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Bare Branches at Jamaica Pond
01 Friday Mar 2013
Posted Boston Moments, Green Life
in01 Friday Mar 2013
Posted Boston Moments, Green Life
inTags
21 Monday Jan 2013
Posted Boston Moments, With Friends
inI’ll admit it: warm winter days make me nervous.
Like so many people, I fret about the Earth and our human impact, but I try not to be that person who grumbles global warming when other folk sigh what a beautiful day this is! Because it was a beautiful day when my partner and I joined friends and their young’ins up at Ponkapoag Pond in the Blue Hills for hiking, exploring, and cheese-eating.
08 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted Green Life, With Friends
inSoup’s on the stove. Cat is in his basket. Sade’s on the player. And outside the window of my home office: snow, snow.
Amazing that, three days ago I was admiring the subtle tones of autumn in the mountains of Maine.
Water was flowing, but I bet now it’s ice.
A friend said: Is that snow on the mountain over there? And I denied it, claiming sky.
But it’s true the plants were packing up, headed towards the season of sleep that drives us wakeful ones indoors.
When the season turns over, it shouldn’t be a surprise, but so it often is.
21 Tuesday Aug 2012
Posted Green Life
inTags
Today, taking a break from writing, I wandered the Arnold Arboretum. Now, I’ve long known about the metal identification tags attached to most of the trees, imparting information about the species, Latin names, all that. However, this afternoon I discovered the key to reading those labels and lo, behold! Suddenly I have access to a whole new way to experience the collection.
Thirty-four years, meet one-hundred and twenty years.
31 Tuesday Jul 2012
Posted Green Life, Learnin', Writing Life
inMy favorite kind of learning is the sort that sneaks up on you. You think you’re going to discover one thing and, because you’re receptive, the Universe seizes the opportunity to hand you another. And another. Sometimes the Universe really likes to cram it in.
This summer I’ve taken temporary leave from my job as a Community Liaison (writer, organizer, webmaster, photographer, event planner, project manager, etc.) to complete a novel for young readers. The novel and I have been courting each other since 2006. We dance around the idea of being “done,” and what better place to wiggle our toes than in a space devoted to the form?
Earthdance is many things –learning center, community space for dancers and others who practice contact improvisation, garden/orchard, peaceful oasis-in-the-woods– and retreat for art-types and peace-makers looking to temporarily escape the distractions of everyday life.
Hoping to finally discover the conclusion to my novel, I arrived fully prepared to spend my days whittling away at hundreds of pages of notes containing two separate drafts, and seven years of revisions suggested by myself and members of my Boston-based writer’s critique group.
Earthdance’s lessons were easy-to-miss, so I’m glad I arrived with the intention to listen, to sit quietly, and to treat myself with kindness.
I learned how to share space with a spider . . .
And a butterfly (admittedly, living with the butterfly was easier!)
I learned what it feels like to wander into a garden and come out with fixings for lunch, fresh from the soil.
I discovered the impact of choosing to begin and end each day with gratitude (more specifically, sleeping in a wonderfully wood-scented dormitory bearing that name.)
I learned sometimes it’s necessary to move your body in order to move your mind.
I learned, to dissuade a deer from munching the garden, running outside and clapping your hands works just fine.
I learned that, although we serve different communities, the vision, staff, and mission of Earthdance is ever similar to what I’ve grown to enjoy and deeply respect back at work in Cambridge.
I learned to trust that, if I sit quietly enough, watching the woods for creativity’s approach, it may arrive peacefully, timidly, joyfully on delicate feet.
Or it may not.
And both are okay.
Thank you, Earthdance. ‘Til we meet again . . .
29 Friday Jun 2012
Posted What Is It
inTags
Walking down Centre Street in our neighborhood, Jamaica Plain, we ran into this: a small, pretty drinking glass hanging in a sapling tree in front of First Baptist Church. The cup’s ballast seemed to be a rock. The tree was also decorated with a garland of red, yarn flowers.
Remnants of a ceremony? Science project? What’s your guess?
11 Friday May 2012
Posted Boston Moments
inTags
{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
04 Friday May 2012
Posted Green Life, Jersey Moments, With Friends
in01 Tuesday May 2012
Posted Home
inAlthough I’m quick to dispute the concept of love-at-first-sight when it comes to romance, I’m oddly content to announce its existence in other, more mundane aspects of life. Such as scoring a new job, or apartment.
Case in point: my home of three and half years that I share with partner, cat, a number of not-quite-thriving plants, and some moss in a jar. Sunny, but not sun-filled (much to the rue of the plants); colorful, but not overwhelming: this is a place that has been loved long before we arrived.
I love it now, in part because, surrounded by just the right number of tall, thin trees, it gives the appearance of height, yet also the feeling of safety, of being tucked away. And oh, how lovely the paint color-choices of an occupant past. How compelling that deep orange wall.
20 Friday Apr 2012
Posted Green Life
inTags
{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.