Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art
Polly Castor 
Our teenaged homeschooled daughter is very enthused by these two new books. Originally seeing both in a great local independent bookstore, she was able to get one through interlibrary loan and begged me to get the other for her, “and not to wait for Christmas either, please.” I have a homeschooling budget and have learned … Read more
This is my last cooking project from the garden this year. It is the first time we grew tomatillos. I initially wanted them for our Tomatillo Soup. However, with an end of season bumper crop I had to do something additional with them, so I made this Tomatillo Sauce, which I found in the Moosewood … Read more
Eternal Life is now, not some other time. “‘This is life eternal,’ says Jesus, — is, not shall be; and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge of his Father and of himself, — the knowledge of Love, Truth, and Life.” (Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures … Read more
The above is a collage done out of the condolence cards that were sent regarding my mother’s passing, and the three pieces below were meditations done in pen and ink along with watercolor…
“It has taken a while, but I certainly do know it now – the most wonderful gift I had, the gift I’ve finally learned to cherish above all else, was the gift of all those perfectly ordinary days.” Katrina Kenison I love “ordinary days” too, so here I share some photos of how awesome the … Read more
Last weekend, when I drove out of state and back, I chose this to listen to in the car, never expecting to like it so much. If you have a business CEO or sales manager on your Christmas list, this would be a great gift for them! But so many others of us can benefit … Read more
This is both delicious and easy. It is wonderfully warm but not very spicy. We serve it with organic brown rice and my roasted Brussels sprouts. It is fun to eat as a whole meal-in-a-bowl out of my handmade pottery. Notes: 1. Keep your peanut oil in the refrigerator; there it will not go rancid … Read more
A friend of mine on Facebook evaluates SAT essays professionally. I have been fascinated to learn from him how little time each essay gets; it is less than two minutes of consideration for each one, if I remember correctly. Anyway, yesterday he posted that he had just gotten done scoring 500 essays on the topic … Read more
I really enjoyed this small volume and give it four stars. I chose to read it for my memoir class in September, but lingered over it. Now, when I could no longer renew it, I was finally motivated to stop savoring it so slowly and get on with finishing it. It was especially lovely to … Read more
I was at an event that was graced by the amazing Bagpipe player Iain Massie who even played for Prince Charles and Princess Diana the day after they were married. Today he played an inspired version of Amazing Grace that brought everyone to their feet. It was very moving to say the least, and there … Read more
Toward a “Both/And” World Sometimes we get so fused up over something being either/or when it can easily be both/and. Our son couldn’t decide between Political Science or Engineering so he’s double majoring. Whatever he does in his future he’ll benefit from what he learns in each. Churches struggle with a clash of concepts … Read more
We’ve got a lot of apples around. I’ve been making baked apples, and my husband has made his apple tart with cookie dough crust (see photos below). Our daughter has dried a bunch of enormous Mitsu apples in her food dehydrator. This weekend we are making his amazing Tart Tatin for friends, and I’ve just … Read more
I’ve been wanting to try this technique for some time. Sgraffito is the process of scraping away underglaze while a pot is leather hard to reveal the clay underneath, before it is bisque fired. In the case of these three pots, I used colored underglaze, and scraped down to the white clay with a tiny … Read more
My article titled “Waging Peace” is running today in the Christian Science Monitor’s religious column. Click here to read it online. It is always an honor to be published in this excellent international daily newspaper, but it was an additional thrill to have my article chosen to be printed in the weekly print edition as … Read more
I’m not totally thrilled with these, but I share them as stepping stones in my process. I tried out some new ideas here, some of which worked and I’ll explore further, and some of which I’ll let drop. I am in an expansively experimental phase in my artwork and have a zillon ideas I want … Read more
