First, a warm welcome to the many new people who joined my newsletter this week, and as always my deep appreciation to all my subscribers, many of whom go back more than 10 years. May this twice monthly space provide inspiration for all your aspirations. Second, a big oops tonight because instead of this newsletter going to my entire list,…
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Defying Genres (Though Perhaps Not Defying Technology)
The Drawing feeling of Hiraeth
One of my new favorite words is Hiraeth [hee-REY-eth], a Welsh word that I learned this past spring. Hiraeth lacks an exact English counterpart. It refers to the a yearning for or missing of a space or geography. It comes with a mixture of wistfulness, sadness, grief, and nostalgia for an ideal place of the past to which one longs…
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A Bigger Table
Like so many things that I’ve watched struggle to evolve over the last 15 months, June, Juneteenth, and the holiday’s recent official, federal status have brought new light and some long awaited changes. Thinking about my posts from June of 2020, we’re a ways away from the National Guard driving tanks through my residential neighborhood and the state flying helicopters…
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Eccentric Ellipses + Summer Workshops
As spring gently glides into summer, I’m thrillled to report that for once in over a decade, spring has actually been spring with only a handful of scorcher, orange alert days here in “Hotlanta.” Spending 99% of our time at home as we do, it has been nothing short of glorious. My shaded back yard in the urban forest doesn’t…
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Boogie Woogie Is Hard and Easy
I was three or four years old, and the climb up on the piano bench seemed like Everest but worth the adventure. Roddy Noll was a teenager, and, if possible, even more mischievous than he’d been as a child. He knew exactly how to stir up trouble and fun in a heartbeat: Play boogie woogie riffs instead of the boring…
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