M I N D B O D Y S O U L S P I R I T

Dear Friends,

Before you read on...know that with each letter, I strive to encourage despite what I see daily on the news. My heart is often breaking as I write, especially this week. We must remain vigilant, willing to stand up for the protection of those around us. To maintain strength, self-care and self-respect are crucial. While the body of this letter was written at the beginning of the week, when I was lost in magical wintry “wonderland” images from France, it remains relevant.

W O N D E R

How often do you pay attention to those small moments of wonder in your everyday life?

Or the quiet moments of ordinariness?

Often we multitask, flying through our days, checking off tasks and patting ourselves on the back. However, in this world of instant gratification: Instagram, streaming, Instacart and other forms of quick response... I crave moments of stillness. As I edit this letter, I resist the urge to turn on the news. I opt for gentle Native flute to soothe my senses.

During the past year, I two and a half weeks in a small French village with no shops (only a baguette vending machine) and was banished for a month (for no apparent reason) from a social media platform. These two events coincided, providing time to ponder small things and focus on life one step at a time.

I also ponder the inexplainable moments of serendipity …miraculous connections with people and places that continue to play a vital role in my life.

I realize the significance of paying attention, really paying attention to quiet remarkable moments.

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it — every, every minute?”

In Thorton Wilder’s play Our Town, Emily Webb asks this from her life-after-death view of her twelfth birthday.

I just finished Ann Pachett’s novel Tom Lake, in which Our Town plays a prominent role. From the first paragraph, I was drawn into Ann’s novel which transports you to a Michigan lakeside community. You walk among the blossoming cherry trees, feel the rich warm earth and become a silent family member, experiencing complicated relationships.

Thorton Wilder also carries significance for me. Wilder wrote Our Town in 1937 primarily at The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. From the time I was a little girl, I became familiar with the story of the first art residency in the United States, the MacDowell Colony https://www.macdowell.org/, founded in 1907. My mother belonged to an art league which supported the colony and fostered the artis in her hometown, Hollywood. She joined as a teenager and throughout her life attended and hosted monthly club meetings. The women became her closest friends, and they became aunts to me. They included Ruth-in-the-Blue-Dress, a poet and songwriter; Esther, a prize-winning poet; Elizabeth, a concert pianist; Jacqueline, the journalist and world traveler; Lena, a musician and my mother, Elma, painter and sculptor. I received hand-me-down dresses from their daughters, and we took vacations together. Once a year, husbands and partners were invited to a party meeting- usually a luau at Elizabeth’s poolside backyard. I remember my father and Ernie, another husband, performing a skit as WPA artists collaborating on an abstract - and somehow they made it hilarious! Each meeting had a presentation about the arts.

More importantly, I learned the importance of fostering the arts and about the legendary MacDowell Colony which provides residencies for aspiring artists in small cabins in the New Hampshire woods with meals often dropped by their doors. It sounded dreamy to me.

And the wife of composer Edward MacDowell and co-founder of the colony moved to sunny Los Angeles for the last decade of her life until 1956—where my mother and her “art ladies” got to know Marian MacDowell.

The MacDowell roster is long and illustrious. It includes (in random order) Ann Pachett, Thorton Wilder, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copeland, Georgia O’Keeffe, Faith Ringgold, Willa Cather. Marianne Moore, Alice Sebold, Milton Avery, Edward Hopper, Robert Frost, and Merce Cunningham and MANY more. Recently, I learned that Robert McNeil of the McNeil Lehrer Report served on the board of the MacDowell Colony as its chairman.

For most of my life I understood this mystical connection between the arts—poets influence painters; musicians influence writers— all in an intricate dance. This lives on in the art groups to which I belong. When I founded and facilitated a life drawing group—I called it the Morongo Basin Life Drawing League! For over 10 years our Dialog Group has met to encourage each other and nurture the arts.

And paying attention to small things deeply influences art.

One of my goals for 2026 is to read more, rather than turn to the default live streamed film.

Reading a physical book is a commitment. You cannot easily complete other activities. As with playing a musical instrument, you must focus on the written page in front of you. I am rearranging reading areas with good light.

However, listening to an audio book very much counts as reading; do not be dismayed audio listeners!

I am intentionally contemplating more small moments.

A view out our kitchen window to the open field of Joshua Trees.

Plants and rocks discovered along a walk.

Memories of climbing a tree.

Those moments (especially when solo traveling France) when I ask myself, “Am I really here?”

The appearance of a bright chestnut horse drinking water from the Vienne River in Gouex, France.

Looking into a child’s eyes.

Hearing your adult child’s voice on the phone.

This is the magic our lives are made of.

Note: Last year, I audaciously applied to the MacDowell Colony. I was not accepted. Few are, and the number of applicants has increased. However, I will continue to apply as I am able, and I have been accepted to a residency in southern France. I am grateful for the opportunity.

SUPPORT THE ARTS:

Literature, theater, music, dance, the visual arts nourish our souls and provide communities that would not exist without the arts. We are created as creative beings.

I urge you to support arts funding nationally and in your community. We know funding is being gutted.

Support Public Broadcasting and Public Radio

Support NPR and Public Radio : NPR

Support : PBS Help

Support KCRW in Los Angeles and your local channel.

Support art residencies in your community, such as Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency

You may consider a source for audio books, Libro.fm, that supports independent bookstores.

Look for organizations in your community. Begin your own circle of artists (writers, musicians, poets, painters, dancers, actors) or include them all. Often, as with our Dialog Group, a few artists invited a few others to meet to discuss current work. Energy and friendships flow.

This week, the patterns of our lives seem to hang in balance.

Stand firm.

Be prepared.

Observe.

Never take small moments of wonder for granted.

Inspired by all of you,

P.S. If you live near the Morongo Basin in CA, I want to invite you to my next workshop. Ready to play with acrylics? Beginners and experienced painters are invited to create in Cactus Mart’s charming Green Room. Learn more about color, composition, acrylic paint!

Let me provide painting tips and guide you to create a beautiful image.

All supplies are provided.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24TH, 9:30—11:30 AM

You can register at my website or Eventbrite