Look light

Here's the thing. I'm turning 31.

30 was a year of growth, and great adventure. I can sum up what I've learned by saying: listen to yourself.

And my goals for the next twelve months?


Love hard.

Be honest.



I spent the week before my birthday as I choose to, every year: on Ocracoke.  There's no better place I know, and none I love so much. Toes in the tide, Mabel beside me. Wild dunes. Persistent, beautiful red cedar, myrtle, and yaupon. Sun going down on the horizon, over a boat wake. Nothing better.

Did I tell you that I watched three tiny sea turtles make their way into the ocean, under a full moon?

Til next year, Ocracoke. And who knows where I'll be, then?

Time away

Heart of Dixie, a photo series by Walter Beckham.

"People need focus": an atheist Quaker.

A mother's excellent advice.

Summer reading

My book club just read Southern Cross the Dog. I am recommending it to you, with a few cautionary notes. Bill Cheng is a gifted writer and it's clear that he's read an awful lot of Faulkner. Critics asked, how can a person from Queens write a convincing novel about the south? Well. One page at a time, I'd imagine. (Authenticity in art, and culture, has been on my mind so if you want to talk about it, give me a call).  It's not a great book, but the writing is solid and you'll find yourself racing through the last few chapters.

To feel the place... that's another thing entirely. This book, it never really gets there. Not enough meat on the bone, but! The novel pays homage to the blues musicians of Mississippi and I reckon that's reason enough to post some videos.