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Restoring garden and spirit
“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.” ~May Sarton I’ve spent the past week restoring the Japanese garden that’s tucked away in a corner of our backyard. My small garden oasis was inspired by the much larger Asian garden I’ve admired for years at Cranbrook House and Gardens in Bloomfield Hills. I even wrote a story about it, which was published in Victoria. Given their simple and restrained aesthetic, Japanese gardens require regular pruning, weeding, and trimming. Over-planting — which adds cottage charm to other garden styles — doesn’t…
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Star therapy
“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.” ~Bill Watterson, cartoonist One of my favorite summer pleasures is star-gazing on a crystal-clear night. This is easily accomplished when I’m visiting the west or northwest side of Michigan — the Third Coast, as I like to call it. In the beach towns along Lake Michigan, you’ll find less industrial pollution and clear opportunities to spot the constellations. But I’ll watch the stars anywhere, even at home in Detroit. When I do, I always recover my sense of awe and wonder, and the troubles of the day seem so much smaller in…
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Speak up, make a difference
“Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.” ~Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays American author Henry David Thoreau wasn’t afraid to speak out. Staying silent in the face of injustice was an act of compliance, he believed. Thoreau campaigned against slavery and also served as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, a venture that put him at personal risk. A born naturalist, he paved the way for American environmentalists to protect our natural resources. Thoreau’s courage has motivated me since my college years.…
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Sheltering in place at my own private Walden
Revisiting Walden
Celebrating October
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No comparison
“I grew tired of being so plugged into everyone else’s life that I felt disconnected from my own. One day, while scrolling through Instagram, I realized that I don’t need to know what a colleague had for breakfast. I don’t have to read about the accomplishments of people I don’t know well. And I don’t want to keep triggering the part of my brain prone to comparison.” ~Cheryl Richardson It’s wonderful to be in touch with a wide variety of people, but you can lose yourself if you spend too much time minding other people’s business. Today, more people are following the advice of mental health experts and putting down their phones. They’re reconnecting with…
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The joys of reading
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” ~Alan Bennett, The History Boys I’m a lucky reader with an active book club in my own neighborhood. Once a month, I get to walk down the street or around the corner to a friend’s home to discuss a novel or memoir that I might…
