Creating in this garden of life
life events, collective experience
When we were in Southwest Harbor in October 1996 I was shocked at how emaciated my mother looked when they met us for lunch at Jordan Pond. Yet it didn’t register what the cause might be, as she breezily commented that she had “lost 25 pounds, Thank God”. It was one of those “Huh” moments … Read more
God in the form of loving spirit and creative energy surrounds and works through me and all of life and nature One has to be fully in the present to be fully aware of this spirit essence, listening for its still small voice. It is when we are not in tune (fully aware) that we … Read more
I come from stock of the Depression era, with resultant parental frugality and childhood sense of deprivation in the midst of a well-off and ritzy suburb of Boston. I come from the fifties… Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, and Father Knows Best sense of strong family values and clear division of labor, martinis … Read more
Pruning Back the Dysfunction When my mother died 20 some years ago, my children and I planted a variegated maple tree in the front yard, in her memory. Occasionally a non-variegated branch emerges from the trunk. If not pruned away, more and more of the tree will lose its variegation. If left unattended, the … Read more
I vividly remember learning to write my name in kindergarten. Miss Dolan hand wrote the letters to trace in colored marker, on long, yellowish double-spaced penmanship paper with green lines. I got so excited when my teacher used orange for my letters (not to mention how impressed I was that same year, when I discovered … Read more
Dad is dying. My brother, sisters, and I have flocked to his bedside during his final days, and I find there are moments when I need to distance myself from the intensity of this event. Upon a walk to the woodland trail, I chance to meet an elderly gentleman named Paul as he shuffles past Dad’s … Read more
I moved to Montpelier in August of last year, ready to start afresh: getting to know my new neighbors, learning about the abundant opportunity available to me, creating a new branch on the beautiful tree that is my life. All the stirrings from within that I couldn’t make time for during my work life, are … Read more
We were blessed with four sons under the age of four, the last being a set of twins twenty-one months younger than our middle child. Four in diapers; four car seats; four child seats at table, four snowsuits, a million little socks and six loads of laundry a day… I nursed all of the … Read more
Washing Off the Pieces It’s been months since I shattered into a million shards of self-reflection. I’m still picking up the pieces. Slowly, and with great perseverance I wash off the pieces, examine them one by one, and glue myself back together. Once a shiny glass orb of fragility dropping the glitter of bygone … Read more
Even as a young child, the claw footed coat tree that stood in our front hall was my friend. It was dark and gleaming, pledge-scented mahogany, with large old brass hooks, and a head carved like a pineapple. It held my little hand when, as a toddler, I climbed up and down the chair beneath … Read more