When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things
Now, I get tons of questions about having Pyrenees because one, giant white fluff balls attract a lot of attention, and two, they require a little extra work, since there's so much extra of them. I've written about what you should know about Pyrs and what life with these babies is like, and you can read those posts here. But in honor of this blisteringly hot June and July weather, I decided to give you a glimpse into specifically what my summers look like with my giant fur babies.
Read MoreIt feels only fitting that on the one year anniversary of my last day in England I should be planning a trip that my best friend, Mary, and I have been dreaming of since freshman year of high school: a two-week backpacking trip through the United Kingdom (with a surprise layover in Iceland). A year later, I will be traveling back across the pond to my home away from home, ready to hand over copious amounts of money to the first crêpe cart I see. But both Mary and I will have just graduated from college, which means—you got it—we're broke. This means I've got to get creative if I want to be able to afford all those sidewalk snacks (not to mention airfare).
Read More
