This Spring’s Open House was good. It was pure, uplifting, fun. It felt good. It was good.

It was everything we wanted our Open Houses to be. Last year, we both felt we got off track a bit, this year, we were right back on track. Actually, it was Maria who first pointed out that we had gotten off track, and who led the way back. Listening and learning are two of the many gifts she has brought me. I am slow to see things.

We are grateful to the people who came so far to see us, grateful to the donations that, for the first time, helped us to meet the costs of hosting this Open House. Our animals rose to the occasion, filled with love and ease. We respect them as animals, but we never for one second have to fear them or their interactions with people.

That is something of a miracle. Our two wonderful dogs were co-hosts, greeting strangers and visitors with love and affection. Maria in her studio is a  Queen of an empire, she reigns there with dignity and warmth. She is the heart and soul of the place.

We will do this again in October, and hopefully for many years to come. We recognize – with humility and wonder – that these visits are, as our friend Cathy Stewart pointed out to us, a pilgrimage.  We hope one day to be a shrine to encouragement, creativity and compassion. If we make it, we will have lived lives of meaning and hope in a time that sometimes seems dark and forbidding.

To live in a place that brings light and comfort and inspiration to people is a gift, and we bow our heads to it in gratitude.