Do Tell!
This weekend some of the finest storytellers in the United States will gather at the revered National Storytelling Festival in tiny Jonesborough, Tennessee. It will also be the site of an upcoming Thelma and Louise Roadtrip by me and my older daughter, Emma (minus, of course, the drugs, sex, murder, …
Read Skirt!
Walking down the street in Charlotte, North Carolina, a few months ago, I saw a newspaper box that caught my eye; the magazine inside was gorgeous, big art on the cover. Tall, heavy paper, with a look and a feel and a meaning that satisfies. The very size of it …
Polish your mud balls
“When you start on a long journey, trees are trees, water is water, and mountains are mountains. After you have gone some distance, trees are no longer trees, water no longer water, mountains no longer mountains. But after you have traveled a great distance, trees are once again trees, water …
Rest your weary head
"Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do." – Eric Hoffer This is the first week in almost two years that I haven’t posted an essay on 37days. I am taking stock of that, …
Become you
”As life goes on it becomes tiring to keep up the character you invented for yourself, and so you relapse into individuality and become more like yourself every day. This is sometimes disconcerting for those around you, but a great relief to the person concerned.” –Agatha Christie It was a …
An invitation to join us…
Writing 37days has brought me so much since I began it in January 2005. As I meet 37days readers around the country–Mike and Delaney and Timothy in Des Moines, Chris in D.C., Jill in the Seattle airport as our flights crossed, Christy in Seattle, and more–it is clear to me that …
Open the mudroom door for Tycho
“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.” – Jean Cocteau There is a shadow in my house. It is big and black and moves around the wooden floors to surprise me at times when I am not expecting it to …
Eat on a door
“There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson “Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.” – G.K. Chesterton If every menu is an exercise in rhetoric, what would I choose for my last meal on …
Retreat to move forward
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." -Joseph Campbell My two daughters went quiet as we turned off the highway onto a gravel road. Suddenly, we were somewhere else altogether, even though just 20 …
Purge your portfolio
“For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future but an excuse can last for life.” – Eric Hoffer Two friends from high school visited several months ago: I hadn’t seen one …
