This is a page I ripped out of a recent New Yorker. It's a sketch of a Callery-pear tree that stands in the center of the plaza of the 9/11 memorial site, surrounded by 400 hundred swamp white oaks. Rescue workers discovered the burned stump after the attack; staffers at a nursery in the Bronx helped restore its health.
I've been resting this page on the computer keyboard at work when I leave, so it's there to greet me in the morning. I'm awed by the resiliency of that tree.
My other bit of computer inspiration is on a wrinkly post-it stuck to my home laptop. On it, a couple of years ago, I wrote down something I read in The Happiness Project book, by Gretchen Rubin: "The days are long, the years are short." It reminds me to really savor the kids, as hectic as life may get, because all too soon they'll be grown.
What photos or phrases inspire you?
