• home
  • about
    • watch my videos
    • press
  • books
    • get signed copies
    • get signed bookplates
  • events
  • contact
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter

Katrina Kenison

celebrating the gift of each ordinary day

  • Soul Work
  • Parenting
  • Writing & Reading
  • Hearth & Home

Home » Hearth & Home » Page 6

hearth & home

So much of our lives are spent tending, cleaning, cooking, nurturing.  Finding the sacred in the everyday turns out to be a path not only to mindfulness, but to contentment as well.  Here are some favorite recipes, a few homemaking ah-has, and reflections on the quiet pleasures of ordinary days. Read more about what Hearth & Home means to me, or browse the archive below.

Berries

Berries

As a child, I lived next door to an elderly couple who spent their golden years cultivating gorgeous roses, raising…
Read More

Mystery

Mystery

Ten years ago, my birthday. I am visiting a friend in New Hampshire. It is unseasonably cold for early October;…
Read More

Unimaginable

Unimaginable

We sat around the kitchen table after dinner last night — my son Henry, my husband Steve, and two of…
Read More

Reclaiming Peace

Reclaiming Peace

“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and…
Read More

Occupy Downtown

Occupy Downtown

Every year at this time, I find myself thinking about how to make the holiday season simpler and more meaningful….
Read More

Halloween memories

Halloween memories

It’s a pretty remarkable Halloween – two feet of snow are piled up outside the window, and the pumpkins are…
Read More

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • Next Page »
Katrina Kenison
I’m a wife, the mother of two sons, a passionate reader, a former editor, a slow writer, a friend, a seeker. Somewhere along the way, I realized that a good life is made up not of peak moments but of many small ones – imperfect, fleeting, ordinary, precious. And so I slowed down and began to pay attention. Writing, it turns out, is a way of noticing.

Let’s stay in touch. Receive new reflections & inspiration

Recent Posts

  • you can’t have it all
  • act of imagination
  • “choose an unimportant day”
    (and enter to win a book!)
  • what a year brings
  • we remember moments
  • four thousand weeks, and 365 seconds

Topics

archive

videos

For all my videos, click here.

“Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don “Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.” ~ Rumi.  It is the season of poppies, and each morning the wonders occur all around us.  There is nothing to do but step outside and marvel.
“Becoming aware of fragility, of temporality, of t “Becoming aware of fragility, of temporality, of the fact that we will surely all be lost to one another, sooner or later, mandates a clear imperative to be totally kind and loving to each other always.” 
― Sylvia Boorstein. And because we do know nothing lasts, the annual tea party @lauren_seabourne and I create for my mom has become one of our most cherished summer traditions. She turns 90 this year, so giving her this leisurely afternoon feels more important and precious than ever. The preparations, modeled on the High Tea at @highgrovegarden, are a joy. And after all these years we have it down — cream scones, three kinds of tea sandwiches, fruit and chocolate and macarons, Prosecco and strong tea, pearls and dresses, the Downton Abbey theme song. And the three of us delighting in each other, in the garden, in special treats, and especially in the beauty of a moment to share around a beautifully set table, complete with my grandmother’s tea cups. Some day it will be otherwise. But for now, and for as long as we can, we will continue to cut the crusts off Pepperidge Farm bread, we'll get out the dishes from France, polish the silver, welcome the Queen, slice the cucumbers wafer thin, and pour tea into Grammie’s beloved china tea cups.
Last year on my 67th birthday, just a week after f Last year on my 67th birthday, just a week after finishing breast cancer treatment, I told my kids I wanted to take a trip with each one of them before I turn 70.  My friend Randy reminds me that we must think now in terms of QTR — quality time remaining — and so I do.  Ten days in Italy with @hlewers89 have reminded me just how vast and precious the world is, how travel can bring us home to ourselves, and how important it is to step out of our daily routines and into challenges and adventures while we’re strong and healthy enough to enjoy them, and also just how fun it is to spend time with my 36-year-old son. When we arrived in Milan we discovered our luggage had been  lost in a massive breakdown at Heathrow that could take days to untangle.  And so we spent our first day buying new everything— from underwear to dental floss to walking shoes. By dinner time we had our Italian  capsule wardrobes and tiny duffel bags to pack them in.  There was something kind of liberating about starting from scratch and assembling what we needed for a week of walking in the Lakes district. And I come home not only with new clothes but with some new intentions, too: take the trip, travel light, climb the mountain, drink the good wine, make new friends (what joy!), eat the gelato (and the cheese), make memories with the people you love, ask for help, embrace cultures and people and places that stretch you, learn a few words in the language you don’t know and speak them with all your heart.  Life is short.
"Easter is the soul's first taste of spring." — Ri "Easter is the soul's first taste of spring." — Richelle E. Goodrich
The Way to Start a Day The way to start a day is t The Way to Start a Day The way to start a day is this: Go outside and face the east and greet the sun with some kind of blessing or chant or song that you made yourself and keep for early morning. 

The way to make the song is this: Don't try to think what words to use until you're standing there alone. When you feel the sun you'll feel the song, too. Just sing it... 

A morning needs to be sung to. A new day needs to be honored... 

Your song will be an offering and you'll be one more person in one more place at one more time in the world saying hello to the sun, letting it know you are there. If the sky turns a color sky never was before just watch it. That's part of the magic. That's the way to start a day. 

~ Byrd Baylo
As I begin to think of myself as a cancer survivor As I begin to think of myself as a cancer survivor, with all the gratitude and uncertainty that phrase contains, turning 67 feels like a milestone, a time to reflect on what it all means. I spent my birthday writing -- a gift to myself, and to you, too. A new blog post is up on my site, please come visit. (Also, I'm giving away a book I love!) https://www.katrinakenison.com/2025/10/04/you-cant-have-it-all/

Follow me on Instagram

@ katrina kenison

Copyright © 2026 Katrina Kenison