Summer

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” - John Steinbeck

The sweetness of summer continues. We spent the last week at a cabin on Lake St Croix, an wide portion of the St. Croix River before it meets the Mississippi.  Our friends Justin and Emily visited for the week, along with their daughter Sylvia.  Thanks for coming!

We enjoyed the big views, lingering by the lake, and skipping rocks on the beach - hands down, my all time favorite thing to do.  Mims tried some lake swimming and was excited to be swimming among fish and ducks.  She's now swimming solo (with a floatie).  I couldn't be more proud, and she couldn't be more delighted by her newfound freedom.

I don't have any updates on my health - just eating good foods, staying active, and grateful to be feeling well.  The whole house is perfumed with the lively smell of garam masala sent by my friend Erica (thank you!) and I'm feeling as well as I have since May.

I enjoyed listening to a This American Life story  about the Chinese tradition of "Chong Xi," which means, "to wash away misfortune with joy" (thanks Taro for the translation).  It's a wonderful story; and some of it is about how important joy is to life, to health.  True for all of us.  Let's experience some joy together while the summer is still here.

A bit of housekeeping... this site delivers!  Some of you mentioned to me that you refresh the site for updates (which is wonderful for me to hear).  On the web version, there's a place where you can sign up for an email update when there is a new post.

More to come!