Maison Tranquille

  December 31, 2025 Suite Francaise and the Question No One Can Answer in Time I’ve just finished listening to Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, a novel written during the early years of World War II and left unfinished when the author was arrested and later killed at Auschwitz.  The history of the book gives it added weight because it was written during the actual period, yet the most striking thing to me wasn’t the tragedy, but the ordinariness. This book is not really about heroes or villains in the usual sense.  It is a book about people cooking meals, worrying about money, caring for the children, negotiating with neighbors, and trying to remain themselves while history presses in from every side. As I listened, one question kept returning: Is there a moment when it becomes wiser to leave than to stay? Is it a clear decision, an act of agency, to choose to become a refugee?  Suite Francaise shows us that people rarely know when the turning point has arrived....

  December 3, 2025 Maison Tranquille The Quiet I Crave This afternoon, I noticed, an irritation,  at the sound of the television in our living room. Not the show itself but its presence… the way it intruded into the atmosphere I was holding inside. I don’t think the problem is the television. It’s that I am learning how I crave quiet space, a room that feels like a sanctuary, that protects the small rituals I’m trying to cultivate. Maison Tranquille (the name I’ve given my house) has to live inside before it can touch the outside. Peace is not always found far away.  Sometimes it is just a closed door, a lit candle, or clarity about what space belongs to what purpose. Maybe this, too, is part of aging;  learning what supports our nervous system, and what frays it.  Maybe this is part of marriage;  the negotiation between one person’s comfort and the other’s. Or maybe this is simply another invitation: Notice where your peace gets interrupted. Because that ...

11/27/2025 Main Character Energy… in a House Full of Main Characters There’s something beautiful about spending a week at the beach with a house full of family. It’s never quiet, never predictable, and never just one storyline. It’s more like an overlapping collage of happenings. And yet, in the middle of all of this, there is another version of main character energy, one that doesn’t compete with anyone else’s story. This isn’t the loud, front-and-center kind of main character energy. It’s not about being the center of attention or the person with the most star power. It’s the kind that acknowledges: I get to have my own experience here. I get to tend my own spirit. I get to enjoy this week in a way that nourishes my body, my mind, and my soul. All without stepping on anyone else’s toes. Because everyone here is the main character in their own movie. And honestly, that’s what makes it beautiful. There are all the characters, the storytellers, the planners, the cooks, the ones who ...

  November 20, 2025 Healing the Ordinary Beauty is woven into the things we often overlook - nourishment, rest, small habits, and all of your simple daily rituals. They aren’t sparkly or applause-worthy, yet they hold our lives together. In a world that rewards urgency and spectacle, these ordinary acts feel almost subversive. Healing rarely arrives in dramatic breakthroughs. It grows slowly, in the choices we make again and again. This morning, while reading An Altar in the World , I was reminded that the sacred isn’t hiding somewhere distant or unreachable. It’s right here in the sweeping of the kitchen floor, the soft light entering the room, a warm bowl of soup, the way we help one another without fanfare. The book invites us to look at our everyday lives and see them as altars.  I’m think that this is where real transformation actually happens. Healing doesn’t require that we change everything.  We just need to pay attention. When I chop vegetables, make my smooth...

  November 9, 2025 The Taste of Steadiness There’s a kind of quiet alchemy that happens in the kitchen where the feminine works her magic, bringing healing and even a bit of justice with her spoon.  It’s how she stirs, not just the soup, but the energy of the house. Healing food isn’t only about what’s raw or pure or green.  It’s also about what’s warm, soft, and cooked.  The raw heals through clarity with the burst of lemon, the crunch of cabbage, the pulse of life untamed by fire.  The cooked heals through comfort, the slow stew that is grounding after you’ve been in your head for too long.  Roasted root vegetables remind us to stay here and stay steady. Both have their purpose.  The raw awakens, the cooked restores. When I eat healing food, I feel both of those voices working together.  The wild and the patient.  They remind me that steadiness has many forms.  It might taste like lentils with garlic, or a baked pear that melts against...

