Little House in the Big Woods
Laura Ingalls Wilder
She thought to herself, “This is now.” She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now.
Find Laura Ingalls Wilder on Goodreads
With a Heart of Gold
Willie Cole
With a Heart of Gold is one of Willie Cole’s 3 dimensional art installations using recycled women’s shoes.
The multiplication of a single object has become the driving aesthetic of my sculptural work. I think of myself as creating the same way nature does: through cell replication and multiplication. I tell myself that I can make everything from anything and anything from everything. – Willie Cole*
View Willie Cole’s artwork on his website
Image of With a Heart of Gold is courtesy of Willie Cole and Alexander and Bonin Gallery
Why I’m Here
Writer, singer and songwriter, Jessie Veeder, shares why her family ranch will always be home
Jessie Veeder
Photo by Jessie Veeder
We were out late last night working cattle.
And by late, I mean after dark.
And by after dark I mean, a sliver of a moon, a thousand stars, 50 head of black cattle, five people and one flashlight.
No, it’s not all raspberry picking, sunflowers and margaritas on the deck out here.
Sometimes we have to get Western.
And when all available cowboys and cowhands have jobs and responsibilities in the sweet and useful hours of the day, sometimes we find ourselves chasing the sun while we’re chasing the cows.
It’s difficult. Since moving back to the ranch two summers ago I’ve learned a lot of things. I’ve learned how to can a tomato, tile a shower, where to find a missing pug, how to make a meal from what I have in my pantry because I’ve got no choice — I’m not driving to town, how to kill a burdock plant, what time of day makes the most magical photos and how long I can go without taking a shower before the neighbors start to complain…
But above all of that, mostly I’ve learned there aren’t enough hours in the day.
And I don’t know how Pops has done it all these years.
Read the full post at Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…
Discover Jessie Veeder’s Music
I Won’t Back Down
Tom Petty
Well I won’t back down
No, I won’t back down
You could stand me up at the gates of hell
And I won’t back down
I’m gonna stand my ground
Won’t be turned around
And I’ll keep this world from draggin’ me down
Gonna stand my ground
And I won’t back down
Landscape Survey
John Brehm
Photo by Krondol
And what about this boulder,
knocked off the moutaintop and
tumbled down a thousand years ago
to lodge against the streambank,
does it waste itself with worry
about how things are going
to turn out? Does the current
slicing around it stop itself mid-
stream because it can’t get past
all it’s left behind back at
the source or up in the clouds
where its waters first fell
to earth? And these trees,
would they double over and
clutch themselves or lash out
furiously if they were to discover
what the other trees really
thought of them? Would the wind
reascend into the sky forever,
like an in-drawn breath,
if it knew it was fated simply
to sweep the earth of windlessness,
to touch everything and keep
nothing and be beheld by no one?
– From the Book of Poetry, Sea of Faith
Discover more poetry from John Brehm on his website.
The Art of Racing in the Rain
Garth Stein
There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.
The Art of Racing in the Rain is available through Goodreads.
Hard Work Ahead
Tim Christensen
I make pots about the times in which we live, and the challenges of living in a time in which we are divorced from the natural world around us. I make my work to be appreciated by those who know a lot or a little about porcelain or art, and make it with the hopes that some of these pots will survive longer than me or the culture in which we live, and will still be as pertinent and relevant then as now. – Tim Christensen
Learn more about artist Tim Christensen on his website.
Apples, Apples, Who Has the Apples?
A story about life’s mishaps, the help of strangers, and 450 apples
Prairie Wisdom
Photo by Rob MacEwen
Johnny Appleseed’s birthday was on September 26th so we had little time to make posters, communicate with teachers, write speeches for the daily announcements, organize a master of ceremonies for the event and figure out how we were going to distribute 450 apples to everyone in the school.
All too soon the big day arrived. I was so proud. The students and I had worked hard and everything was ready. At about 10:00 in the morning the principal walked into my room and asked me, “Where are the apples?”
I stared at her with a stupefied expression and thought, “Apples?”
Read the full post at Prairie Wisdom
Stubborn Love
The Lumineers
It’s better to feel pain, than nothing at all
The opposite of love’s indifference…
So keep your head up, keep your love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, keep your love
More from The Lumineers
Healing Quote of the Day
Photo by Erik Törner
Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.
–Mother Theresa