Mother's Day

For years my favorite indulgence on this holiday is to spend much of the day in the garden. Digging, planting, admiring, comtemplating. Kind of like parenting. Nurturing the  blooms through the seasons, and encouraging them to take on a life of their own. Feeding the soil that will allow them to put down firm roots. Doing what you can to manage the weeds that will undoubtedly try to run interference. And realizing that time, weather, and the changing winds of the climate and zone in which you plant will ultimately have the final say. But aahh! the splendor of any season in bloom!
With that in mind, I headed out for my early morning walk today. After weeks of unbelievably early warmth bringing lilacs into bloom a good 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule, it is cool today. Maybe more contemplation that planting....
I stopped short of the end of the driveway. A bed of tulips in full bloom yesterday was shy a lot of petals and color. It was breezy, but not so much that it was likely the wind had scattererd the petals I saw strewn on the lawn and sidewalk ahead. On closer examination, I saw the severed stems, some ripped off close to the bloom, others further down.
A slow curdle, as I realized neighborhood children had likely struck. I had this happen last year - and actually caught them while walking back down the street with the dog. They - at least the 5 year old- were apologetic. As I walked down the street today......following a trail of petals to the house where I knew the likely culprits lived...I tried to rationalize and dispel my anger.  Maybe they had picked them for their mother, knowing no other way to say thank you. That thought calmed me somewhat. But step by step I saw that they had simply discarded them, petal by petal. She loves me, she loves me not?? OK, pushing down more anger and frustration - it was too early to knock on their door and ask what exactly they were thinking??? - I tried to imagine other possibilities.
I know that the mother of these children has been in and out of jail.  She is seldom and irregularly involved in their lives. They are being raised by grandparents who are at a loss to control the unbridled anger that erupts regularly and loudly through the doors and windows of their little house. I know that the most out of control of these children has sat mournfully on a stoop with a neighbor and reported that his mother hates him. All of this backstory actually helps to quell my being ticked off at the loss of a handful of tulips. Anger to sadness to hope - that whatever pleasure derived from those flowers yanked from my garden was worth it. Even, I suppose if is jealousy that I have a yard full of flowers where they have only dirt.
A wise psychologist said that the one thing that we need in this life is unconditional love. From someone. Anyone. With it we can flourish. Without it, it is almost impossible to bloom. For most of us, this comes first and foremost from our mothers.
My own mother always put her children and grandchildren first. Though she had many hardships as well as many successes in her life, she was first and foremost and always, a wonderful, loving, and supportive mother.  I picked up one of the tulip heads off the sidewalk, and brought it home to put in a little vase that I inherited from her. Thank you, Mom. And Happy Mother's Day!!

Swiftly tilting planet...

OK, what is going on here??? I was supposed to go to Virginia for a long weekend tomorrow - but they are getting so much snow, ice, and winter that I am cancelled. No sense escaping the sunny, relatively mild midcoast winter of late to fly south into winter disaster. The power company had restored almost all of the tens of thousands of customers who lost power in the midatlantic storm last weekend.......but alas they are getting freezing rain to be followed by heavy snow and high winds tonight.  Not my idea of a February break. The temperature was 20 degrees warmer up here today! What a wacky winter. Of course it will also probably give fuel to the skeptics who don't believe in global warming, and of course swell the federal government when they bring out the extra snow plows, salt, and sand in DC. Sheesh, the pinheads are going to have a hard time arguing their way out of this one!
Weathering the weather. What a complex chore. I've been trying to master the balancing act of being a socially responsible energy consumer in this my first winter in Maine. Invested heavily in added insulation and new super energy efficient windows. Not enough, I discovered, to get the maximum credit when I invoice the federal stimulus package....so I'll get to buy more insulation and windows this year! My little house has three main energy sources - an oil-fired boiler, a little vented propane heater in my mud room, and a little jotul woodstove in the kitchen. And oh yeah, a little electric space heater up in the  attic type room above the kitchen where I go sometimes to watch a movie. So, stoking fires and balancing thermostats beomes its own little dance. Add to that the opening and closing of doors to keep zones cooler or warmer, opening and closing drapes and blinds with the rising and setting sun, and just keeping track of the various sweaters and throws that you keep around to take the chill off your shoulders or legs. Jeez, winter life here is complicated!  But I guess I shouldn't mention that to my friends down south who are actually getting pummeled with snow and cold. Go figure!!!!!
Winter or not, problems are getting old, and folks are getting short - tempered and ornery. February, the longest short month of the year. I've had my three bad luck charms back to back in the last month or so, and I sure hope that trend is over. The tree falling on my house is a fading memory. My badly sprained wrist is coming along, and, well....I'm still really ticked about my car getting rear-ended and the near $7000 damage to maybe my favorite car ever. Well, it used to be.    hopefully they'll put it back "good as new" like they promised, because we all know how easy it is going to be to sell a Toyota in the near future - especially one that was just in a wreck. OK, I'm pretty much over being bummed about all of that. What are you going to do??  Stick your head in the sand?  Well, OK, we do still have a little bit of snow...
Hey, but look at the bright sides. or keep your chin up, as my mother used to say. Where else but small town and a great work team would your program director show up at the scene of your accident while you're talking to the policeman and tow truck....with a thermos of hot tea. (It was cold that day). It's so OK here I'm going to take back my two scheduled days off this week, and just go to work because it's really not that bad of an idea.  I'll take the vacation time later when I really need it. Plus, I really like all the little people I get to play with. Although they too are swimming in problems what with their parents losing jobs and houses and such. They also of course have developmental delays and disabilities, but they're still too little and cool to have an inkling of all that just yet. Life is so rich.....even when it seems to be turned upside down.
OK, it's way past my bedtime. The dog stinks to high heaven from some critter he found out in the dark of night- and I have to move as far away from him in this house as I can. Any idea what might reek like a skunk, but have some little added dank and rank twist........more like I imagine a moose might smell??? Tomorrow is another day to deal with that one.......

