Today the blog hits a milestone: its four-thousandth post. It seems like I was just celebrating its three-thousandth, but that was in February, 2020. A lot has happened since then: a pandemic, an election, a wedding … and grandchildren! 

What doesn’t change is that most days I start my day here, typing words on this laptop that I send out into the world, like so many small birds flying in that heedless way they do in spring. Such brave, tender creatures. 

Because once I release them, these posts have a life of their own. They land with a galumph or a splash. But always they land, even when posted from improbable places. 

Today I send out my four-thousandth with as much curiosity and hope as I did my first. 

(Thanks again to my youngest daughter, Celia, for the sign she made three years ago.)