Winter is a strange place. Each year it takes me by surprise. At the end of the gardening season I'm usually tired and sun-soaked (though last year we were just soaked), and I think, how nice and cozy these dark…

We had a sweet potato scavenger hunt on my birthday this year (September 30), and I think we started a new tradition. They grew so well and generously, and it was so much fun to uncover piles of treasure in…

Hello friend,

It's been a wet summer here in VT, as you probably know. Even before this flood, Jasper and I picked strawberries while carefully tiptoeing around thousands of tadpoles swimming in the field. Frogs are everywhere, including our second-floor…

sweet friend,

we’ve spent several months in darkness and wish to tell you what we’ve learned:

you’re not the seed you used to be.

you’re one of a kind, surrounded by ones of a kind.

be kind.

if others have…

When I started seeds in egg cartons last March I simply needed to see something grow. I didn’t imagine they’d feed us for months to come, nor the joy I’d find rooting around in the dirt.

As I prepare the…

Warmth is a short season here in Vermont. When mud wanes in late April and the earth tilts us back toward light, it’s as if a lid lifts and all of us trapped butterflies flutter from our jars. Where just…

Nine years ago this month I was riding across Rajasthan, watching the sunset streak purple over dry, dusty hills and recovering from dysentery. I throw that last bit in so you won’t feel jealous — unless you’re into housing a…

Just now I was thinking about the proverbial glass half-full vs. glass half-empty. As I prepared dinner and put the kettle on the stove, I had a thought I’d never thunk before, one which, now thunked, amazes me with…

We put so much pressure on ourselves to find our path — as if there's only one, as if one is right, as if there's one at all. Krishnamurti proposed that truth is a pathless land, and when I…