I've wanted to start a blog for months. My Holland update letters, which I tied off last year, were a sort of romanticized journaling project to stay meaningfully in touch with my not-so-near but no-less-dear ones across the Atlantic. But that was a perfect storm: I knew exactly what to share with an audience I loved (and who I knew loved me back).

Having moved back stateside, I've needed long months to catch a new updraft beneath my wings. Deep-rootedness was more my style, and now Nashville is beginning to feel like home.

So I've been reading Bringhurst, and realizing that I really ought to read more biographies. Luckily, Bringhurst would be right up CS's alley, especially with a lecture he gave on Carpaccio's St. Augustine in His Study. Which in turn rhymes with LY's own mention of St. Augustine in our small group meeting last week. She linked me to a couple of sermons and recommended that I take a second look at his Confessions, as well as The Imitation of Christ, which she says is shorter and a better jumping-off point.

But as I sit here with my Earl Grey (half a teaspoon sugar, a teaspoon of cream, please), reading the perfect book and typing up a storm, I realize that the appearance of thriving is not enough for me. All the trappings and creature comforts gave me tangible goals to strive for...here I sit, indeed, in my own apartment with my own furniture, enjoying benefits I couldn't imagine from my lightfooted life in Amsterdam...but truly thriving is something that I'm going to have to figure out for myself, with only my gut and my prayers to guide me.

BOOKS, MUSIC, FILM

Bringhurst, "The Tree of Meaning"
Ferrell, "Harry S. Truman: A Life"
Ross, "Wagnerism"
Rodrigo, Concierto Pastoral for flute & orchestra
Muczynski, Three Preludes for solo flute
Köhler, Romantic Etudes
Fauré, Fantasie
Mamet, "Glen Garry Glen Ross"