“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” – Henry David Thoreau The woman frowns at me.“Fotos?” she asks.Her voice is clipped. I swallow, nod, and point at one of the labels on the table. “Sim.”My voice wavers.She sighs, turns away from me abruptly, grabs two labels from a display case and follows her husband […]
“It’s in the home or urban garden, where the effort you put into your soil can not only be felt in your hands and back, but also be tasted on the plate.”– Matthew Evans The sky above me is cloudless, and although there is still frost on the ground, the sun holds a promise of […]
“Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.” – Nelson Mandela I woke up yesterday morning with a message from Michael sharing his disappointment at having to cancel his trip to South Africa to visit his parents, daughter and granddaughter, less than twenty-four hours after he booked his flights. The discovery of a […]
“Buçaco forest demands a whole vocabulary which, once spoken, tells us that there’s still everything left to say. You don’t describe Buçaco forest. The best thing is to lose yourself in it.”– José Saramago Bussaco (Buçaco) Forest, first settled in the 6th century by friars from the nearby Benedictine monastery in Vacariça, evokes the exact […]
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Gandhi The rains arrived, as predicted on the 29th of October. After a couple of days taking care of some chores on the land, I was grateful to slow down, huddle up inside, and catching up with friends. By the Sunday the sharka (pond or […]
“We’ve all been given a gift, the gift of life. What we do with our lives is our gift back.” – Edo When Matthias contacted me nearly two weeks ago to check if I’m up for a day of harvesting table olives on a local organic farm, I jumped at the opportunity. Not only did […]
Because we decided that we won’t do any big projects during Michael’s last visit, there was no need to book Tim with his tractor and digger, as that usually indicates a project involving multiple days of work. We always like to plan and book him well in advance, so we were quite relieved when he […]
“. . . belonging is not a once-and-for-all condition, a static identity tattooed on our skin; it is a constant self-examination and dynamic revision of where we are, who we are, and where we want to be.” – Elif Shafak I don’t like roller coasters, and I don’t like cliches, yet I can find no […]
“Happiness is that glorious feeling when everything seems right. When all of life’s twists and turns and jagged edges seem to fit together perfectly. In those often all-too-brief flickers of genuine happiness, every thought in your head is agreeable, and you wouldn’t mind if time stood still and the present moment extended forever.” – Mo […]
“Petrichor, the wonderful, soul-lifting smell you get after rain on earth, is thanks in large part to the metabolites of soil life. To geosmin. We’ve evolved around living earth, and our ability to sense geosmin could well explain why it feels so invigorating being in a garden, or so life-affirming to visit an ancient forest, […]
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