Mj Pettengill

...may this food provide strength and energy for our tired limbs and good thoughts for our weary minds...

They weren’t long letters, just brief newsy accounts from the home front. It was about that lifeline, that classic archetype of mother...

After all, we did not have a playbook so, we made up the rules as we went along.

How can you not love such darlings with their fat little cheeks full to exploding with nuts and seeds?

We were so proud to be Americans. We had an idea of who we were. We had each others’ backs.

We will find each other again and again, suspended between the wildness of Heaven and Earth...

The primary source of collective and individual trauma related to the County Farm is rooted in profound unawareness.

It seems that in my youth, I discovered the meaning of God; God is music.

When I close my eyes, there it is—the Sandwich Fair—then a one-day event. “The Biggest One Day Fair in the World” ...

If we do not comprehend and harmonize with our own ignorance, we will not find forgiveness for ourselves and for those we label as ignorant.

I had never played for such a vast and diverse audience—on both sides of the fence—it mattered not that they were, in fact, dead.

It is unnecessary to wait for what we perceive as the perfect opportunity or the right conditions.

Be worth coming home to out of desire, not desperation. Be the firm shelter, not the ruins.

The apple trees in the horse pasture behind the barn of my childhood were abundant with wildly imperfect apples.

With little or no change, Monday always showed up in our world.

We tend to go with the flow but have no idea where the river leads.

She said that only very special people had a monocle curl and that they saw things differently.

An egg about to crack open becomes a favorite moment.

Within a few days, it was perched on the branch beside the nest, bringing back memories of when my own children prepared to leave...

The trees help old souls reach out to me, begging for their stories to be told. Until that time, it is they who need consoling.