“We shape our dwellings and afterwards our dwellings shape us.” (Churchill) I used this quote to open the last chapter, December, of my family memoir House of Houses. Has it really been twenty years since this book was published? Writing it, when my husband Vern and I first began to spend time in Santa Fe, was the opportunity to spend time listening, listening literally and in my imagination to some of my favorite voices–my family–and to return to the spaces where I grew up. How were you shaped by the dwellings where you spent your early years?

For a new project, I’m returning to my early spaces. May you discover good memories and instructive memories in quiet moments as 2017 ends, and you also begin new projects that energize you.

Pat