This beautiful broadside is hanging in my bathroom. I see it several times a day. It was made by the artist Rachel Melis at the College of Saint Benedict letterpress studio for the Literary Arts Institute visiting writing series with Louise Erdrich. The quote is from Erdrich’s book The Painted Drum. In case it is hard to read in my glare photograph, here it is:
“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”
It requires no elaboration. Right?
Rachel and I have a wonderful web of connections. She is also a Grinnell College alum. She did a lot of her early print work on prairie themes. She is a fan of The Saint John’s Bible and it was her class that did the broadside series of my stories from Habits. And her grandparents used to live on our farm, this very 80 acres here, a long time ago. We’ve both found homes here in this place for our lives and love and art. 
And on March 14, she gave birth to her second baby girl. Because she’s a woman who risks her heart.
That passage from The Painted Drum means a great deal to me, too, and what a lovely broadside. And congratulations to your friend on her newest project!
Beautiful friendship and beautiful baby.
Thanks for visiting the blog, Louise!