intent on what they touch

We were out of breakfast foods this morning, so today began by walking to the coffee shop around the block to pick up some muffins, which A. and I shared together on our porch, drinking coffee and avoiding a bee. It was a much needed slow morning after an all too busy week—one of those weeks which by the end of it I had no energy or kindness left to offer anyone.

Other things, lately:

Sarah Coakley on prayer (part II and III, as well).

Caroline Walker Bynum on Gertrude of Helfta.

Bruce Herman came over for dinner a few weeks back—and what a gift. He has a way of articulating what my own work is about that helps it become suddenly much clearer in my mind, and has encouraged me to plunge back into it. I needed that.

I have also been thinking about habits vs. rituals, and how those play out in my day-to-day life—what are those rote daily tasks that could become something more intentional, more beautiful?

I still think often about the food I had in Italy last summer—how simple, fresh, and good it was—and have been trying to emulate that approach in my own cooking. Rachel Roddy's column A Kitchen in Rome in The Guardian has been especially inspiring.

Dreaming about going to Look3 in Charlottesville. I have also been dreaming about going here.

And, here is a poem for the Feast of the Annunciation, an image for Good Friday, and a poem for when both fall on the same day (which apparently won't happen again for another century).

[Honeywell Pentax, 35mm, Durham, NC]