by Carole Duff | Jan 26, 2026 | Faith, Family, Nature, Writing and Reading |
It’s unusual to celebrate Christmas a month after the original date. But our son Alex had to work in December and is with us now, just in time for Winter Storm Fern, another somewhat unusual occurrence. With our usual precautions—a whole-house backup generator and...
by Carole Duff | Jan 19, 2026 | Faith, Nature, Writing and Reading |
Over the years, I’ve posted many photographs of the mountains on our horizon here at Vanaprastha. Beautiful, indeed, but sometimes I struggle to find something good on the metaphorical horizon, especially during last week’s cloudy, flat, blah days of winter....
by Carole Duff | Jan 5, 2026 | Faith, Writing and Reading |
“Everyday kindness can be the greatest sort of heroism.” Karen Swallow Prior, On Reading Well This past week, I spoke with our contractor neighbor about little acts of kindness, an on-going and troubling neighbor situation, and a time...
by Carole Duff | Dec 15, 2025 | Faith, Nature, Writing and Reading |
“The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.” William Wordsworth Friday’s snow ten days ago was followed by last Monday’s storm, each accumulation of snow at four inches. Tuesday Bible study...
by Carole Duff | Dec 8, 2025 | Faith, Nature, Writing and Reading |
Hibernate, verb. Definition 1: of an animal or plant that spends the winter in a dormant state. Similar: sleep, overwinter, hole up. Definition 2: of a person who remains inactive or indoors for an extended period of time. Last Tuesday, as we woke to cold rain and...
by Carole Duff | Dec 1, 2025 | Faith, Family, Writing and Reading |
When Keith’s brother-in-law said grace before the family’s Thanksgiving feast, I couldn’t help but think of three other Thanksgiving families: my first-stage-of-life growing up family, the second-stage-of-life family with my children, and my third-stage-of-life with...
