“This ‘answer’ has come to be the watchword of my faith, my touchstone to tap in the midst of problems, unhappiness, confusion, or even joy. It brings focus and perspective to me, and…

“It all began on a tennis court in the late 1980s. I was co-editing a magazine for a Greek hotel chain and we were searching for someone to do a food column. It…

“For reasons of my own, when I think of the Swedes, when I put aside the fact that they gave the Nobel Prize for Literature to Bob Dylan, I think of meatballs, nightingales,…

“Ben is not even three and his brain will soon reset much of the information he has already learned. But impressions are being made. Confidence and life experiences are being formed. His personality…

“The journey must have begun after sunset. When you follow a star, you can only walk at night, when the world is not so busy, so noisy. When you travel at the rate…

“I spent half a day mixing that stuff up, getting the texture just right, getting it slightly moistened and evenly crumbly—perfect for all the new plants I’ve got to pot up and all…

“Then—/when the once sturdy barrier/is too old; beyond repair—/down to some skeleton/of former fence glory,/the meadowlarks seek new perches/to sing prairie songs/on last autumn’s stakes/of mullein stalks,/yellow breasts glowing like rising suns,/as the…

“I know the terror of being torn away from people and places I love, time and again, and the anguish, shame and self-alienation that come from injuring others. Though I moved to Greece…

“We are in the midst of abrupt, irreversible climate change. We are in the midst of a Mass Extinction Event on Earth. How shall we act? What moral code(s) can guide us? These…

“I’m not really talking about painting at all, I’m talking about sketching. I don’t even own any paint except for a couple of cans stored in the garage and last opened five years…