Robert Gerard

“Be honest, truthful, and altruistic. If you concern yourself with taking care of others, there’ll be no room for lies, bullying and cheating. If you’re truthful you can live transparently and with integrity.” - His Holiness the Dalai Lama Kindness crowds out deception. Live with an open heart. 🕊️ #DalaiLama #Compassion #Integrity

Come join us for this conversation. It should be fascinating (and it's free!) #BookRecommendations #BooksWorthReading #whattoread

Happy first day of Spring! The National Mall is getting ready to burst with cherry blossoms & Spring vibes. Our staff & volunteers are thrilled to welcome visitors from near & far.
#NationalMall #Spring #WashingtonDC 🌸🌞🌸🌞🌸

Welcome SPRING, officially.... We declared winter over yesterday, and now spring officially arrives at 10:46 a.m. with the vernal equinox. At this moment, the sun is positioned directly over the equator, bringing roughly equal day and night across much of the globe.

☀️ Today is the start of 227 straight days of post 6pm sunsets. ☀️ Next Wednesday starts 181 straight days of post 7pm sunsets. ☀️ We’re just over 5 weeks till we get dusk past 8p, and that lasts 135 days.

@AustinRender That was awesome!

In case you wanted to know what the broadcast booth like during the final 2:30 of today's game, here you go. Sorry for the voice cracks. I was having too much fun!

WUSA9 meteorologists predict the cherry blossoms will reach peak bloom on April 2 Peak bloom is defined as the day when 70% of the Yoshino Cherry blossoms are open along the Tidal Basin. wusa9.com/mobile/article…

🌸 D.C.’s cherry blossoms may take their time this year. After the chilliest winter in more than two decades, the trees are just beginning to wake up. Warm weather this week should kick-start development, but cooler conditions later in March may slow the progression toward peak bloom. 📅 Our forecast: April 3–7 for peak bloom at the Tidal Basin. That would be the latest since 2018 and notably later than last year’s March 28 peak. Over the past century, peak bloom has shifted about a week earlier on average because of climate warming — but this year looks like a throwback to a later bloom.

@JamesMartinSJ I’m so sorry for your loss. May your mother’s memory be a blessing. She was adventurous and such lovely photos!

As I think about my mom in preparation for her Funeral Mass next week, I think a lot about these photos, and the story behind them. In 1957, Eleanor Spano, a recent college graduate and French major, embarked on a four-month trip to Europe, starting from Philadelphia, then to New York, then to Quebec and then aboard the Arosa Sun ocean liner, which crossed the Atlantic to bring a group of young women to Southampton. My mom did not come from a wealthy family by any means; the cost of the trip was covered from her working several years as an executive secretary. From Southampton, she and her new pals (one of whom, Norma, became a lifelong friend) traveled throughout England and Scotland then Europe: from Scandinavia to Germany to Switzerland to Italy to Spain to France. During those four months, she recorded her experiences, taking meticulous notes in a green leather journal, which she kept all the way until her stay in the nursing home. In her last few months, we read to her from it and she’d nod and smile and say, “I remember that.” Her journal was well written, astute and often very funny, filled with stories of youthful hijinks and charming young men. My mom’s trip to Europe was one of the highlights of her long life. A few years ago, we discovered some forgotten slides stored in an envelope and her grandson Matthew digitized them. We were amazed by the almost crystalline clarity. So I thought I’d share them, and an entry from her journal, when she saw the Christian Dior show in Paris. Amazingly, in the recent film “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” they recreate that exact show and include one of the hats that my mom noticed. Here’s my mom’s funny description: “Sept. 9. Monday. Paris. Clear. Went to the Christian Dior fashion show where Norma and I got really got a glimpse of the coming fashions. Some very good, many to the extreme – much black -- blues for gowns -- the odor of perfume throughout the Salon was delightful. Two of the women had dogs. I and Norma were waiting for a dog fight. No luck; however, one dog did bite a model, much to our delight. One model wore a crazy hat of fringe, which looked like Norma’s straw beach hat—more laughing. As we came out, we realized we hadn’t seen the Eiffel Tower, and we quickly took a cab to get a good and last glimpse of the town.”

Yay!!

@AustinRender Love it!!!

