the rambling quest

As someone who has been know to fly north for the summer, may I highly recommend that we all take a minute to listen to Michael Hurley's Wildegeeses from Ida Con Snock.

It's only in the wildness can you name her

It's only in the wildness can you tame her

how bright the stars, how dark the night

Some time ago, I was sitting on a picnic blanket on the grass surrounded by many of the people I love most in the world, and Garnet Rogers was playing this song, and it was about as perfect a moment as I've ever had and I wept and smiled and there are pictures to prove it.

Some time later, I was in a hospital bed in a very small old town, and my parents called and said they were going out to see Garnet Rogers. I'd lost my voice, but I whispered "You should you ask him to play 'Night Drive'."

I spent that lonely night looking out the window at a big hill where the sky played out its many colours and slipped into darkness and dim stars shone feebly in the northern summer light, and I hadn't seen the sun go down for months and I was on morphine and I heard guitar loops all night long.

They did ask him to play the song, and he "seemed quite touched," and he played it for me.

to warm our hands and find our way

This all seems like it was a long time ago, when it really was nothing of the sort.
It was the end of last year and the beginning of this one. But we've come a long way this year.

A late night, a leafy salad, a cup of something homegrown and special, and a furry cat hiding in the corners of a very sweet friend's home.
Every time I hear her sing the words "a place to start out from," I think of this night.

It's getting dark very early and the wind is blowing strong and the snow is sneaking in the cracks. In the cold days of an arctic autumn (which seem quite a bit like winter to a southern soul), warm memories of dear ones and delicious meals do the trick like nothing else.

Can't wait to see you.

*I also think of my dear friend Jodi who took all of these gorgeous photos.

my neck of the woods

If one looks closely, it's possible to see (in no particular order): a fifth birthday, a herd of caribou, the hand of Franklin, generations living in harmony, the edges of the outside world and more than one moment of wonder and gratitude.