Italy changed me

Italy changed me. And I wanted to be changed. I went for the first time when I was thirty, my son 11 years old, my daughter five. I wanted to connect with the creative source that had nurtured so many of my favorite artists, and to restore some of the broken branches in my family[…]

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Taking a pause

In Spannocchia the fruit trees are blooming, small pink blossoms with petals that fade to white, crisscrossing the sky as though making miniature blue panes of stained glass. One morning after walking I took a hot bath in the big tub in my room, the fragrant soap frothing up into iridescent bubbles. The morning walk,[…]

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Taormina

The path of stones is crowded with wild parsley, yellow sour grass, pink and magenta sweet peas, prickly pear cactus. The stones are uneven, the path built on an ancient trail dating back a thousand years. At the end, what will we find? There are many stories, but the one I like best includes a[…]

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Inviting The Muse – Beginning

Some days ideas crowd around struggling to get my attention. Other says I have set aside the time for work and there is only emptiness. Beginning – even setting a loaded brush to a fresh canvas or pen to paper with absolutely no idea in mind – is a daily practice that short-circuits the second[…]

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Ortigia, Siracusa, Sicily

In the morning Tom goes out for an early walk then brings home croissants from the pasticceria on the corner. We drink coffee and talk about where we want to go today. Then we lace up our boots and head out for a walk around the island, astonished at the wild surf and deep green-blue[…]

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Day Three. The Meditation

This month’s focus has been on building the structure of my days. Habits toward health. Habits toward peace of mind. Energy. Well being. Peace. Patience. Purpose. This morning I got up earlier than usual to bake off two loaves of sour dough bread I’d left to rise overnight. Tom, up even earlier, had already preheated[…]

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