Lydia Calhoun > Recent Status Updates

Feared by pioneers, shunned by tourists, dismissed today as wasteland best viewed from thirty thousand feet, the North American prairie is the nonetheless one of the richest ecosystems on Earth.

“I declare that you and I should spend the rest of our lives planning one trip a year. Girls only. Husbands and babies are all well and good, but there is nothing that replaces the unique comfort that is found in the company of a friend.”

Love is blind may be a well-worn phrase, but only because women often look into the dazzling brilliance of infatuation and allow it to eclipse the wisdom of the women who came before them.

“In my heedless haste to possess something beautiful, I had not considered the consequences. My covetousness had destroyed the very thing I had so curiously, passionately, impetuously adored.”

“An education was about more than reading and arithmetic. It was about wonder too, and becoming able and useful people.”

“In a way, he radicalized me too, if faith can be called radical. I’ve come to think it might be the most rebellious thing of all. I don’t know why Reverend Conant cared about me learning or my happiness, but he he did, and it was because of him-a man who loved God and loved me, two ends of the mighty spectrum that I began to see what a father’s love looked like.”

“Ecology isn’t rocket science; it’s much more difficult.”

“Today our ignorance of the natural world is a cultural norm. Our attention has been usurped by the digital age, and any spare moments we have each day are consumed by our personal devices or flat-screen TVs.”

“Are you angry with the bird because he can fly, or angry with the horse for her beauty, or angry with the bear because he has fearsome teeth and claws?.. Destroying all the things you hate won’t change any of that. You still won’t be a bird or a horse or a bear. Hating men won’t make you a man. Hating your womb or your breast or your own weakness won’t make those things go away.”

“It is the suffering of love. Every parent feels it. It is the suffering of being unable to shield or save. It is not love if it doesn’t hurt.”

“While God felt elusive and difficult to find in some of the dank old churches-His words garbled in impenetrable Latin-Sisi felt His undeniable presence in the majesty of the mountains, in the inevitability of sunrise and the softness of moonlight. God was the unseen power that set in motion the natural world; the seasons that ripened and shifted, each one beautiful in its own way.”

“Perhaps that is the draw of books… to show us the way even when we think the path is too dark to see”

"But maybe that's what happens when you roll cement over grass, remove the trees, displace the birds, and starve the dogs. You're punished."

"Imagine if I could not just outgrow my own toxic vices but also transmit to my children the best of traits. Yes, I would raise secure, confident people."

Mamma was love. And she didn't even have to try. She just....was.

"I'd heard once that our view of God has everything to do with with those who taught us about Him. Our image of Him often reflected our image of them. Eoin taught me about God and because I loved and Cherished Eoin, I loved and cherished God."

"Although a reprimand deserved privacy, an apology deserved public airing."

“Mother was anchor. Mother was comfort. Mother was home. A girl who lost her mother was suddenly a tiny boat on an angry ocean. Some boats eventually floated ashore. And some boats, like me, seemed to float farther and farther from land.”

“We’re so… content, aren’t we? So pleased with ourselves. Especially all of us college graduates, with our fine speeches and big words. But what’s it all for? The studying and the reading and the trying so hard to learn? The diploma? What are we supposed to do with it all? Surely not just stand by and watch. Not be passive while life happens all around us.”

“Smart people with free time are dangerous.”

Every time I opted not to take a stand. I was taking a stand. For the wrong side.

“Spoils of War. Why does no one understand the ugliness, the brutality of those words?”