I told Lenée that, however cheesy it sounded, I would use "beaument" for a big moment in the season. Well, today's 3-pointer with less than two minutes to go felt as good a time as any!

@Mr_Husky1 Such a lovely story

Everyone told me to throw it out. The contractor, my sister, even my own husband said, "Maureen just get a new one from Home Depot and be done with it." This stove belonged to my grandmother. A 1950s Chambers, white with chrome handles, six burners, double ovens, built in warming drawers, the kind of thing they simply do not make anymore. It sat in her kitchen in the house on Maple Street for over 40 years. She cooked every holiday meal on it, every birthday cake, every pot of Sunday sauce that made the whole block smell like garlic and tomatoes. When she died in 2019 the house went up for sale and my uncle was going to let the new owners gut the kitchen. I drove four hours with a rented truck and two guys from Craigslist to pull that stove out of there. It sat in my garage for almost three years because I couldn't afford to restore it. It was rusted in places, the enamel was chipped, two of the burners didn't work, and one of the oven doors wouldn't close right. Every time I walked past it to get to the washing machine I'd run my hand across the top and whisper, "I'm going to fix you, just wait." My husband thought I was losing it. Then last year I got a small inheritance from an aunt on my dad's side, not much, but enough. I found a guy who specializes in vintage appliance restoration and he spent three months bringing her back to life. The day they delivered it into my kitchen and I saw it sitting there under the warm light, looking exactly like it did in grandma's house, I sat on my kitchen floor and sobbed. That white enamel shining, the chrome polished like mirrors, the burners clicking on perfectly. I bake on it now every Sunday. The percolator on the stovetop is one I found through a seller’s shop who had a collection full of restored vintage enamelware and I nearly screamed when I saw it because it's almost identical to the one grandma used. I've since decorated the whole area with handmade vintage style kitchen pieces I bought from different artisan shops, the little timer, the ceramic utensil holder, all of it. People come over and stand in my kitchen staring at this stove like it's a museum piece and I just smile because they have no idea. It's not a stove. It's every Christmas morning, every burnt cookie we laughed about, every conversation we had while she stirred something on the back burner. They told me to throw it out. I'm so glad I never listened. By Amanda cain

HUMMINGBIRD LOVERS GET READY! The great hummingbird migration has just started...with several sightings already along the Gulf Coast. You'll start to see even more into March across the Southeast and will continue to spread north through May. Get those hummingbird feeders out!

On Valentine’s Day 36 years ago, Carl Sagan requested NASA to turn Voyager 1's camera back toward home for one last look. From 3.7 billion miles away, Voyager captured this image. Here is how Carl Sagan described it: “Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor, and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

#WalkForPeace Even a young monk engaged in the Buddha’s path illuminates this world like the moon freed from clouds. The gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts. - Buddha, Dhammapada

Behold: the mildest day in more than two weeks 🌤️ After a long, icy stretch, today finally feels different. Temperatures warm quickly this morning, pushing toward 40 by midday and rising into the mid- to upper 40s this afternoon — with a few spots south even flirting with 50. • Faster warm-up than we’ve seen in a while • Light winds and some breaks of sun • Noticeable melting underway Mild weather hangs on Wednesday before things cool slightly late week. Looking ahead, the holiday weekend could bring a storm system — mostly rain, though a brief wintry mix is possible at the start. Full forecast and updates: cwg.live Photo by @RiverGirl707

What a fantastic picture of the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial -- reflective of this uncommon stretch of frigid, icy weather. Thanks to @hocofoto (Seth Hoffman) for sharing this amazing capture with us on Instagram.

The 19 Buddhist monks carrying a message of peace made it to Richmond on Monday, the 100th day of their walk from Texas to D.C. The mayor’s office estimated 10,000 people lined the route through the city. wapo.st/3MihcC2

At 90, His Holiness the Dalai Lama wins a Grammy- for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for his spoken-word album Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness the Dalai Lama #DalaiLama #Wisdom #InnerPeace #GrammyAwards

Today, the venerable Buddhist monks arrived in Richmond on their 2,300-mile Walk for Peace. I was honored to welcome them to our capital city and mark today as Walk for Peace Day in the Commonwealth.   Thank you, Virginia, for showing up — for peace, for unity, and for justice.