“. . . belonging is not a once-and-for-all condition, a static identity tattooed on our skin; it is a constant self-examination and dynamic revision of where we are, who we are, and where we want to be.” – Elif Shafak I don’t like roller coasters, and I don’t like cliches, yet I can find no […]
“Happiness is that glorious feeling when everything seems right. When all of life’s twists and turns and jagged edges seem to fit together perfectly. In those often all-too-brief flickers of genuine happiness, every thought in your head is agreeable, and you wouldn’t mind if time stood still and the present moment extended forever.” – Mo […]
“Petrichor, the wonderful, soul-lifting smell you get after rain on earth, is thanks in large part to the metabolites of soil life. To geosmin. We’ve evolved around living earth, and our ability to sense geosmin could well explain why it feels so invigorating being in a garden, or so life-affirming to visit an ancient forest, […]
“In a very basic sense, terroir is the expression of a physical place through the flavors and quality of a wine . . . including the climate of the vineyard where the grapes were grown, the soil, the geography, as well as the characteristics of the grape variety itself.” – Becca Yeamans-Irwin Vines are cultivated […]
“It turns out that the common soil bacterium M. vaccae acts like an antidepressant, boosting the levels of happy hormones, serotonin and norepinephrine, in humans and other mammals . . . and because M. vaccae is everywhere in most healthy soil, every time you eat a piece of lettuce from your garden, you’re probably getting […]
“Saudade is a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present.” – Aubrey Bell from his book In Portugal According to Wikipedia saudade “is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for something or someone that one cares for and/or loves. […]
“We’re built to walk. We’ve been wired by natural selection to absorb meaning from our days at the loose-limbed gait of three miles an hour. And whether we count ourselves cursed or lucky to be standing on the Earth at this frenetic moment in our history—I, for one, would choose no other time to be […]
“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” -William Morris “One of the advantages of being born in an affluent society is that if one has any intelligence at all, one will realize that having more and more won’t solve the problem, and happiness does not […]
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – Kierkegaard I suspect we all sometimes wish for a glimpse of the future, especially when we have difficult choices to make or life feels uncomfortable. If you would have described my current life to me five years ago, I would have laughed […]
It is always busy when Michael is on the quinta, although this time I’ve managed to twist his arm on more than one occasion to take it slower than usual. The most important project for this visit was to build a front porch, and as I bought the steel beforehand, he could immediately start with […]
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