“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”

While sitting down to write this post in the office of my San Francisco home, a slight tremor shook the building. Nothing much, just enough for the beams of this wooden structure to creak and my chair to wiggle. The first moments of any temblor, no matter how small, give me pause. Nine times out of ten the small shake fades away as if it was never there. But there is that one – October 1989 for me thus far – for which it does not fade away, but grows into a violent assault upon the very ground beneath my feet.

In those first moments time stretchs just a bit as I wait. Wait for what will one day surely come. And there is a reason, I suppose why I wait for it, year after year.

Because this is my home, love is shared here, life is pursued. And the small temblor just felt is a reminder.

Hold dear to what is important. Nothing worthwhile is easily obtained and once so all too easily lost.