John Valentine

Between the crescent waves of western winds behind me and the swaying loblolly pines across the field is a thin chalk line. I roam that line, goal box to goal box, with eagerness and focus, and unexpected joy. In front of me, 22 girls are engaged in a brilliant physical battle of first-to-the-ball, make-a-run and […]

Move the TV outside. Give away half of the long-sleeved shirts, sweatshirts and sweaters that I never wore this winter. Build another birdfeeder for the woodthrush songbirds, returning any day! Clean the wood stove ashes for “the last time.” Add crushed oyster shells to the chicken’s cracked corn. Go 12 hours without buying something or […]

A portend is what it was, really. A sweet talisman of what was to come. My morning routine in the holiday mania ramp-up was simple. As the Christmas swirl swept into tornado proportions, I clung to my same-olds. Stop in at the Broad Street Joe Van Gogh’s for the first hot cup of the morning […]

It is a curious and unique experience to sit in the stands as a parent at a Quaker athletic competition. Quakers are all about “peaceful settlement” and “stillness.” A popular Quaker T-shirt reads: “Don’t just do something. Sit there.” At Carolina Friends School, students cheer their classmates on with “Fight! Fight! Inner light!” Many years […]

We’re a few frosts into winter now, still hard to embrace the familiar fall transitions. From beach reads and late-night ice cream runs to college apps and swim team practices, from flip-flops and T-shirts to long sleeves and layers and dinner in darkness. On the last full moon, ominous Death Eater dark clouds raced, west […]

I should have known that we would first notice it in the garden. Talk about ground level, back to our roots, groundswell, down to earth. It’s all there. The locavores had been going on and on about somebody having some just harvested local asparagus. Come on, that’s a spring crop here in Carolina. But I […]

We persuaded my father to stop driving and give up his car for his 90th birthday. He wasn’t a bad driver, but we worried about him. He didn’t want to stop driving. Who would? He loved his routines, his errands. To the cleaners, shopping, to get a haircutheck, just to go for a drive. And […]

Fifteen years ago, Chinese schools ditched Russian and started offering English lessons to all children. This means that everyone you meet in China under the age of 25 knows some of your language. Not only that, most youth love practicing English with travelers. It often makes for instant and humorous conversation and camaraderie. Chinese children […]

Fall, winter and spring, our household awakes to the familiar gurgling and puffing of the kitchen coffee maker. Summertime, however, brings Albert randomly slamming into our windows at sunrise. Named after St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols, our Albert is a 6-year-old, deep red, male cardinal who sees his reflection 18 hours a day in our […]