About this site

Blogging as contemplative practice

First. I began this blog because I wanted to live more intentionally, more mindfully, more gratefully — and to shape my experiences into stories and images that tell me who I am and what I’m doing in this world… because writing makes me pay more attention to my experiences as they happen and reflect more deeply on them afterwards… because I understand my ideas best in struggling to articulate them… because I want to invite others to share the fascination I feel in a discovery or insight or encounter… because I want a place to gather and ponder the intriguing bits and pieces I come across… because I want to notice and remember.

A postcard from today

Also. For several years, I have been creating what I call “postcards” — digital collages that document and evoke certain moments in my daily life, like the one at the top of this page. I wanted a place to share these and sometimes to talk about them. This is that place. I will include new postcards in my blog posts, but little by little I will post older postcards in a separate gallery.

Curiosity, not authority

And then. When I was in graduate school, my advisor impressed on us the importance of becoming an authority on a subject before we wrote about it — of reading everything before writing anything. How mortifying to have another scholar call you out for being unaware of a reference that bore on your subject, he warned! And how paralyzing for this would-have-been scholar…

So I write here as a curious dilettante — that’s in the word’s original sense (from the Italian and Latin words for delight). I like knowing something about something, but I don’t need — or imagine I can — know everything about anything. I’ll share the connections I discover. And if I miss an interesting link or misunderstand or misinterpret something, please enlighten me (kindly).

Structures

Finally. Just so you know: I have made a few choices about the way this blog is organized (and more will doubtless occur to me as I move forward with this project):

  • My original intent was to post twice a week, but that sort of regularity has escaped me, alas! Instead, I post when I have something to write about or some new images to share, and that might be once or twice a week or there might be a good bit of time between posts, depending on what’s going on. My best advice is to subscribe (see the link in the right-hand menu), so you don’t miss anything!
  • Wherever possible or relevant, I will include a “postcard” with each post. I will also put all these postcards on a Gallery page.
  • I have also created a “Photography” section for single images, which you can browse by date or by subject.
  • Inspired by the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast, I will end every post with thanks or a blessing or a toast. Life offers us so many opportunities to learn and  grow, if we will only pay attention. So I will offer these brief final thoughts as a means of reflecting on some broader life lesson the post might evoke.
  • Remembering Nicholas Carr’s old but still thought-provoking piece in The Atlantic, I will include no distracting links in the body of a post but will instead share them in a “Connections” section at the end. (So, for example, you will find a link to Carr’s article at the bottom of this page.)

About me

Among other things, I am…

  • a Californian from the San Francisco Bay Area (now retired, living in Alameda)
  • at that uncertain age when waiters don’t know whether to address me as “Miss” or “Ma’am” — and a bit flattered when they choose the former
  • partner to Craig (that’s him on the left); also his hiking companion, fellow traveler, and navigator
  • a reader, audiobook enthusiast, and unabashed fan of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and Harry Potter
  • a fearless cook who shamelessly tries out new recipes on friends and family
  • a bit of a word nerd (doctorate in folklore; do the New York Times crossword puzzle — online — every day)
  • an anglophile and a francophone
  • seeking to live a meaningful, creative, joyful life
  • curious about almost everything!
Connections