Diamond-Cut Life » nature

This Is My Only Home

Alison — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:23:09 +0000

“This is my home . . . this is my only home . . . this is the only sacred place I have ever known . . . “ We all sang that together last night, performers and audience alike, at the end of the Winterfolk concert, led by the radiant Tracy Grammer. I had tears [...]Similar Posts:

Post From The Prairie

Alison — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:01:09 +0000

Do you love fresh, crusty bread, like I do? A grain elevator like the one to the right was pivotal in bringing the wheat from the field to our tables. I took this picture near sunset yesterday in the small town of Mentor, Kansas, across from the church where Linda, my dear friend of 31 [...]Similar Posts:

The Best Things In Life: Part II

Alison — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:23:41 +0000

This is a guest post by my friend Allison Hamilton. Allison lives in the country and skillfully grows an amazing variety of vegetables and fruit trees, when she isn’t creating award-winning solar energy projects. She calls me Ali. I love the way she’s deepened the conversation on the best things in life. I love this post, [...]Similar Posts:

What To Do With An Autumn Equinox?

Alison — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:00:44 +0000

How shall we celebrate the autumnal equinox, fast approaching on September 23? And why should we note it at all? The autumn equinox, the old-timey, nature-centered holiday in which the sun crosses the celestial equator doesn’t make it onto the radar for most of us. We may know it moreless coincides with the first day of [...]Similar Posts:

Top Ten Things To Happily Live Without, Part II

Alison — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:25:48 +0000

Last month’s edition of this proved so popular, I’ve written a sequel. The premise of the diamond-cut life is that joy and well-being come from what we do and who we are with, not from possessions that are costly to both us and the planet. 1. Cable television. The average cost for cable TV in the [...]Similar Posts:

Happy Summer Solstice! Unthreatened By Pagans

Alison — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:08:26 +0000

Happy Summer Solstice! Today is the longest day of the year. Not only that, but the sun — the life-giving sun — will reach its highest point in the sky today that it will reach all year. To the ancients, such as those who built Stonehenge,

Stonehenge

[/caption] solstice was a holiday that celebrated [...]Similar Posts:

Am I Selling Out?

Alison — Sat, 28 May 2011 23:57:32 +0000

I’m writing from Joshua Tree, the stunning sub-region of the Mojave Desert in California where Thor and I got married seven years ago. We spent much of the day outdoors; the rugged beauty and penetrating dry heat are joyful to me. Tomorrow we go to my niece Melissa’s wedding — more joy. But I question myself. [...]Similar Posts:

The Holy Grail of the Diamond-Cut Life

Alison — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:13:44 +0000

I had a marguerita last night with my fish tacos at the Hawthorne Fish House. I tossed the drink down fast, in the tiny wedge of time available to me between fighting the traffic home from a meeting in Salem (I won an award — happy surprise!) , and the start of the writing critique [...]Similar Posts:

High Happiness, Low Carbon Footprint

Alison — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:52:31 +0000

I am flawed in oh so many ways. I am impatient, intense, I don’t write to my invalid mother as frequently as I should, and while I no longer binge on Haagen Dazs ice cream, my sweet tooth is such that my husband terms my coffee a vehicle for sugar. In my favor, though, I am [...]Similar Posts:

Sammy’s Mountain, Gardens & Community

Alison — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:32:58 +0000

Our driveway has a vast hill of fertile dirt in it because we are finally building a garden, having spurned the lawn our builder offered to put in for us. We’ve named this temporary geographical feature Sammy’s Mountain because our neighbor Sammy (short for Samantha) loves to climb it and survey our neighborhood from the [...]Similar Posts: