24 Comments

Great post- writing, quotes, photos —and the update notes: I’m sure many of us (followers!) needed that too!

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Thanks Jess! Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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“Yes, me, too,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as I am here and now and with you.”

Just love this Susie. Blessings on you both 🙏❤️

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Aw, thank you Dee. It's a good life. We are incredibly blessed!

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Thank you, once again, for sharing the twin gifts of your words and photography.

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You are welcome Domenica! Like you, I love how the two work together!

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Happy eighteenth sobriety birthday. And thank you for the beautiful writing and love story.

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Thank you Kirie! As you know, I can't technically celebrate ahead of time (!) but one day at a time I will make it to the anniversary!

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Just came in from my women's meeting that I started two years ago in Port Townsend. We read "Voices of Women in AA" and a green pamphlet on women, both fairly new conference-approved literature, one "story" each week. Amazing stuff oriented to women - surprise! Women are coming and getting and some staying sober because they've never heard/been in a safe place for women. As for you, I know you will make it to your anniversary! I love your magical island life.

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Kirie, Thank you for letting me know about Voices of Women in AA. I'm going to order a copy. It would be cool to have a women's meeting here using that book! 💚

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In half a century of meetings, forty-one of consecutive sobriety, I've never experienced the kind of sacred calm as I do in that room now when we share our deepest stories.

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41 - that’s amazing! So inspiring!

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Thank you for restacking James - you would have known what the bird was that I couldn’t identify!

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Great on the dahlias!

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You had me at Wendell Berry--just finished his little novel "Nathan Coulter," set in his beloved Port William, Kentucky. Like you, a lover of land, of place, of family, community, common and crazy characters all. I often read that poem, and those last few lines.

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You remind that I really should post the whole poem for folks to read. And I love the Port William novels. The Memory of Old Jack is a favorite. I should reread!

The Wild Geese

By Wendell Berry

Horseback on Sunday morning,

harvest over, we taste persimmon

and wild grape, sharp sweet

of summer’s end. In time’s maze

over fall fields, we name names

that went west from here, names

that rest on graves. We open

a persimmon seed to find the tree

that stands in promise,

pale, in the seed’s marrow.

Geese appear high over us,

pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,

as in love or sleep, holds

them to their way, clear,

in the ancient faith: what we need

is here. And we pray, not

for new earth or heaven, but to be

quiet in heart, and in eye

clear. What we need is here.

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I want to read this. Thank you!

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The Memory of Old Jack is lovely too - all of his Port William novels are!

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Lovely and congrats on both your anniversary and sobriety 🥰

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Thank you! A few more weeks to go before I get to my anniversary so I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch I guess!

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Susie your photos were like paintings! That ombré sky. I must say the moon over the DE Bay the last two nights was also spectacular and made the early arrival of darkness more palatable.

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Oh I bet it was SO pretty there. My two favorite places 😊.

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Oh, I *so* needed to read that Wendell Berry this morning. Thank you.

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❤️

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