Exploring the Third Season of Life

Notes from Vanaprastha

Reflections on Faith, Nature, and Writing

Recent Posts

Growth and Judgment

Growth and Judgment

We stood in the entrance hall at Monticello, my friend and I, listening to the house guide. It had been a few years since my last visit, but the artifacts and information looked and sounded familiar. After the house, we toured the gardens. Unlike my previous visits...

Split Self

Split Self

Several years ago, my mother gave me a t-shirt with a saying on it: When my gut says, “No,” my mouth says, “Sure, I’d be glad to.” Mother’s observation proved more and less useful: more because upon occasion I did have two minds, one thinking and the other...

Big Ed

Big Ed

The first time I met Big Ed, he was standing in the high-ceilinged front room of his home, an old plantation turned Victorian farmhouse in southern Virginia. A bear of a man, he turned my nice-to-meet-you handshake into a warm hug. Keith had told his parents that I...

Play

Play

Last week, I brought home 5 flats of vinca major, a couple of sweet-scented viburnum shrubs, a butterfly bush, an assortment of herbs – mint, oregano, rosemary, thymes and sage – and bags of soil prep. Keith helped with the heavy lifting – two truckloads - and...

Three’s a Crowd

Three’s a Crowd

Freya’s brother Jupiter needs a home. Over the weekend, Keith and I received an email from volunteers at Nelson County SPCA. Jupiter’s adoption last year had been successful, but the family is moving and cannot take him. And Keith and I cannot either because three...

Writing Workshops

Writing Workshops

“The breadth is thought provoking, intriguing, searching, promising.” “The storyteller’s voice worked. The writer’s voice didn’t work.” “I didn’t like the voices – they got in my way.” “I really liked the voices – it’s an inner theater.” “The first part was a...