You may find this somewhat distasteful … but this is the spot where, deep in the fells and dales of England’s Lake District, I was able to text with my wife who was an hour’s walk away. Very...

I’ve spoken with some friends about THE NOISE that has been part of this journey — bits of things that I’m shedding (and noticing!) as we (try to) deepen our focus on the truest and most honest forms of faith, family, and our journey. Our arrival in the Lake District has...

S and I read somewhere (a blog?) that, despite the generous year we’ve been given, our ’round-the-world tracks will really amount to A THIN BLACK LINE around our massive globe. It’s a phrase we’ve used repeatedly when discussing our year away. I’m here to tell...

We’ve had some requests to update our WHERE WE ARE page … so we’ve done it. Reach it through the above link (below the page logo) … or click here.

  We’ve been staying in a commuter community called Chilton. S came across a posted flyer calling one and all to join Chilton’s bell ringers for a Tuesday night workshop. These aren’t hand bells, mind you — they are the REAL DEAL, church bells, high up in a...

(S and the boys are in a clump in the bottom left part of this picture.) One lesson from today’s free audio tour around Stonehenge: “Take away all the scholarship and archeology and myth and legend and debate over Stonehenge, and you still have a profound site.” So...

This week, we walked in the footsteps of C.S. Lewis — the very place he’d been at Oxford’s Magdalen College before writing these words: You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the...

S chooses to wander through the rose garden. W, H, and E choose to lay down on the “awesome grass.” H is standing on top of a burial mound that’s thousands of years old and yells out over the other visitors at the site: “I am standing on the dead people!” S has...

We spent an epic day in central London a few days ago. Wake was our “trip leader.” It rained on us. We were on the move for ELEVEN hours. And the whole experience was truly joyful – truly, truly joyful. Wonderful memories. Please join us for some of the experience in this audio postcard....

Julius Caesar invaded Britain the first time in 55 BC. Based on his own writings, scholars figure he arrived in the area of Deal Beach just up the coast from the white cliffs at Dover. Here is the view today at Deal Beach. The stone marker seems largely forgotten by folks walking up and down...

Suby, reading by iPad light in our tent, read “one more poem” tonight before bed: ”Mindful” by Mary Oliver. It’s a poem she and I have shared from time to time. Every day I see or hear something that more or less   kills me with delight, that leaves me like...

We’ve learned a great deal after spending a few days in an English campground. “Soccer,” of course, is “football.” “Tea” is dinner. “Cream tea” is awesome, especially after a long hike. And Jacob was born three days before Eli. We know Jacob was born three days...

We’ve just concluded another spirited game of Fictionary — joined at the table this evening by a light-up gemstone we’re calling a cousin to the lava lamp. One of our best rounds this evening came from the word GHAWAZEE. *Without* checking a dictionary — can you choose...

Three moments to share from today about the profound impact of LIGHT. We woke before sunrise today to secure tickets to one of the world’s few remaining Paleolithic cave painting sites still open to the public. “Paleolithic” sort of means “super old,” like older...

My maternal grandmother was often part of my family beach vacations. Mama Liz showed me how to play cards on those trips, usually on her bed. She floated effortlessly and endlessly on her back in the surf. And she taught me the words and music to French national anthem. We sang that anthem as...

Somehow, descriptions of new hair styles are a frequent topic on these pages. Here is the latest: E’s “faux hawk.” It’s “faux” because “it’s not a full...

This could make you a bit dizzy with the sped up camera work … but we have documented the climb up “our” chateau, complete with medieval music from a period festival in...

A smattering of photos from our life here in Dordogne Valley — from our laundry rack to World School to wooded walks to a nearby Chateau. Click on any one image … and a larger gallery appears. Laundry … with reading boys in the background.

A newspaper that covers public radio and public television has published something about our year away. Here is a link to Current’s blurb: http://www.current.org/2012/08/aronson-promoted-at-frontline-npr-board-elections-lapin-joins-current-and-more/ And here’s the text: Jim...

“World School” has begun … and a shout-out to S, who is a rock star...