Kathy Donchak

Sunday Letter: In the Company of Trees

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. ~ John Muir We moved to the woods, while our house in town is being built. Surrounded by forested wetlands, it feels as though we are living in a treehouse in this feast for the senses. Limbs and trunks blanketed by thick mosses capture your attention in a way few other things can. The ambient sounds of rain, sleet, and snow falling on the skylight replace the birdsong of Texas. The first weeks in this soft, lush forest,...

9 months ago • 1 min read

Navigating Growth: A Journey Through Homeschooling and Literature

When heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on any man, it will exercise his mind with suffering, subject his sinews and bones to hard work, expose his body to hunger, put him to poverty, place obstacles in the paths of his deeds, so as to stimulate his mind, harden his nature, and improve wherever he is incompetent. ~MENG TZU (MENCIUS), fourth century BCE1, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg...

11 months ago • 1 min read

Sunday Letter: What Do You Do for Living?

What do you do for living? We spend so much of our adult lives defining ourselves by the way we exist in the material world that we can easily mistake survival for living. So, I ask you, dear friends, what do you do for living? What is essential to your life to be one well-lived? For me: family, bird song, and a garden to share with friends will do nicely. Be well, Kathy

over 1 year ago • 1 min read