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Phoebe Sinclair Writes

Phoebe Sinclair Writes

Tag Archives: family

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{This Moment} Through the Nautical Mirror

10 Thursday Mar 2016

Tags

family, filters, laurence-harbor, photography, this-moment

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Inspired by SouleMama.

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) | Filed under Jersey Moments

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Meeting A Goal You Didn’t Know You Had

04 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Bike Life

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Tags

bike-love, family, goals, gratitude, jersey, somerville

Phoebe & mother on red cruiser bikes, Key West, FL

Mom & Me, Key West, Florida

As an adult, I have enjoyed bike rides with each person in my family-of-origin, independent of one another. This is not a goal I realized I had ’til it was accomplished.

I’m from a project-based family. We like to do things, collect experiences, learn, examine, uncover, understand. And we like bikes!

I remember being a little thing and my paternal grandfather’s adult-sized tricycle. The sound of bike tires bumping over a boardwalk’s wooden slats. Family mythology has it that same tricycle once ran over my mother’s foot, by accident.

I recall the thick, this-might-be-chemical-y-dangerous smell of grease and seeing bikes in bits in my back yard, old chains soaking in a pickle tub, waiting to be scrubbed silver.

Bike tour guide speaks with group

My brother & me on a Princeton, NJ bike tour

My Strawberry Shortcake Big Wheel; the red tricycle belonging to a neighborhood kid that we’d zip around on like it was a scooter ’til our backs ached; the pretty, blue Columbia that was stolen from my front porch, gone possibly a long time before I noticed. Barreling down broke-up concrete sidewalks from 8th Avenue to 7th, back around to 8th, no adult accompanying me because, as long I stuck to the sidewalk, no need. Learning that freedom can be bought at Toys-R-Us and sized up when my legs grew too long.

Place to place, and person to person. Child to sibling to parent.

On bike in Somerville, MA

Dad on Somerville Library Bike Tour

Bikes in Somerville Library parking lot

Fun in a Somerville lot with Dad and Dave

There’s nothing like that early love, or the connections it offers. The relationships it helps sustain.

Wooded road

Phoebe on a winding MA road

When You Wish You Had a Photo, But Are Also Glad You Don’t

18 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Uncategorized

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Tags

as-we-are-living-it, dancing, family, this-moment

As it often happens, one of the most beautiful and magical moments of my life has no accompanying photo.

It’s a gorgeous summer evening. Campus in Rhode Island that I’ve grown to know twice, through the eyes and experiences of a sweet/funny/gentle friend and a dynamic/gorgeous/brainy cousin. This time I’m here for the cousin. Round bulbs are strung, or maybe they’re string-lights. There’s a wide swarth of soft lawn, slightly wet, mite-bit muddy.

People are everywhere. Many younger than me, some older. I feel them more than see/hear them. There’s expectation, joy, excitement.

With my cousin, mother, and aunt, I’m crossing in front of a band on a stage. My slip-on shoes are off. We’re headed somewhere, perhaps to tables to sit. But first we’re going to dance.

Three of us women, traipsing across the lawn. Cakewalking. Skipping, dancing. Perhaps people notice us, perhaps they don’t. For me the world is just us three, the misty night sky, the music. Planet spinning under foot.

The moment was just that – a moment. And, for me, an eternity of joy.

Quiet Holiday

09 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Jersey Moments

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

family, giving, jersey, winter

Following a brief, surprise illness and non-shocking snowstorm of tiny, icy flakes, we finally trekked down to Jersey to visit my partner’s family and mine to celebrate the winter holidays.

plant against the blinds

ornament

Some years the holidays are boisterous and busy. There doesn’t seem enough time to fit everyone in.

view into the kitchen

walking in from the kitchen

Other years, quiet. Dinner is skillfully and thoughtfully prepared. A life-long holiday with many traditions is distilled to the heart of its elements. People are missed. Presents cheerfully opened. Tea served.

tea cups on the table

Dispatches from Ladies Rock Camp Boston – April 2013

29 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Boston Moments, Community, Learnin'

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

arts, community, events, family, jamaica-plain

Some stories are so good, a person trips over herself trying to tell them. How to begin?

Hilken and Nora kick off Lady's Rock Camp

With my mother and her newly acquired electric keyboard? How she surprised me with an affirmative to my inquiry, asked slightly in jest: hey, Ma, want to do Ladies Rock Camp with me this spring?

With the brief essays we wrote for our applications, mining our memories for favorite musicians and artistic influences (me: Stevie Wonder; mom: Yanni.)

Sly Juice on the keys during dress rehearsal

With my learned love of alternate learning opportunities? Like libraries. Like volunteering. Like skillshare.

With forty-plus women, in support of girls, signed up for a three-day rock and roll bootcamp? With Girls Rock Campaign Boston, bursting on the scene in 2010, educating girls ages eight to seventeen in the ways of music and self-empowerment.

Lady's Rock Camp opening circle

The story, on paper or on screen, holds more than I can give words to. More nerve. More verve. More vulnerabilities. More inspiration. More risk-taking. More generosity. More skill. More dancing. More surprises. More support.

