Living Rootless: 2026

Sunday, February 1, 2026

2026 Word of the Year: Light

Mobile Alabama - Christmas 2021 - British Park 6b

British Park. Mobile, Alabama. Christmas 2021. Credit: Mzuriana.

Light.

In these dark times, I need light. Maybe you do, too.

For the joy, the promise, the inspiration that light brings, I revisit the song, This Little Light of Mine.

My favorite is this by the Soweto Choir:

New to me this year is from Sister Rosetta Tharpe, in a 1960 performance:

May I find light in each day.

Friday, January 2, 2026

15 Years Ago: My Exclusive Vacation Homes on the Missouri Riviera

In January 2011, I had sold my house in Missouri, but hadn't yet set off on what has been a 15-year slomadic ("slow nomad") journey . Thanks to four women, I had the most marvelous guest homes in Missouri.

My mother, the proprietor of Carol's Cottage, died in spring, 2021. I don't know if I think of her every day, but I do often. The day before yesterday, for example, while I made my bed and lay down a blanket on the mattress, one from my childhood, I smiled, remembering her phone call one day decades ago: "Do you want to go to a sperm auction with me"? And, of course, I said yes, not knowing in the moment what to expect. (The auction was at a well-known farm with prize-winning bulls, and it was their sperm up for the highest bid.)

Co-hostess of Catrisse Bluff, Charisse, died last summer from a long and painful auto-immune condition,. On the day she died, I was in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, en route on buses to my intended destination of the tippity-toe of South America. That evening, I bought a strong stout from the bartender at my lodging, which I intended to raise to Charisse's spirit. I told the bartender my friend had died. She said to me: "Our people are only on loan to us."

Pamela House is home to other people now. Pam's flame dims from a different sort of auto-immune malady. She requires care in a skilled facility for the acts of daily living.

What about Chez Kathryn (which is actually the correct rendition of her name), you might ask? Well, she always keeps the light on for me, and I most recently landed on her doorstep for at least six weeks while I recovered from the pneumonia I picked up in Panama, Ecuador, or Peru in September, and searched for a new-to-me car. Kate features prominently in the Kate on the Loose episodes, in which Pam co-stars.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

My Exclusive Vacation Homes on the Missouri Riviera

I have three.

At each, I enjoy expansive garden-level suites with full kitchen and public-room accommodations up on the terrace levels.

At Catrisse Bluff, I enjoy a serene, monastic bedroom in soothing southwestern colors, with a full, private bath across the hall and an adjoining living room that has a wonderful stone fireplace. Upstairs, through a wall of windows, I can look from "my" bluff, across the vast, picturesque Missouri River flood plain, to the distant bluffs on the other side.

At Pamela House, I sleep in an ornate, antique bed in a bedroom with an en suite bath. There is a cozy sitting area next to a large picture window that looks out on pretty foundation plantings. Upstairs, as I sip fresh coffee, I step through the french doors onto the immense screened-in deck with fireplace. It opens into a friendly yard and garden.

At Chez Katherine, I am in a Parisian apartment, sleeping in a bed so high I need a stool to get in, with a dainty crystal chandelier in front of the garret-like window, and a huge map of Paris on the wall. Yes, I do need to traipse down a tiny corridor and across a roomy family room to get to my private bath, but, well, it is a vacation home, n'est ce pas? One makes do. Upstairs, I enjoy coffee in one of several sink-into-comfort upholstered chairs or couch, or I may walk out to the huge screened-in deck that overlooks a secluded wooded yard; the enclosed deck is reminiscent of a mountain lodge. And did I mention the outdoor shower? The hammock? The swinging, turquoise bench under the arbor?

And, of course, my current, main pied a terre is at Carol Cottage, a sunny yellow place highlighted with Dutch blues and whites, and black and white prints, which sits prettily on a small-town lane.