Lenore with my Valentine’s Day Card from Maria

I am heading off with Maria for a day off, deep in the Vermont woods. I must be honest, the last two weeks wore me down. I did not have a satisfied mind. I hurt my knee in a fall, and it is just beginning to get to the point where I can move it and take care of myself. Pain focuses you. Last week, I got an entrenched sleepless night- hacking- kind of cold and that wore me down even further.  I am happy to say that I nearly finished the first draft of my E-Book original “The Story Of Rose,” and that is one benefit of staying inside for days, drifting in and out of my NyQuill haze.

I am in awe of the impact photography has had on my life. At no point, knee or cold, did I miss a day of photos, and I got some good ones. That tells you when something is really a part of you. February is royalty check month in publishing, and that used to be a time to buy new lenses. Not any more. Publishing has changed for good, and I am changing with it but all of this left me with a need to take  my girl off to Vermont for a day and refresh.  Instead of a new lens, we’ll get some Sushi in Brattleboro. You know what? That will be great.

I’m taking “Love In The Time Of Cholera,” and the new Louise Perry mystery – she does not keep you awake at night but is intelligent and  satisfying. Also the new biography of Elizabeth II, “The Queen” by Sally Bedell Smith. Can’t get enough of that stuff.

I feel as if I need some healing. Maria played a Roseanne Cash song tonight and Cash sang of how the pauper with a satisfied mind is happier than the rich man worrying about his money. I love the idea of the Satisfied Mind. Thoreau sang the same song.

See what we do to ourselves, how we sing somebody else’s song. Mine is different. I’m going for the Satisfied Mind.

I think in my life I was always taught to fear the wrong things – fears about money, security, doctors. What I never feared was the worst thing, and it nearly happened – having no life, no satisfied mind. The outside world does not consider that something to fear. It is terrifying. How lucky I am to be going off to a beautiful place with a wonderful woman, two good books to read, and a pack of sweet animals eagerly awaiting our return. I forget this week how good a year this is going to be for me, and I mean to get reminded.