Aran na Naomh The first contact I had with the wild islands off the coast of the British Isles was the Blasket Islands, and that was from a mile away. Although we attempted several crossings to the Great Blasket, rough seas always prevented the passage, a condition that often isolated the islanders,… Read more »
Piano Lessons
Piano Lessons I wrote this several years ago, before the passing of both of my parents, a son’s wedding, and the birth of my first grandchild. Although I have yet to find the new teacher, I still love to practice. Music with Mrs. Russell’s Notes I was six when I had my first piano lesson…. Read more »
Truchas and the Thinning of the Veil
Truchas and the Thinning of the Veil Colleague and friend Naomi Lowinsky and I have traveled to the thin, rarified air of Truchas, New Mexico, to do the work of co-editing a collection of essays. The papers come from colleagues from around the world and will be published in March 2012 by Fisher King Press:… Read more »
On Projection and Resonance
Boey modeling wire hay rack. We brag on the goats’ mischief, a dead giveaway! We still laugh about the time Boris jumped into the middle of a table to get the salsa when we were showing him off to friends while having wine and hors d’oeuvres. There’s the time we found Boey… Read more »
On Morphic Fields and Ceremonial Sites
Photograph courtesy of Lowell Downey. In a previous blog I have written about several large grafted valley oaks on the edge of a knoll just south of our property. These trees are at least 150- 200 years old. This was probably done before or around the time of the arrival of General Vallejo… Read more »
Trees: Part Two. On Love and Activism
A tree I love. Trees: Part Two. On Love and Activism Several years ago I attended an evening performance of several ecological poets and songwriters at an environmental conference in San Francisco. I remember one songwriter straight out of the tradition of 1960’s, who accompanied her song about star thistle with her guitar. The song… Read more »
Phenomenon of Portals: Malcolm Campbell’s The Sun Singer and Smoky Trudeau’s The Cabin.
Phenomenon of Portals: Malcolm Campbell’s The Sun Singer and Smoky Trudeau’s The Cabin. Many years ago I read about an illustrator who published a series of cartoons about the atomic bomb that was being developed concurrently under highly secretive conditions in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Alarmed, the FBI investigated him, deciding not to pull the… Read more »
The Chicks of ’66
“Chicks” of ’66 Graduating Class We were the largest baby boomer class to go through our school, around 60 in our high school graduating class, and most of us had been together since first grade. Many of our fathers farmed as we began first grade; very few did by the time we were… Read more »
Trees I have Known, Part One
Valley Oak by Jesse Pizzitola Jean Bolen’s book, Like a Tree: How Trees, Women, and Tree People Can Save the Planet, reminds me of the trees I have loved in my life. The first was a tall cottonwood on the west end of my parent’s property that cast shade over the yard… Read more »
Re-Storying the Psyche
Some of my storytelling relatives: My grandmother (second from the left) and her sisters, circa 1900’s Re-Storying the Psyche My early training to be an analyst began by listening to my storytelling relatives. Besides the dinner table at noon (communal meals being an important part of communal work), stories were told during Sunday afternoon visiting…. Read more »
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