I wasn’t planning on posting anything else before our trip but this sweet, beautiful girl turns 10-years old tomorrow and that deserves a mention.  Even though we’ve only had her a few short months, she has already worked her way deep into my heart.  If you missed the story of our rescue of Abbess Petunia, read here and here and here.  I will miss her a great deal while we are away. Thanks so very much for all the beautiful wishes you have left in comments and emails for my upcoming trip– they mean a lot to me! The last few days have been a flurry

I am Going to Start Living Like a Mystic  Today I am pulling on a green wool sweater and walking across the park in a dusky snowfall. The trees stand like twenty-seven prophets in a field, each a station in a pilgrimage–silent, pondering. Blue flakes of light falling across their bodies are the ciphers of a secret, an occultation. I will examine their leaves as pages in a text and consider the bookish pigeons, students of winter. I will kneel on the track of a vanquished squirrel and stare into a blank pond for the figure of Sophia. I shall begin