I went back to Benedict Pond this weekend and it was like visiting an old friend. Continue reading
My kind of crazy
Ridin’ with her hair in the wind
And her hands in the sky
Like she’s flyin’
Spring has finally arrived in the Berkshires. The snow is gone, my teaching residency has started, this is my 100th post, and I have moved to a new house share. A lot of changes in the last few weeks, so where do I start?
The Travels of Bob: An Easter Story
There’s this bug, and I swear it’s been following me. It is rather big, next time I see him I will take a picture because I have no idea what he is, about three-quarters of an inch in length and maybe of the cockroach family. He seems harmless, he just scares me turning up in unexpected places. For instance…my picnic bag. I received this nifty bag from my mother for my birthday that opens up and has a cutting board, plastic wine glasses, flatware, cloth napkins, the works, perfect for taking on a romantic date with a bottle of wine and cheese. Well, it has thus far gone unused, which is a sad comment on the state of my dating life, but when I moved out of company housing at Shakespeare & Company last December, I packed some things inside the bag to keep safe in the car trunk as I flew off to Seattle for three weeks.
The infamous picnic bag…
Sunset Mass in Blue Minor
“A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.” -Ansel Adams
I wrote a report in high school on the naturalist photographer Ansel Adams. He was a fanatic about light and how it affects the world through the camera lens, and since then I have been enamored of watching the changes light creates on landscapes. Continue reading
Strutting like a model through the snow covered woods…
Even though February was a dreary month, I did get out for some spectacular hikes. If I am here another winter I definitely need to figure out better footwear for the snow and ice hikes. I have loved the Brooks Cascadia trail runners that have climbed mountains and descended canyons with me, but they just don’t quite cut it in the wet snow. Things are starting to thaw here and mud season is coming. I have been forewarned that it will not be a pretty sight. Just the name “mud season” sounds bad. Continue reading
Happy and miserable at the same time…
“The truth is, I am free, I am happy, I am healthy and I am utterly miserable.”
George Bernard Shaw wrote this in a little play called Too True to be Good, and I have no trouble at all relating to it. The statement seems like a conundrum, two opposites of reality. How can I be all that great stuff and miserable at the same time? But it has been my emotional state for the last month.
Darling Lenox on a snowy night
Road trip in miniature (Part Two)
Rockport, MA
After a hearty breakfast and playing with the resident B&B dogs we walked into town and browsed in the seaside shops and contemplated the views and philosophized with an artist that thought my divine feminine girls were as “beautiful as the pom poms on my hat were happy.” It was so very quaint, quiet and cold, though the sun was shining with welcome. Continue reading
Road trip in miniature (Part One)…
Susanna, Audrey, Alicia and me
My daughters arrived by plane and the laughter, stories, and excitement have been palpable to all around. The dynamic of being with three lovely young women is so enlivening. I don’t want to go to bed, I am so awake, who wants to sleep? I don’t want to miss a moment. So I sit up and write while they sleep. Continue reading
Room-tripping
I love finding a new spot to write, to read, noticing the way light reflects off the walls from a new perspective, even if it’s just sitting on a different end of the couch, or in a new corner, a different chair, a spare bed, a pile of pillows. It helps me to create an open heart, discovering the way candle flicker affects certain rooms, the walls, my eyes, my psyche. It’s important, this change, this seeking for new inspiration, this finding when something works, when it doesn’t, this listening and really hearing, when music touches and lyrics sink into the heart. I melted into a pile of sentiment this morning when hearing a random song, How Can I Win? on my iPod shuffle from the old musical The Good bye Girl. I heard the lyrics like I had never heard them before.They were for me, today, for now, for my truth. 
How can I learn to trust enough
And to stop believing all I hear are lies?
Open my heart but just enough
To keep an open mind but never close my eyes Continue reading
Make-believe meandering at the Mount
Ms. Sparkle is back. The moon has changed or something because I’m back on track, feeling positive, happy and being productive. As I was coming out of the Shakespeare & Company office I saw three people in the lobby looking lost and curious and I asked if they needed any help. We chatted for a while, they were tourists and had been to Lenox years ago and saw the company perform when they resided at the Mount. I told them about the shows in performance now, waved my arms in direction of the theaters, mentioned that I was on my way for a walk to the Mount and fluttered a cheery good-bye. 
meanderest 