a fan.