“. . . inching across the land at two or three miles an hour, is like eavesdropping on a public conversation. It has its own syntax.”– Paul Salopek When I had to fetch Michael from the airport in Lisbon the previous time he visited, I decided to spend the night before he arrived in Ericeira, […]
“It is the silence between the notes that makes the music; it is the spaces between the bars that cages the tiger.”– Zen saying I lift the mug to my lips, inhaling as I do. The smell of coffee sends signals of joy to my brain long before the caffeine has a chance to enter […]
“Soils, like people, are transformed by the company they keep. They develop slowly, over time. Top soil, the upper, most productive layer of soil, takes over 500 years to form. That precious inch – and all remaining layers of soil – evolves in response to the climate, terrain and organisms with which it comes in […]
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden A soft rain is falling this morning on the quinta. Midnight is curled up on the bed, while Lily restlessly dashes in and out the door getting wetter and wetter. I’m sitting on the couch writing while trying my best to […]
“The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour […]
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” -Benjamin Franklin Michael likes to get his hands dirty and be involved in almost every project on the quinta, but when he and Tim decided to clean one of our two wells on the last day before he left, I just shook my head and muttered under my breath […]
“When we eat good food, we smell and taste the earth, and thereby reconnect with it: that is what it means to eat with grace.” – Darra Goldstein I stood amazed this morning as I looked out over my veggie patch. The transformation from a piece of sloping earth into something filled with edibles brings […]
“Do we have the strength within ourselves to slow down, to make the necessary changes personally, structurally, and institutionally…so the life around us can flourish?” – Terry Tempest Williams Michael and I, over the last couple of months, have had various discussions about what I’ve always termed as my quest for a simpler way of […]
“It is not speed that matters, it’s persistence.”– Abhijit Naskar The past week was an exceptionally busy week on the quinta, and both Michael and I were exhausted yesterday. We told a friend on Saturday that no tool will be lifted on Sunday, as we were planning to make it a rest day, but nothing […]
“Remember to look up at the stars, and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exists. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”– […]
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