A summary of the February posts from the MORE TO COME newsletter.
This February has earned its reputation as the longest month of the year. In the Washington region we were hit by more than six inches of snow topped by ice followed by a couple of weeks of sub-freezing temperatures. Our local governments don’t always have the tools and resources to respond to winter weather so we hunker down. For some, the feeling of being trapped has taken on an existential dread, with something or someone we cannot escape living inside our head.
Thankfully a group of nineteen Buddhist monks on a Walk for Peace of more than 2,300 miles showed an alternative to simply living as if we’re trapped and powerless. They stepped out. Their trek from Texas to Washington was designed to raise “awareness of peace, loving-kindness and compassion across America and the world.” It also raised awareness about the power of the simple act of lifting a foot, swinging a hip, bending a knee to plant that foot on solid ground, and then repeating those actions over and over again.
“Why do we start to walk?” is a question that can be answered on many levels in a variety of circumstances. But once one makes the decision to reach out and grab life, walking at a human pace is a decision to encounter it intimately. And even in the darkness, cold, and snow of February, taking that first step can help us recognize that we each have power. We can do hard things.
Let’s step off into this month’s posts on MORE TO COME to see where my perambulations took me in February.
READER FAVORITES
As the monks were arriving in the nation’s capital I was completing a recent book of essays from writers who amble, zip, stride, stumble, and march. Who walk slant and walk slow. In an age that prizes speed and efficiency, these writers—like the Buddhist monks—are moving at a human pace in ways that foster encounters, discovery, and surprise. I was delighted when Ann de Forest, the editor of Ways of Walking, agreed to chat with me about the collection in Walking as a subversive act, the newest installment of my Author Q&A series. Ann’s thoughtful and wide-ranging comments topped the list of reader views this month, and I think you’ll find her insights worth your time.
Spring 2026—featuring the winter/spring concert schedule of our son, the tenor Andrew Bearden Brown—was the other top reader post in February. Andrew is traveling coast to coast singing roles that range from the Evangelist in the St. John Passion to Gerontius in The Dream of Gerontius, a work featured in the recent film The Choral. Check out his schedule. As my brother Steve and sister-in-law Anna discovered earlier this month, he may be coming to a city near you!
I also recycled a personal favorite, Citizenship (Revisited), in February because in the midst of the cold I felt others might join me in needing the reminder to love the neighbor you like and the neighbor you don’t like.
FROM BRIGID OF KILDARE . . . TO ABRAHAM OF SPRINGFIELD . . . TO VALENTINE OF TERNI . . . TO ROSE OF FILOLI
February may have yucky weather (that’s a meteorological term), but it also has some wonderful things to celebrate. I touched on several this month.
- Trains, tremors, trolls, and turkeys covered several memory-making days in Alameda, California with our daughter Claire. On our visit to the National Trust Historic Site of Filoli on Saturday we saw—among the redwoods—the fanciful 27-foot-high sculpture of Rose Wonders, capturing the imagination of children and adults alike. February 1st was the feast day of St. Brigid of Kildare and Christ Church in Alameda had a visitation by the saint that was near and dear to our heart. St. Brigid’s feast day traditionally falls in the middle of the winter solstice and the spring equinox, signaling that the period of wintering is passing and the new life of spring is on the way.
- In honor of the 16th president’s birthday on February 12th, I reviewed Allen Guelzo’s intimate study of Abraham Lincoln’s powerful vision of democracy in There would be neither slaves nor masters.
February is, of course, the month we celebrate St. Valentine’s Day. We attended a delightful party that evening at the home of our friends Sara and John, but earlier on Valentine’s Day we had been in Staunton for a celebration of the life of Helena “Tidge” Roller. Emmanuel Episcopal Church was filled with family and friends who gathered to remember Tidge’s capacious and improbable life: she was an Anglican missionary in rural northern Canada; a graduate student at Catholic University; she taught English to President Johnson’s daughters and traded stories with the Secret Service agents in the teachers’ lounge. She spoke several languages and read every single thing she could get her hands on . . . just go read the obituary. It is priceless.
“In Tidge’s memory, do something to make things better: volunteer your time or money to a good cause, pick up trash on your morning walk, foster a child or teenager, read a great book, or find someone who could use a hand and go out of your way to help.”
A day that celebrates love was the perfect day to celebrate the life of Tidge Roller. The world is a brighter, more interesting, and more gracious place because she was in it.
MISPLACED AFFECTIONS
- In a month that celebrates love, The love of money—about the murder of the Washington Post committed in plain sight—reminds us that our affections can be very much misplaced.
- And yes, the Hot Takes about the Super Bowl that flood our social media platforms are another good reminder of misplaced affection, as I discussed in Disengage with your misery machine: Vol. II.
BOOK + INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOP REVIEWS
- Between the two of us we have one memory is a look at how aging impacts us all, but it can have a celebratory side, especially as we focus on the everyday wonder of life as seen through the recent Billy Collins book Water, Water: Poems.
- In the third installment of my year of visiting the DMV’s Independent Bookshops, Waiting for peace, I took the reader on a short tour of Georgetown’s Bridge Street Books and also reviewed the third of George Simenon’s Inspector Maigret series, The Late Monsieur Gallet.
- It’s the grounding, not the grind reviews a book by Dinah Lenney in Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series—short works about the hidden lives of ordinary things—about that very ordinary, perhaps even ubiquitous, cup of coffee. Plus I used the opportunity to throw in some great coffee-themed songs.
- From the bookshelf: January 2026 is my regular summary of the book reviews from the previous month.
COMMENTS I LOVED
Brilliant Reader Bob sent along this little snippet of a poem written “For Alex Jeffrey Pretti” by one of our country’s best-known young poets in response to the summary of January’s MTC posts:
“If we cannot find words, may we find the will; If we ever lose hope, may we never lose our humanity.”
Amanda Gorman, 2026
DON’T POSTPONE JOY
Thanks, as always, for reading. Your friendship, support and feedback mean more than I can ever express.
As you travel life’s highways be open to love; thirst for wonder; undertake some mindful, transformative walking every day. Recognize the incredible privilege that most of us have and think about how to put that privilege to use for good. Women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, public servants, and others can feel especially vulnerable . . . because they are. Work hard for justice and democracy as the fight never ends.
But also keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. Take time to dawdle and dream. Let yourself be bewildered!
Leave enough empty space to feel and experience life. Those gaps are where the magic begins. When times get rough, let your memories wander back to some wonderful place with remembrances of family and friends. But don’t be too hard on yourself if a few of the facts slip. Just get the poetry right.
Be comfortable in the mystery. Seek the uplifting spirit that leads to a life of grace and wonder.
Grace to help us remember that we can do hard things. “Grace to never sell yourself short; Grace to risk something big for something good; and Grace to remember the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth and too small for anything but love . . .”
Wonder to help us remember that “we are here to keep watch, not to keep.” Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. And bash into some joy along the way.
Life is finite . . . love is not.
Try to be nice. Always be kind.
More to come . . .
DJB
For the January 2026 summary, click here.
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Abstract Valentines by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash
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