“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” (John Ruskin)

Well, it is now officially snowing in Vermont. I believe the first day we got a foot of snow, which, in Georgia would’ve qualified as enough to shut down the entire State. The second day we got a bunch more and, after that, I stopped keeping track.

There is a LOT of snow, and the snowflakes are so huge that they don’t all fall DOWN. Some of them just float around, defying gravity, prolonging their joyful dance until they are so exhausted, they flop down on top of the others to help erase all the little differences on the surface of the world.

Posted in about me, beauty, present moment 51 Comments »

THAT is  a lot of water… rushing at insane speeds down the Niagara River and off this ledge, pummeling the rocks (and anything else) below. As I understand it, four of the Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Erie, and Huron) flow into this river… then Lake Ontario, then the St. Lawrence River and out to the Atlantic. Always have, always will.

So, of course, the only rational thing to do is to get on one of these boats (The Maid of the Mist) and get as close as possible to the falls in order to experience their hugely destructive power up close. Every one of these is packed full of people who PAY to be at the foot of the falls. We want to FEEL, and be inspired by, what water is truly capable of… even if it IS from a safe-ish distance.

Posted in Life, Spirit of Adventure, balance, beauty, travel 34 Comments »

Whenever I see a magazine or blog that teaches us how to live a Simple Life, I get one of two impressions: either simplifying will turn me into a Martha Stewart type person, or I need to be one in order to achieve true simplicity.

Simplicity, as defined by these authorities on the subject, always looks beautiful… like an all-white home with a single red rose on the table, and a bowl of limes on the counter.

Simple hairstyles are polished and refined. Simple clothing is slimming and perfectly matched. Simple exercises give us six-pack abs. Simple anything, then, must mean beautiful… right? These two are practically synonymous, it seems.

Or are they?

I’ll tell you what “simple” means; it means “not complicated”.

Posted in balance, beauty, simplicity No Comments »