In the quiet of early morning, I bundled up against the newly-arrived winter temperatures and slipped out the front door for a 5:30 a.m. walk. Above, the stars gleamed as they only can when the humidity and temperature drop, and as I stepped off the porch my breath caught to see Venus, radiant and huge,…
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A Farm Story
Growing up on the farm is on a short list of things that define who I am. My memories are filled with gigantic, buttery harvest moons rising through the jagged tips of cornstalks, of leaf piles reduced to pulsing embers that mirrored the night sky, of glittering frosty dawns and mist hanging over the woods,…
Read MoreA Photo Day
Today is the first day of Triduum, and I am beginning to wind down blogging toward the holiest days of the year. Palm Sunday was supposed to be a crazy-busy day, with me traveling to observe an NFP class in the afternoon and attending a novels group meeting in the evening. It turned out both…
Read MoreWhen What You Need, You Can’t Have
This weekend, I read the most beautiful description of a place, a description that picked up my heart and plopped it down in the Sierra Nevada, and my whole body ached to hop a plane and follow it there. There hasn’t been much time for solitude and communing with God through creation in the last…I…
Read MoreBlowing In the Wind
The smell caught me…that distinct, absolutely divine scent that only comes in the fall, the smell of dead leaves. I think of Anne Shirley rhapsodizing over dead fir leaves, and her friends thinking it somehow unholy to think of things dead in Heaven. I think it’s just one of those “Yay God”-worthy moments, realizing that…
Read MoreI Miss My Childhood
On nights when the incessant traffic noise mysteriously vanishes and the sound of a dog barking echoes outside my window, I miss my childhood. My heart reaches back toward sight of the full moon rising swollen and orange behind rows of corn and the smell of burning leaves at the end of the driveway, burrowing…
Read MoreEarly Spring in the Woods
On Julianna’s birthday, Alex came home from school in great excitement. “My teacher said there was going to be an early spring!” he exclaimed. We tried to moderate his certainty, but how do you explain to a five-year-old that the groundhog is a publicity stunt? When I get up to walk on Sunday morning, it’s…
Read More7 Quick Takes, Vol. 101
___1___ Best link of the week, hands down, in honor of the upcoming movie release (anybody want to be super geeky and dress up for a midnight showing? 😉 ): Hogwarts Gets the Internet. Ever wondered what Dobby might say on Facebook? ___2___ All right, people. This is a note to some of you…
Read MoreFall Elements
Fall Elements Originally uploaded by One-Speed Photography I didn’t want to come out today. I knew I was not going to find a truly quiet place, and I have so many works in progress that I really begrudged the time. At the very least I ought to be folding clothes so that’s not hanging over…
Read MoreStarstruck
When I was growing up, my bedroom faced north, toward the pond and the gentle swell of a hayfield. And the chicken yard, which meant that any time a raccoon got into the henhouse, I was the one who raised the alert. No wonder I’m such a light sleeper. I don’t know at what point…
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Kathleen M. Basi 