November 1, 2026- Hana was constantly pointing to the mantle of the living room fireplace. I took each item off it and showed her. It turned out that she was most interested in the pair of readers that I keep up there, to help me read the Baha’i prayer book in the morning, when it is still semi-dark. She loves to place her hands on the book, as I recite several prayers. If I put on the glasses, she wants to put them on , too. I tell her that I hope she never has to do that.

She doesn’t nap much on weekends, perhaps hoping to maximize time with Mommy and Daddy. As it happened, Aram had a Navy ceremony to attend this afternoon and Yunhee needed to take a rest. So, I proposed a walk in the park, which delighted Hana greatly. We made our customary loop past the Middle School and through the west end of Hoblitzelle. We found the Sourdough Bakery open, so I picked up some pizza sourdough. Mommy was waiting for us, when we got back, and we all had a light snack.

HANA’S NOTE- I got to wear Daddy’s Navy cap, when he came home. It is almost as big as I am.

EXPANDING CIRCLES: Pennsylvania- There is no place like the Keystone State. It is almost as much home to me as Massachusetts and Arizona have been. I first passed through Philadelphia in 1969, on that train trip from Washington to Boston. In 1972, I first heard about the Baha’i Faith, after having hitched a ride from Havre de Grace to King of Prussia. Then came Bethlehem, Stroudsburg and Milton.Brother’s family lived in three PA locations, over the years. Now they are spread out in the suburbs of Philly. Dear friends live in Oley, not far from Reading, yet in a dreamlike place.PA was the first state that let caretakers use the restroom of their opposite gender charges, when we went across to New Jersey, in 2007. My solo years have also found me in Allentown, Scranton, Easton, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, Du Bois, Clarion, Pittsburgh, Erie and blessed Bedford. I have enjoyed visits to Harrisburg and York, and been humbled by time in Gettysburg.

The Turf- Western Pennsylvania features the Allegheny Plateau, a series of ridges and valleys, extending nearly to Ohio. A lake plain runs along PA’s shoreline at Lake Erie. The Appalachian Mountains run from the southwest to the northeast of Pennsylvania. They include the Allegheny and Pocono Ranges Southeast of the mountains, the land is covered by Coastal Palin.

Pennsylvania is drained by the Delaware, Susquehanna, Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio,Schuylkill, Lehigh, Lackawaxen, Juniata, Lackawanna, Chemung and Shenango Rivers, along with their tributaries. The Allegheny and Monongahela flow into the Ohio, at Pittsburgh. In turn, the Ohio flows into the Mississippi, at Cairo, IL and its waters thus empty into the Gulf of Mexico, in southern Louisiana.

First Nations- Pennsylvania is the ancestral home of the Lenapehoking(Delaware), Shawnee, Erie, Munsee, Susquehannock, Haudenosaunee(Iroquois Confederacy), Honniasont, Saluda, Saponi, Tutelo,Tuscarora, and Wenrohrenon peoples. Through the deception of the Penn family, the Lenape were stripped of title to 1.2 million acres of hunting land (The Walking Purchase of 1737). Most Lenape now live in Oklahoma, as the Delaware Nation. The Susquehannock were slaughtered by the Paxton Boys, a vigilante mob, in 1763. The Erie (Erielhonan) were wiped out by the Iroquois Confederacy, in the Beaver Wars of the 1650s, which were instigated by European fur traders. The Seneca, members of the Iroquois Confederacy, were themselves deprived of significant portions of their land, by one of the less seemly projects of the New Deal: The Kinzua Dam, which resulted in the flooding of large tracts of the Seneca’s reservation land. The “trade-off” was the protection of Pittsburgh, downriver along the Allegheny from its constant springtime floods. There is no Indigenous reservation or recognized tribe in Pennsylvania. The Zimmerman Center for Heritage, in Wrightsville, documents what information is available about the Susquehannock people. The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania continues to preserve Lenape language and culture.

Where I most feel at home- Oley, Exton, Downingtown, Wilkes-Barre, Clarion, Bedford, Harrisburg,York

Where I most feel at peace- Oley, Exton, Bedford, Bushkill Falls, York

NEXT: New Jersey