Dear friends,

We hope you’re having a fine holiday, that you had a Merry Christmas, and that your prospects for the new year are bright, wherever you are.

We love you all and wish we could see you this holiday season. Since we can’t see all of you we made this card to send. The photo shows a place just down the street from us as it appeared in February, 2015 immediately after a snowfall. The thumbnail is a live link to a full-size image.

Those of you who know Tower Grove Park will recognize this place. To those of you who don’t know Tower Grove Park, it is one of the treasures of our city, created in the nineteenth century by Henry Shaw, along with the Missouri Botanical Garden, which abuts it just north of the place where this photo was made.

Love to all,
Julian Long and Kathleen Farrell

This photo from the Grand Boulevard Gallery in my city seems especially poignant to me today. I’m cooking, anticipating the arrival of friends and family for holiday visiting—doing the things I love to do on Thanksgiving day. If I could put my arms around all my friends and family and all those in the spectrum of my awareness and say nothing, only let the touch speak peace, perhaps that could call down a blessing as we will pray at my table this evening.

God keep you today and always, Facebook friends, blog friends, and all who may see this note.