One of Virginia’s most amazing architectural treasures wasn’t formed by the hand of man at all, and it’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Thomas Jefferson once owned it. George Washington is said to have surveyed its location as a young lad of 17—though he was fully commissioned as a surveyor with a…
The ‘Most Sublime of Nature’s Works’
December 12, 2021
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American EssenceAmerican InspirationGeorge WashingtonInspiredLife & TraditionNatural BridgeRadiant LifeThomas JeffersonVirginia
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America’s National Parks: Yosemite
December 11, 2021
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American EssencehikingHome & GardeningInspiredLife & TraditionLifestyleRadiant LifeTravelYosemite National Park
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Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike. —John Muir Glimpsing a photograph of California’s iconic Yosemite Valley, it is easy to understand why millions of people from around the world make the pilgrimage to…
‘The Voyage of Life’
December 11, 2021
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American EssenceAmerican paintingHudson River SchoolInspiredLandscape paintingLife & TraditionRadiant LifeThe voyage of lifeThomas Cole
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America’s first great landscape painter, Thomas Cole, was a pivotal figure in the development of a distinctly American artistic identity in the early 19th century. Cole’s masterful landscapes range from picturesque compositions of America’s pristine wilderness to imaginative historical and allegorical scenes. The revered artist’s devotion to seeking the presence of God in nature inspired…
Reflections from a Night on a Cliffside
December 10, 2021
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American EssenceclimbingInspiredLife & TraditionparentingRadiant LifeRock Climbingtough loveYosemiteYosemite National ParkYosemite Valley
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Last year, my son Kyle and I were invited to join a climbing expedition with my good friend and client, Joe, and his son, Sam. Joe has been training Sam in hopes that he’ll become the youngest person to ever climb the famed El Capitan, a 3,000-foot vertical wall in Yosemite Valley that most consider…
Why Wildlife Is Returning to Eastern Kentucky
December 10, 2021
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American EssenceAppalachiablightConservationeastern kentuckyEnvironmentInspiredKentuckyLife & TraditionNaturerestorationwilfelife
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The past 20-plus years of mass media reporting on the environment has been dominated by predictions of cataclysmic catastrophe and mayhem, although during my life, I’ve seen a very different story. Growing up in Eastern Kentucky, deer were few, with no bear, coyotes, turkeys, mountain lions, bald eagles, and certainly no elk. Today, all of…
Building Beautiful Friendships One Cup at a Time
Tea has always been a part of the Stowe family. What initially started as a traveling tearoom in 2011, bringing tea and baked goods to families all over Middle Tennessee and parts of Alabama, transformed into what is now a physical tea room on a sixty-eight-acre farm in Campbellsville, TN. Three Sisters Tearoom is run…
A Conversation With Charles Marohn: ‘Honor the Struggle!’
December 9, 2021
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American EssenceCharles Marohncity planningcommunity funding projectshousing projectsInspiredLife & TraditionStrong Townssuburbsurban sprawl
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Walking six blocks to work each morning gives Charles Marohn a unique insight into the vitality of his town, and into his own well-being. Aware of the benefits of exercise in his life, he quickly draws an analogy between personal discipline and the discipline that makes for a strong town. Wisdom literature often draws a…
Lessons Learned at the Dinner Table
Walking bleary-eyed into his kitchen one early morning, our son-in-law met with a beautiful sight: my toddler granddaughter waiting at the kitchen table. “Daddy, I made you a party,” she announced, smiling proudly. She had indeed! There were flowers on the table; each person’s place had been set with a kiddie plate, napkin, graham crackers,…
George Washington: Like a Culprit to His Execution
“My movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.” These were the unenthusiastic words of George Washington, written to fellow Revolutionary War veteran Henry Knox on April 1, 1789, not long before his nearly inevitable election as…
The Business of Beautiful Sound
As a solo concert pianist, Sara Faust had as one of her first pianos a Steinway & Sons from the 1970s—a notoriously poor era for Steinway. “I just want a great, old piano, if I could find it,” she would say to her husband, Irving. She didn’t know what that meant at the time, just…
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