okay. here goes.

it's very chilly here today. I heard on the news that our little burb was colder than Alaska. so a good day to stay in. tidy up. and plan the next few weeks.

and write a few words. I wasn't going to. but then. here goes.

yesterday I had two experiences. totally separate. but very confirming. not startling. eye-opening. but the kind that make you sit up and say. are you talking to me? yes. I believe you are.

I went to a meeting where the speaker talked about survival. thru love. compassion. humor. faith. pretty common sense. but sometimes it needs to be said. and the other thing he said was. it starts with me. no one else can do it. only me. me.

I went to a program where the speaker talked about mid-century architecture. he talked about the components of a building. and the areas therein. he quoted FLW talking about the hearth as the center of the home. and GW talked about that concept redefined. the hearth is as I define it. me.

the messages bounced around my head as I went to sleep last night. and were still rumbling this morning. it's certainly not all about me. but it begins here. and I go back. and back. and back. to the mantra. choose. it's fear or love, baby. I choose love.

so thanks. to that little voice. voices. that help. give hope. tell me I'm headed in the right direction. so. much. faith.

'let us suppose we are confronted with a desperate thing – say Pimlico. if we think what is really best for Pimlico we shall find the thread of thought leads to the throne of the mystic and the arbitrary. it is not enough for a man to disapprove of Pimlico; in that case he will merely cut his throat or move to Chelsea. nor, certainly, is it enough for a man to approve of Pimlico; for then it will remain Pimlico, which would be awful. the only way out of it seems to be for somebody to love Pimlico; to love it with a transcendental tie and without any earthly reason. if there arose a man who loved Pimlico, then Pimlico would rise into ivory towers and golden pinnacles… if men loved Pimlico as mothers love children, arbitrarily, because it is theirs, Pimlico in a year or two might be fairer than Florence. some readers will say that this is mere fantasy. I answer that this is the actual history of mankind. this, as a fact, is how cities did grow great. go back to the darkest roots of civilization and you will find them knotted round some sacred stone or encircling some sacred well. people first paid honour to a spot and afterwards gained glory for it. men did not love Rome because she was great. she was great because they had loved her.'