The Lych Gate

. You are standing knee-deep in Birch Creek watching a beaver swim toward its lodge fifty yards upstream. It carries a load of fresh-cut twigs and branches in its mouth, and you can make out the sleek form of a second beaver adding its own cuttings to the structure. Suddenly the first beaver slaps its

Cold

Last night it was winter in my dreams again, bone-deep cold and cutting wind. I woke up afraid and shivering. My wife slept warm beside me, and I knew the big freeze would hold off for awhile.

Julian the Good

Julian of Norwich was a 14th century English anchorite and mystic. She lived in the time of the Great Plague, when there was terrible upheaval as tens of thousands fell sick and died. But she wrote, “All will be well, and very well, and all manner of things will be well.” These were deeply-considered words