(quote from JRR Tolkien)

It’s a new year, and instead of a list of resolutions, I’ll just say a few words about what has inspired me to start this blog, and what I hope will inspire you as you read it.

This is a watercolor painting I did showing a Townsend’s Solitaire nesting on a Douglas fir log, hidden behind some sword ferns. Done in preparation for The Hollow Cedar.

Look for beauty in the world. It’s all around you, all it takes is open eyes and an open heart.

That’s pretty much it.

Now I have to go take a walk in the woods. It’s rainy and gray out there, and muddy and messy and full of problems and endangerments and things entangled in plastic—far from the idyllic sunny day when I painted that watercolor—but one thing I know…I will find beauty there.

Hope you do, too.

_________________________________________________________________________