Disco ball

Song writing workshop

Guitars

Dance party - first night

Dance party with DJ Sit N Spin

Band coaches

Screen printing band t-shirts

Maids of Mayhem in band practice

First time on stage

Phoebe on vocals, Tonya on guitar

Getting prepared for band photo shoot

So I’m not going to attempt to tell this tale linear. Here are some impressions. Here are some photos. Here is a challenge for you to sign yourself up (or your daughter, your sister, your mother, your friend), and find out. Tell your own story.

Maids of Mayhem on stage at T.T. the Bears Cambridge

However this thing begins, you can be sure it ends with gratitude.

Oh. And a video. Rocking out to Maids of Mayhem!

LRC Maids of Mayhem 4-2013 from Phoebe Sinclair on Vimeo.

Celebrating a Birthday at the Harvard Square Chocolate Festival

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Boston Moments, With Friends

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

cambridge, family, winter

For years I’ve been telling my mother, “It doesn’t matter when you come to visit, there’s always something going on in Boston. There’s always something to see or do* and, in the summer, a festival every weekend.”

Dancing stars in H Square

Still, it was mighty convenient that the 2013 Harvard Square Chocolate Festival coincided with my mother’s birthday visit. We arrived late on the plaza in front of Crema Café and neighboring shops, so we scored only tiny slices of chocolate cake baked by Legal Seafoods from the actual festival part of the event.

Not too cold for free samples

Naturally, Bertucci's gives out rolls

A rare WHL blog Phoebe-sighting . . .

From there we explored a hat shop and headphone shop, paid an adoring visit to Bob Slate Stationer, where my partner, mother and I had to battle strong urges to over-purchase. (Pens + notebooks + office goods = squee!!) Finally, we joined up with good friends for a chocolate lover’s afternoon tea at Upstairs on the Square. Although we didn’t eat as much as we could have, we did end the day with so. much. chocolate.

You shouldn't have

Too much chocolate

(*Boston’s enormous collection of summer and winter markets explode the possibilities of what a person could get up to any day of the week, all year long.)

What Happened to June . . . or Oh, Hello, July!

11 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Boston Moments, Jersey Moments

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Tags

family, jersey, travel

June: the busiest month.

I don’t often hear strong opinions about June. July steals the show, surely, and then August breaks hearts as it drags unwilling captives back to school, work, and that breakneck sprint to winter.

May, at least, is the month of graduations and a holiday that celebrates both fallen service members and the start of Grill Season. But June . . . June. Wait. Where’d it go?

Clear Deigns at the Milky Way Lounge

Listening to my partner’s band, the Clear Deigns, at the Milky Way Lounge (that’s him with the guitar!)

Great Brook Farm State Park pond

Chicken makes a break for it

Cow looks for a nose-rub

Exploring Great Brook Farm State Park

Summer book sale

Browsing a library book sale

Leaving the restaurant

Birthday cake with striped candle

Pre-birthday celebration with my family

{This Moment} Make a Wish

04 Friday May 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Green Life, Jersey Moments, With Friends

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

family, trees

{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama,) capturing a moment from the week.

Fluff dandelion

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Understanding The City

05 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Learnin'

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Tags

family, jersey, travel

[brgr]

On a weekend trip to New York City with my Jersey family, it struck me that the reason I find the city so excruciatingly overwhelming is not that there are so many souls eeking it out in one place, it’s that each and every one of those souls is important.

I am bowled flat by the knowledge I will never know or touch 99.9% (not an exact figure) of the people in that city.  We will all live and die, never the wiser, never moved by one another’s presence on this planet.

Hefty thoughts.

And then, once my family had departed back to Jersey, I wandered a two block radius around Penn Station (which took me thirty minutes), and walked down one street (or was it an Ave?) where the buildings might as well have been the sides of a concrete canyon.  Not a tree in sight.  Not one green thing.  The only reminder of the planet, besides the humans robotically walking past, was the sky.  I looked up and it was like, Whoa!  How’d you get there? I forgot about you.

In a NYC cavern

Still, I learned a few new things on this trip:

  • Compared with the off-Broadway shows I’ve experienced, a play on Broadway has more pomp, glitter, and magic than any unicorn I’ve ever (not) seen (sorry, unicorns.)  I believe Sister Act alone is using up half the Earth’s supply of sequins.
  • Number streets are short, avenues go on forever (how had I not noticed this in all the years I’ve visited?)  Beware the avenues.
  • If you see Whole Foods store bags, there’s definitely a Whole Foods nearby, but you’ll never be able to see it unless you look real close.

Find the Whole Foods

I do not love New York City, but I admit I’m learning to appreciate.

Stitch silent

Whew!  Back to Boston.

Librarytour: Light Lines

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by Phoebe (she / hers) in Librarytour

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

family, photography

Long before I started capturing photos with any seriousness (and believe, me, there’s only the tiniest amount of seriousness!), I followed light.  So, light in libraries is for me the most natural collaboration of interests.

Dixfield Ludden Library Children's Room

Dixfield Ludden Library Children's Room

Rumford Library, in the stacks

Rumford Library, in the stacks

Roslindale branch BPL and the blue sky

Roslindale branch BPL and the blue sky

Rockefeller Library, Brown University - stairwell

Rockefeller Library, Brown University - stairwell

Beverly Public Library, windows to the inside

Beverly Public Library, windows to the inside

Outside and in at the Cambridge Public Library

Outside and in at the Cambridge Public Library

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