So, so many material belongings that came with me to Vermont all the way from Tennessee have waited patiently in storage for the last three years: things David and I considered nonessential when we combined two households three years ago, the year I started writing and editing professionally full time for a marketing agency. But … Continue reading Unpacking Hope: A Sunday Wish
Beauty
Garden State Highway: Beauty in Unexpected Places
If driving were a metaphor for the rancor which seems to characterize the tenor of American politics these days, it is playing out on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. Any remnant of human decency that real, face-to-face interaction demands is lost once you're behind the wheel of a car. And on this particular stretch of … Continue reading Garden State Highway: Beauty in Unexpected Places
Snowless Winter: A Walk in the Woods
The woods are lovely, dark and deep—Robert Frost Mt. Equinox looms over the Vermont Valley at 3,816 feet, the highest point of the Taconic Range, a finger of the Appalachians, and the oldest mountains in the country: Mother Myrick Mountain lies to its north, and Red Mountain to the South, the place we call home. Everywhere are … Continue reading Snowless Winter: A Walk in the Woods
All That Glitters: Making Effort Look Effortless
When I was eight I had a Russian ballet teacher who thought nothing of whapping me and my classmates in our tummies in ballet class. The message was clear, if unrefined: flatten the belly. He could have said it, of course. Despite his accent he was still understandable and I'd probably have internalized this as a verbal correction. But … Continue reading All That Glitters: Making Effort Look Effortless
It’s Christmas (Excess) Time: I Need Lettuce
I'm just gonna come out and say Christmas in this here country seems mainly about excess in just about every corner of life: lights and larger-than-life inflatable yard thingummies, unfortunate arrangements of popular Christmas carols, sad-looking folk ringing bells over red pots outside supermarkets and big box stores (do not even get me started on that … Continue reading It’s Christmas (Excess) Time: I Need Lettuce
A Reflection for Advent: There is only now. Right now.
I am terrible at watching hockey games and have difficulty focusing on important things like, say, hockey. Instead I see the diamond quilting in a bright red jacket in the bleachers in front of me. And the little sign bearing a message which seems important, but I bet is often ignored. And other non-hockey details (yes, it … Continue reading A Reflection for Advent: There is only now. Right now.
Kingdom of Wilis: Foggy Vermont Morning
Giselle is a story ballet with Romantic-era sensibilities that still somehow reaches modern audiences. In it a pretty peasant girl—Giselle—dies at the close of the first act, duped by a handsome nobleman promised to a princess, her heart too weak to withstand the loss. In the second act she is transformed into a wili, a … Continue reading Kingdom of Wilis: Foggy Vermont Morning
Taproot
Friday was one of those intoxicating Vermont spring days where you think there must be some mistake in the landscape: nature's greens can't possibly be that, well, green. But there they are. More than once in recent days I have wanted to press pause and hang on to the neons betraying new foliage for just a … Continue reading Taproot
Weekend Wandering
Now, if I can just…figure out…how to…work this…thing.
About a half inch of packed ice covered Vermont's Route 7A between Arlington and Bennington on Monday morning after a tricky storm last weekend began with snow and ended with rain. A half-hour commute to work stretched into roughly fifty minutes, not bad considering. I still do not understand winter road conditions in New England, … Continue reading Now, if I can just…figure out…how to…work this…thing.
Sycamore Stories 