  November 9, 2025 Healing Food as Metaphor Healing food is more than nutrition.  It’s a language of restoration.  When we choose healing foods, we’re saying yes to life again, to renewal after depletion. Think of ingredients as symbols of some inner need: Broth speaks of gentleness and the infusion of strength through patience and warmth. Greens remind us of forgiveness by turning sunlight into nourishment. Beans represent endurance and humility - small, plain, and sustaining. Lemon and salt show us that sharpness and contrast are necessary for balance. Bread is the ancient metaphor for connection.  When it is broken and shared, it represents trust. To prepare and eat healing food acknowledges that we are both fragile and resilient.  The body is connected to the soul.  The kitchen becomes a sanctuary for the healing of wounds while the soup simmers on the stove and love and care transform it into flavor. Still Curious. Still Growing, Still Grateful. by Jan...

 November 5, 2025 The Myth of Doing It Alone We often hear stories about the great minds of history: the inventors, artists, philosophers, and writers who seemed to move the world forward by the power of their genius. But the truth, when you look a little closer, is that no one ever did it alone. Behind every “self-made” success, there were quiet conversations, secretaries who typed pages of notes, editors who coaxed rough thoughts into clarity, and wives or friends who believed when no one else did. Greatness has always been a form of collaboration, a shared space where one person’s vision meets another’s support. That’s how I see artificial intelligence today. Some say it will make us lazy or dependent, but I don’t believe that. I think it is simply the modern version of a long tradition: a thinking partner, a listener, and a way to explore ideas more deeply. It does not replace creativity; it expands it. The spark still comes from within us—the curiosity, the values, the...

  November 4, 2025 Starting Over (Again and Again) I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve started over. With food, with routines, with writing, with faith. There was a time I thought that meant I was inconsistent or weak, but I’m starting to see it differently now. Maybe starting over is just what we humans do. We try things, we drift, we come back. Sometimes we come back with a little more tenderness, or a little more understanding. Sometimes we come back simply because something inside us refuses to give up. I’ve started over so many times with my health — drinking more water, eating in a way that supports healing, remembering that how I treat my body affects my mind and my spirit too. The same goes for my habits. I fall off track, get distracted, and then quietly begin again. It used to frustrate me, but now I see it as practice — not failure. When I studied with Dr. John Fielder, the nature cure doctor in Australia, he often would say, “Trust the process”.  Just like a sna...

October 31, 2025 The Hundred-Foot Journey Last night I watched The Hundred-Foot Journey , and it stirred something in me I can’t quite put into words. It was one of those movies that fills you up from the inside out,  not just because of the food (though the food is beautiful), but because of the feeling behind it all. The story takes place in a little French village where an Indian family opens a restaurant right across the road (just a hundred feet away)  from a fancy French one. You’d think it would just be about competition, but it’s really about connection, learning, and finding home in unexpected places. I loved how it showed that food can bridge worlds and how it carries memories, love, and even courage. The scenery is gorgeous, the kitchens feel alive, and every meal seems to have a heartbeat. I found myself smiling through most of the movie, just soaking in the colors, the flavors, and the sense of belonging that runs through it. It reminded me that joy often comes fr...

  After reading about the benefits of drinking tea, I reached back into my Southern Heritage and asked some questions about whether drinking tea is a good thing to do.  There are some potential upsides.  It naturally contains the polyphenols and flavonoids that may support heart health, reduce oxidative stress, and have mild anti-inflammatory effects. In some studies, drinking unsweet tea may contribute to a slight lowering of blood pressure and possibly improve vascular function. It contains caffeine so can help with alertness, focus, or mild metabolism stimulation. If the tea is unsweetened, it contributes to hydration without sugar or calories. However, there are some drawbacks, especially if buying pre-made tea at the grocery store..  Many tea beverages have added sugars which can turn this benign drink in a calorie/sugar burden.  Also, artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes can have an impact on the gut microbiota and appetite. Commercially bottled tea...

  July 18,2025 I am reading Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlaw.  The authors are journalists from Canada, one French speaking and one English speaking.   Nearly every page gives insights into the cultural and economic differences between France and the USA and Canada such as this one:  “The French believe in equality, but they don’t embrace the lowest common denominator.” There is an important part of French cultural values around the idea of equality. The French are committed to the principle of equality, (Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite).  The French form of equality emphasizes that everyone should be treated equally under the law, and that merit should determine access to opportunities, especially in education and public service.  It doesn’t mean that everyone must be the same, or that society should be lowered to the simplest and least demanding  “lowest common denomina...