Category Archives: Friends

Wintery-spring poetry time…

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It’s still feeling like winter here in the Berkshires. Not enough green, or warmth, or flowers. But I keep writing and sending thoughts for the reasons I wait and anticipate the coming of color from under a buff beige blanket. Why do you stay? 

Why I Stay- (based on a line from Morgan Farley’s poem of the same name) by Lori Evans

Why I stay, because spring is coming and sunshine and flowers,
Because it’s not really a choice, I am here with nowhere else to go.
I stay for horses, for romance, for beauty and beavers,
For cowboys and evergreens and mountain streams.
I stay for stars in a lightless sky and the hope of seeing the northern lights.

I stay for love, for daughters and adopted sons and sisters and ukuleles,
Because the hope of more adventure is within my soul always beating.
Why I stay has nothing to do with deeds and everything to do with possibility,
The anguish and joy equal in their coming and going.

I stay for the pizza and Netflix and the walk to the bookstore,
For the smile in a puppy’s tail wiggle that makes mine join in.
Puppies! I stay for puppies and kittens and pumpkins carved by kids, 
And painting, and color. 

I stay for color! For washing everything
In color, in rainbow butterflies of fabric and clothing,
That makes me feel gorgeous and sassy and bold.

I stay to be bold, to find firmness in my mind and my flabby body, for breath,
And aspiration and a person I might help and brighten.
I stay for words that can lighten a load and frighten the gloom from the door
That’s shut.

Why I stay, to say, “HEY! You know me—we met ten years ago and look
At us now!” I stay for surprises like inside a Kinder egg, little bright toys
Of delight from unexpected corners. A note from a student,
A gift from the wind, a tail slap from a beaver saying,
“Here I am, wait for me, don’t go yet, I want to see you.”

I stay to be seen.

Tiptoeing the backroads to Taos…

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Photo by Andrea Scher
Somewhere in Kansas

I am on my way to Taos, New Mexico from Massachusetts. I don’t have the time to stay more than one night at any given place but I also want to experience slices of life along the way. Freeway hotels, though convenient do not speak to me of neighborhoods, animals, and family, so I choose to drive off the thruways and find places to stay away from the conveniences of fast food and cookie cutter hotel rooms.

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Of cabbages and kings…

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You can see the burgundy protective shell falling away

I continue on from my previous blog to watch the skunk cabbage transform in the Northeast. It completely changes and opens up it’s thick, protective rubbery skin to release beautiful green leaves. It’s not smelling like skunk yet, so I am awaiting that event with tempered enthusiasm. Continue reading →

My own sculpture park…

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Hello my friends. It has been over a year since I’ve posted a blog. WHAT? Yes, life got busy, I didn’t feel that I had anything new to say and I worked more and meandered a little less. But here we are in a new era of stay-at-home-for-my-own-good-and-the-rest-of-the-world. Being a director/teacher/actor makes me one of the horde that has been laid off until further notice. So now there is no excuse not to post and write. So we will call this the Meandering of the Mind series since “going out’ can really mean “going in” as John Muir says.

I went out for a solitary walk along a large pond. I marvel that there is always something new to discover. I have never seen the blooming of the skunk cabbage plant and I would not have guessed that they looked like this…

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To see them bursting through the decaying leaves and swampy ground was better than any outdoor sculpture park I’ve seen. I am not a fan of modern, metal monstrosities in my woods, I like my trees and nature unadulterated and these growing skunk cabbages are the perfect illustration of why. You couldn’t ask for a better bit of sculpting to admire, with color, texture and medium perfectly suited to their surroundings. They are quite thick and sturdy right now, and remind me of the protea flowers that I first discovered in Hawaii with an almost woody strength. Continue reading →

Roadside falls

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Kathy, Lori and Audrey happy to see each other!

One of the best things about road travel is the people you meet along the way, some old friends and some new. Today was full of old friends in Reno, Nevada, Kathy and Grandma Blume. After wonderful visits we packed the car and set out for destination Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

We had about 7 hours of driving and while filling up the gas tank the spout spit gasoline onto my leggings and as much as possible I soaped it off in the public restroom. I smelled of gasoline the rest of the day. We didn’t have time to do the trip in one day so we stopped for the night in Twin Falls, Idaho, under a beautiful rainbow. Continue reading →

3 states, 5 towns, 10 days & 25 people

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I’m just back from a whirlwind trip to the West Coast. Having moved to the eastern edge of the USA it is difficult to see all of the people and places that mean a lot to me in one trip, but this time I can say that I came close!

IMG_6485I flew into Seattle to connect with my daughters. I met a new grand-kitty, celebrated a birthday, saw a new apartment, walked to the beach, ate some amazing food, extolled the virtues, and adorableness, of Seattle’s plethora of little free libraries and watched one daughter in a dance performance at University of Washington. This was a last-minute addition to my trip west and I can’t even explain how important it was to my own well-being. Seeing my daughters and their friends in the midst of their living is a tangible delight and more than necessary, even if only for a few days. Continue reading →

Before Panorama and after Panorama…

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I’ve been ignoring my blog. This happens. As much as I love to write, I become entrenched in my daily life, ignore the tugs of the blank page, and take to filling my days with teaching, acting and reading soul-stirring writing. Well, I’m back, for a moment, to check in and connect with my own writer’s soul.

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Girls Road Trip!

In the fall, I took a road trip from Seattle to California bringing along all three of my incredible daughters. It was hands-down the best thing to happen in 2016. We left Seattle heading south, our first stop a night in Ashland, Oregon to take in a play at the popular Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Our plans were in constant flux so we arrived without tickets with the intention of getting them on sight. Continue reading →

Cinderella in Cannes (Third and Final Cycle)

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Night views of Cannes from the after party

(Continued from Cinderella in Cannes Part 2) Having slept but a few hours, I boarded a shuttle bus to the Nice airport. On the flight back to NYC I was seated next to an adorable couple. I discreetly admired their holding hands and obvious affection for each other. They were having the best time and eventually I got drawn into their mischief. Norwegian Air was fantastic and had a touchscreen at each seat where you order food and drinks and the attendants bring it to you. My row-mates were enjoying keeping a tab going and sending wine to my seat as well. I don’t know if I have ever laughed so long and hard on a flight and I’m sure we were innocuously absurd to the other passengers. My new friends kept trying to hook me up with the guy in the seat ahead of me, Continue reading →

Cinderella in Cannes (Second Cycle)

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Driving into Cannes under a rainbow

(Continuing along to France…) The drive to Cannes was long but Paul was a super (and fast!) driver. The first night we spent on an overnight ferry (see Cinderella in Cannes Part One) and I fell asleep with a distinctly strong smell of fish in my nostrils. We ended up pulling into Antibes, France, just a few miles northeast of Cannes at 10pm. I went out searching for a sight of the beach Continue reading →

Cinderella in Cannes (First Cycle)

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Cannes, France

First off let’s get the pronunciation of Cannes right. People here on the east coast  of the USA say CAHnnes, in a hoity-toity way. One friend corrected me when I said CANnes, France. So I looked it up and lo-and-behold my high school french didn’t fail me, it IS “CAN” rhymes with fan.

The reason to get the pronunciation correct is that the film Continue reading →