Seeing Beverly in Luling last Wednesday was such a highlight of this Turning-Seventy Trip! Too much time had passed since we'd seen each other--and it was so good to visit with her in City Market for three hours catching up!

She and Larry helped build a really cool Blue Wave float for the Democratic Party's float in the Halletsville parade last week.  As always, we talked about books and life and all the things that interest us both--and laughed about shared memories.

Beverly gave me an amazing gift--a scrapbook she had made for my 70th while healing from a broken wrist!  She is, as always, the queen of celebrations and gifts.  We celebrated her 70th with a retreat, and this book is its own kind of retreat--filled with pictures and quotations and inspirations.

I'm reading a little each day, saving the final pages to be read on October 14th in New England.  I'll be posting other readings along the road.

Here is this morning's reading:

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn..."is to learn something.  That is the only thing that never fails.  You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins...you may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics, o know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds.  There is only one thing for it then--to learn.  Learn why the world wags and what wags it.  That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, and never dream of regretting.  Learning is the thing for you."

T.H. White