HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHANNES VERMEER! People often ask me who my favorite artist is, and I always pause. It feels like a trick question -- do I REALLY have to choose? Why? But one artist who makes me weak in the knees when I have the good fortune to see one of his paintings is Vermeer. His feel for light and the palpable sense of a moment in time that he imparts -- it takes my breath away. I only wish there were more Vermeers in this world and that I could spend time with each and every one of them.

I read this quote from Thoreau early this morning, while drinking my tea and watching the sun begin to rise over San Francisco Bay. It's a call to the power of the "dawn" inside each one of us.

"Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me....We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few object beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look.....To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." Thoreau, Walden