Christmas Musing: Preti's "The Visitiation" and Our Search for the Infinite

When we rounded the corner to the left and into the Baroque room at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts this morning, my eyes welled with tears. There it was; the painting I had visited the museum for, a painting called "The Visitation" by 17th century Baroque master Mattia Preti, a Calabrian and a protege of Caravaggian naturalism.

How fitting the painting first went on display here on Christmas Eve.

On Half Marathons and the Potentate of Time

Today: John Lynch Bridge, Piscataway, NJ

This morning, in subfreezing temperatures, my husband and I completed eight miles of walking, punctuated by tenth-of-a-mile runs. Tonight, after our two-hour naps, I went to 5 p.m. Mass at our parish, not remembering until I showed up that this Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King.

A New View Thanks to a Wrong Turn on the Interstate This Morning.

I leave for my high school teaching job before the sun rises but because I drive north, I do not see the sun rise. I see the clouds slowly being illuminated by the rising sun, but I do not see the sun itself. 

Bone tired,  I was running late this morning, and thinking excitedly how our oldest son is coming home from college for the weekend. I was so exhausted and anxious and distracted that I took a wrong turn and ended up heading west on an interstate instead of north. 

So I had to turn around, head east, then north again. This is what greeted me as I headed back to my usual route. 

Walking: Grieving And Rejoicing

I've spent many hours walking this summer - through my neighborhood, along a canal in Indianapolis, down a mountain in Vermont, and through many, many parks in New Jersey. By the time summer is over, I will have logged nearly 300 miles. This is happening in part because my husband and I are training to walk a half-marathon in December and in part because I have been grieving. And so I walk and I pray and I grieve.

I've walked with my husband, and with my friend Meredith, but most of those miles I have walked alone. Something is soothing about being out in nature, using my legs and my arms, hearing my own breathing and feeling the sweat pour down my face. It's a reminder that every breath is a gift from the One who loved us into being.

Rambles in Bedford, NY and A Piece of Unsolicited Advice

On a visit to my nearby parents, I walked and jogged about 10 miles over the past 24 hours, up and down Middle Patent Road in Bedford Village, New York. Now the site of million-dollar homes, this forested neighborhood was a flashpoint  during the American Revolution when British burned the entire village of Bedford to the ground.  

Overheard in a Retirement Community Dining Room

Some moments lodge deep inside one's heart. That happened to me today, as I ate lunch with my parents at a retirement community they wanted to check out.

Middlesex Greenway: A Little Thunder Road, a Little Ave Maria

 Yesterday, while our younger son attended a preseason soccer camp at St. Joe's High School, I walked the Middlesex Greenway, a two-year-old new ribbon of paved walkway that runs 3.5 miles from Metuchen to Woodbridge. This is one of the prettiest vistas I found along the trail.

Time with Vonnegut and The Atheist in Indiana

In the past few days,  I have an encountered a man who is -  how shall I put this? -   an Evangelical Atheist. I've ever met such a creature before, a man who injects his personal belief in the randomness of life into virtually every conversation. This protegee of Richard Dawkins is convinced of the essential loneliness of the vastness of our universe. I am choosing not to say a word in response and am instead considering why God put this man in front of me.

A Day of Sweet Hours with Our Sons

"All our sweetest hours fly the fastest." Virgil, who figured this out more than 2,000 years ago.

Today began, quietly enough, with a prayer to the Holy Spirit. Two friends and I are praying a novena for a special intention close to our hearts. I have never prayed a novena with friends before and it was calming to know they were praying the same words for the same intention.

The rest of the day sped past. I took Gabriel to his appointment at the pediatric trauma unit, where a nurse removed the five staples in his scalp and declared him good to go - to the gym, to the swimming pool, to Spain. I discovered finding a parking spot at our local hospital takes more time than having staples removed from one's scalp.

One Last Enchanting Friday Night

Tonight marks the end to the lovely ends of my work weeks.

Every Friday night during the past five school years I have driven our son Gabriel to Princeton, New Jersey --  sharing more than an hour through rush hour traffic so he could attend his chamber-music orchestra rehearsals.  Recently, with his learners' permit, he's been driving me. For two of those years I have spent the two hours of Friday night rehearsals with one of my dearest friends, whose daughter is also in the orchestra. Jane, who is raising four daughters about an hour from us,  and I have gone on long walks or headed to the local Panera to "solve world problems" as we like to put it.

Solace at the Shore

My husband has a high-stress, high profile job and is recognizing that he takes very little time to care for himself. As he puts it, he needs time for solace.  This weekend he proposed we - just us two - go to Mass at 7 a.m. and then drive with our dog to the Asbury Park Dog Run Beach. So we did.

Somerset, NJ: Bless the Lord in a Strip Shopping Mall

One of my wonderful parish priests gigged me about my morning tweet, which was this:

"Parking lots and strip malls bless the Lord? LOL! " he tweeted back. 

Easter Afternoon in Helyar Woods

My husband and I hadn't been to Helyar Woods together in years. I remember going with our sons when our puggle was a puppy; Greg doesn't remember the last time we walked the woods together and neither do I.

This 43-acre patch of old growth forest sits hard against U.S. Route One in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Easter afternoon seemed the right time to wander these trails.

"Doing What We Do Best:" A Joyful Noise in Belgrade

The kindness of friends and strangers enabled a group of New Jersey teens to bring beauty to a corner of Europe that has witnessed war and heartache for generations.

Tonight: Palm Beach Lake Trail

Tonight's walk. The photo doesn't begin to capture the beauty of this walk, called Palm Beach Lake Trail, along Lake Worth Lagoon in Palm Beach, Florida. 

Tonight, my husband and I were among the few walkers/runners/cyclists on this four-mile stretch of flat pavement that weaves between Palm Beach Lake to the west and mansions hidden behind enormous hedges to the east. It was mostly us and the salamanders. I'd like to return on another visit to Florida and do the whole 8 miles round trip.

This Moment: Farmstand Tomatoes, New Paltz, New York

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Princeton's Mountain Lake Preserve: Swallowtails and Stalking a Blue Heron

After dropping our son's bass bow off with a bow maker in Titusville, NJ today, our dog and I hiked the Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve in Princeton. (More later on the bow maker: the man is deserving of a whole post). Even though I drove our sons to private elementary school in Princeton for five years, I never knew about this 74-acre park close to the downtown. I found out about it from a website called bringfido.com, which offers tips on where to hike with your dog. I had several unexpected encounters on the walk.

What's Not on TV: This Story

Good things rarely happen on TV news. If you learned about the world from TV news you would think people spend their days raping, murdering and driving drunk. Buses fall off cliffs, trains crash and planes fly into homes.

At Mohonk: Thinking About Fitness and the Inexhaustibility of Human Desire

This summer, I've been determined to get fit. Given my excess weight, I see my battle as a life-or-death struggle to stay healthy for my husband and our sons. In addition to swimming 30 minutes a day, I've been strength training with the help of a personal trainer and spending an hour a day on the treadmill, trying my best to increase the pace and incline of  the treadmill. This morning, on a hike in New Paltz, New York, I was reminded, once again, that whatever endeavor we humans undertake, nothing but the Infinite will satisfy us. 

On My Midday Walk: Confused by this Crustacean

Today, taking a break from my online graduate classes, I took our dog for a long walk in a county park by the Raritan River.  On my hike back, I encountered three brothers with their mom, leaning over something by a stream in the park. Upon closer inspection, I saw they had captured some sort of crustacean and had put it in a plastic bag with water. They told me it was a lobster; at first I thought it was a crab, but later I realized it looks nothing like a crab.