Heading toward the winter solstice, the strings of twinkle and tin-can lights that stay up on my porch year-round get turned on earlier now as the night closes in. I’ve already been involuntarily house-bound for weeks with my broken ankle but hibernating during the dark side of the year has a different resonance, one with more ritual and meaning. I need actual light but also things that illuminate the corners of daily life and stave off gloom. Dahlia Lithwick’s essay in Slate called “The Only Way to Navigate the Election Storm Ahead” did that for me when I was worried about midterm madness, and I keep returning to it because the lessons also apply to navigating the shadow side of society right now. It’s just one of the little signs and wonders and way-finders that I’ve been storing up like acorns for the winter: the reblooming of geraniums that I thought were beyond saving; working my way through Martin Scorsese’s list of 125 Essential Films as an antidote to super-boring superhero movies; discovering an amazing poem called “Prayer for Werewolves” and the discussion of it here; spotting a wildcat and black bear roaming the grounds of the house where I recuperated in the mountains and knowing that nature is carrying on despite our relentless war on it; and having a Meyer lemon tree delivered to my front door, pregnant with the possibility of sunny golden fruit in the future.

I’ve fallen in love with Smitten Kitchen’s Butternut Squash and Caramelized-Onion Galette with fresh sage and Fontina cheese. So easy, so pretty, so delicious. It’s the perfect fall dinner, and for a careless cook like me, it’s almost fail-safe (unless you accidentally double-salt it as I did recently) Bonus: Deb Perlman's new cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, is just out.

When I was publishing Skirt! magazine in Charleston, we had a variety of high school and college interns. One absolute stand-out was Rossi Anastopoulo, who years later has published her first book—Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies. Imaginative, meticulously researched and beautifully written, the book makes me so proud to have known Rossi at the beginning.

Thanks to a cast on my leg and the cool weather in the GA mountains where I recuperated, I lived in pajamas for a month. Okay, so I’m still living in them now that I’ve graduated to a big plastic walking boot. My favorites are the staid-not-sexy Vermont Country Store ski-type pjs. The only drawback—they come with matching tops and I like sleeping in my own tshirts. So I was happy to discover that the children’s clothing brand Hanna Andersson is offering women’s long-john pajama pants on their own in holiday prints right now--on sale! Hanna was the go-to clothing for my granddaughter when she was growing up, so I love that they offer adults that same feeling of snow days on the couch with junk food and junk tv (Yes, I admit to an addiction to Sister Wives). Now if they would just make their iconic dresses and tights for adults.

I’ve been getting out in the real world this month for weekly physical therapy to strengthen my  ankle, but I’ve also been looking at ways to get mentally stronger after my string of physical traumas. To that end, I’ve rediscovered Kirtan Kriya, a Kundalini Yoga meditation exercise involving chanting and finger movements that is believed to improve brain function, relieve stress, and might even help stave off Alzheimer’s Disease. Hard to prove, but it only takes 12 minutes a day, so I'm willing to give it a try.