I live by a creek, Tinker Creek, in a valley in Virginia’s Blue Ridge. An anchorite’s hermitage is called an anchor-hold; some anchor-holds were simple sheds clamped to the side of a church like a barnacle to a rock. I think of this house clamped to the side of Tinker...

Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me. If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one...