Several weeks ago when I was reading Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires, I discovered one of the most comforting meals you could ever have: Aushak, i.e. Afghan dumplings that are stuffed with scallions, served on a layer of garlic-spiked Greek yogurt and then topped with a gingery tomato sauce and roughly torn mint leaves. While…
The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds. The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things…
"It's a question of discipline," the little prince told me later on. "When you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend to your planet."-Antoine de Saint Exupery (The Little Prince) All week long, I've been following the Little Prince's sage advice and tending to my planet. You might say that things have fallen…
The house is silent when Marietta has left and Mrs. Lethwes feels free again. The day is hers now, until the evening. She can go from room to room in stockinged feet and let the telephone ring unanswered. She can watch, if the mood takes her, some old black-and-white film on the television, an English…
"But then there was a star danced, and under that was I born." -William Shakespeare (Much Ado about Nothing) Today, dear readers, is my birthday; I am officially 29 years old. Most surprising of all is that, contrary to my expectations, I am not in the least disappointed at being--finally, officially-- on the brink of 30.…
"What made Madeleine sit up in bed was something closer to the reason she read books in the first place and had always loved them. Here was a sign that she wasn't alone. Here was an articulation of what she had been so far mutely feeling. In bed on a Friday night, wearing sweatpants, her…
I can hardly believe that, less than a week ago, I was rambling through Carmel, Monterey and Point Lobos, almost without a care in the world. To put it mildly, all of that seems like a lifetime ago. The Greek and I returned to various tasks in Berkeley last Tuesday evening and now, one Greek…
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be…
We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are. -- Tobias WolffIt's been a tough week, but a worthwhile one. Sometimes you just have to take yourself in hand, ask what's working and not working and try to go about fixing it. The key word in that sentence is most definitely…
Once upon a time there was a boy who lived in a house across the field from a girl who no longer exists. They made up a thousand games. She was Queen and he was King. In the autumn light, her hair shone like a crown. They collected the world in small handfuls. When the…
Dining with Dostoevsky 