Darcy is home and we’re all very thankful. The Abels are not a traveling people. Rachel and I already knew this about ourselves but Darcy is discovering it also. She had some good moments but it was mostly a stressful experience for her, for various reasons.

Now having contributed–perhaps unwisely–to election talk, I return to ignoring politics and focusing my attention on what is mine to do: long-distance parenting for the next three days, accounting at the end of the fiscal year, furniture restoration, and enjoying our Limestone Festival.

This, from over a year ago, still pretty much summarizes my outlook on the election. We’re living out the ending of a world; the characters are merely playing their part.

Sad coal mining song from Kathy Mattea. Of course it’s sad. There aren’t any happy coal mining songs.

Good morning.

This morning I read the chapter “A Mother’s Work” in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. In it, she reflects on the process of cleaning up a pond so that her daughters can swim in it. Best chapter of the book so far.

So it is my grandchildren who will swim in this pond, and others whom the years will bring. The circle of care grows larger and caregiving for my little pond spills over to caregiving for other waters. The outlet from my pond runs downhill to my good neighbor’s pond. What I do here matters. Everybody lives downstream. My pond drains to the brook, to the creek, to a great and needful lake. The water net connects us all. I have shed tears into that flow when I thought that motherhood would end. But the pond has shown me that being a good mother doesn’t end with creating a home where just my children can flourish. A good mother grows into a richly eutrophic old woman, knowing that her work doesn’t end until she creates a home where all of life’s beings can flourish. There are grandchildren to nurture, and frog children, nestlings, goslings, seedlings, and spores, and I still want to be a good mother.

This term—from blogging’s heyday—popped into my head this morning. Anyone else remember this?

Went to my favorite junk store and spent a total of $11 for a Winchester and a Blue Grass brace bit plus a Klein folding ruler. I’ve been picking up any Blue Grass tools I can find, mostly because they were based in Louisville (less than two hours from here).

We sent Darcy off to Europe for 12 days this morning. (Spain then south of France then Italy.) That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Darcy was having second thoughts but we talked her through it. Once we parted, Rachel and I sat on a bench and cried for a good while.

Charles Brooks takes photographs of the interior of various instruments and the results are amazing. (via Mortise and Tenon Magazine)