Here is a problem/puzzle I am wondering at these days. In the very early days of my work a wonderful healer, Jean Schweitzer, suggested that I needed to engage more directly with practices of reverence to keep myself clear as I touched trauma clients and witnessed absurd amounts of pain. This was very helpful. Over the years a […]
I recently found this journal page about my dear beloved & departed friend Bill Kreidler when we were roommates at a large Quaker conference. His death with AIDS in 2000 brought me the largest grief I have known. This journal was the beginning of loving him against the rush of time and illness, and feeling […]
I don’t know why I have a small excitement for shopping at thrifts stores. Maybe it’s the long shot of finding that lovely old thing that has somehow survived until now and isn’t too broken or worn for me to enjoy at some ridiculous price. As this sabbatical began I found a small stuffed Bugs Bunny positioned […]
I’ve begun to paint the interior of our house. In so many ways this is a 3 dimensional metaphor of the sabbatical itself. When I think of how wonderful it will be as it’s accomplished, I’m delighted. But when I think of moving, cleaning, repairing, organizing, sorting, learning how to fix, etc- it’s almost too much to begin. Organizing […]
So, what would be a good beginning to a sabbatical, a sabbatical for rest and to change highly productive and very unhealthy habits of over-work? Travel. So, best to marry someone from a warmer place and go home for the holidays and someone in the midst of his second masters (tuition-free) who has to bunch his vacation […]
Dear Friends, I write this while preparing for my last few trips of this year and remembering trips over the last 25 years. The numbers surprise even me – 35 states, 4 countries, 5 prisons, 11 yearly meetings, 21 years teaching at Friends General Conference Gathering and Pendle Hill, with innumerable rape survivors, people with […]
On Netflix we recently very much enjoyed- Queens – Spanish film about several gay couples getting married in Spain and their crazy families. Legacy – photos of Native Americans from 1890-1920, music background, no narration, quite lovely in a sad sweet way to see what life was like Overheard at the Putney Post Office today- […]
Through the open window the sounds of life come in all night long. There’s a freight train about 1 AM that can only be heard by keeping still and both ears unblocked by pillow and blankets. There’s a parliament of owls who appear at times during the day and are quite large. The summer […]
Here’s my mother’s tomato sauce recipe below for you gardeners with some extras on the vine. Hope this finds all very well and life good. Carmela’s Spaghetti Sauce-Peel, seed, and chop 10 large tomatoes-Cover the bottom of a stock pot with olive oil and bring to a simmer.-Peel and finely slice 3 large garlic cloves […]
Wading down the slope from our little home, the weeds and shrubs thriving in summer heat, the small paths made by deer and others, I come to the grove of 30 High Bush Blueberry plants all now taller than me. High Bush Blueberries were commercially bred here in Putney 30 years ago at the nursery […]