Making Sense of MASS

OK, admissions first. While Republicans and Tea Partiers are gloating and slapping each other's backs with an odd and inexplicable sense of victory at Scott Brown upsetting the apple cart - and somehow winning Ted Kennedy's senate seat while promising to kill health care reform - there are also millions of us groaning in pain and disbelief. We should have seen it coming. Yet, the premises propping up this new wave of whooping and hollering are so short-sighted, befuddling, and shallow, that it's truly hard to believe that so many Americans are caught up in a chant that doesn't even seem to be grounded in reality. The rhetoric is old - down with the establishment, smaller government, hands-off business, etc. etc. - but the context and ramifications are new in these undeniably scary economic times when so many people are without - jobs, insurance, homes, security, and hope. I haven't yet read one article or editorial that fully explains the current phenomenon that has us again drawing a BIGger line in the sand, where a year ago the future was full of the hope of rolling up our sleeves and tackling major change TOGETHER.

Massacusetts is of course a New England state (though marginally to those of living north of Boston...:) New England thrives on town hall, town meetings, and voicing our political opinions - largely and loudly. So loud 'new' opinons are nothing new here. The rise of a third - or fourth or fifth, party makes sense, has for a long time. Would that it would desolve the predilections for people to see things in black or white - depending on which side of the fence they wag their flags. But it seems to me that this new uprising is so amazingly full of empty rhetoric about what is wrong with so little to offer of what is supposedly a right course of action out of the mess we're in. I hear a lot of me, me, me, me. Don't tax me. Keep your government out of my buisness. Throw the politicians out until it's all new and 'Us' ( and then what?????) 

Here are a few realities I see in the current mess.

The problem is not big government. It is greed.  Big business, as well as individuals and small businesses ran themselves and consequently all of us amok through greed unparalelled in the last decade. Banks and big business were the worst offenders because they had the most power and money. And sadly the most potential to bring the whole house of cards tumbling down. Which smart economists on the right and left affirm would have happened without the bailouts and stimulus package. A lot of us with less astute grasps on macro-economics thought that maybe they should just jave been left to fail. Problem is that if we had, we all would have tumbled with them. It's just really hard to swallow now with markets and banks recovering, and the people still reeling. We are angry. Angry at the attitudes of business as usual by big businesses that are back to giving huge CEO bonuses -now that they are no longer beholden to government. There is no sign of responsibility, humility, or shame in business as usual. Big business could give a shit that the 'fix' was not big enough to include real people who are still out of work, and losing their homes, jobs, and health insurance. Hands off business, say the Rebublicans and Tea Partiers. Don't tax us on our way to the top. It's not their/our fault, or our responsibility. REALLY??????

The big businesses that control our health care system are HUGELY responsible for the mess our health care system is in. Do we really think that it is not OUR - that is our as in our country, our government, our rules and regulations about how we are allowed to conduct business in this country - responsibility to rein in such reckless and irresponsible GREEDY for profit motives that exclude millions of people from basic healthcare? There is no self-regulation of insurance compaines or pharmaceutical companies that drive medical practices in this country, and drive up cost. They are PROFIT driven, not morally following the best health interests of those to whom they sell their products!!!!  In fact, we are the only country in the developed world that allows a profit driven system. It is widely known that we spend more for less health  in this country than any other developed nation in the world. And in the process, we have a system that excludes millions of people all together. It is simply unconscionable that we do not do something to reform our health care system now. This is not just an economic issue, but a humanitarian issue.  But apparently being human is not a priority of those who feel we should keep OUR government out of OUR business.

Fortunately, I hope, there are a lot of educated people who understand the perils our health care system is in. And among the most knowledgeable are doctors and health care providers, who are and must become increasingly more vocal about the need to reform NOW. While the AMA, which has come out in support of universal health care, has provided mostly lip service and their own contingencies for true reform. There are increasingly more doctors who are rallying behind real need for reform. Of course there are some doctors who went to med school for promise of finanical gain, and who enjoy their partnerships with high profit pharmaceutical and medical device companies. But I have to believe that the vast majority who took their oaths to do no harm are strongly in favor of both major health care reform and universal health coverage. It's not like they relish having or denying patients who vitally need hospitals and treatments and are denied access because they have no insurance - and this happens routinely EVERY DAY. I truly hope that they are the next loud voice that enters this insanely gridlocked fight for much needed health care reform.

Greed and self-righteousness are not the sole property of big business. There are plenty of individuals who truly believe that they/we don't need governing, and that freedom to exclude themselves from the public good is their right. Good is just something that's supposed to happen if they're just allowed to get rich, or something like that. They tend to be people who work personally for the American dream of getting ahead - that is richer - and even that their access to wealth and success is God-given. While  some work in helping professions, they are more likely to work for the corporate system, or the sale of goods and services for profit rather than the providing of human services. Which is why workers in education, health care, services for the disabled and disadvantaged, community organizers, etc. tend to be more 'liberal'  They are rooted in a broader cross-section of America, and fully understand that the down and out in this country are not necessarily there by their own doing, and that their numbers are growing rapidly. If the work of your hands and lives is geared primarily toward personal gain, maybe even including over borrowing and spending on your own pleasure and stockpiling of things, than perhaps you too are part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

This high road to personal gain and profit driven economy has not left us in a very pretty place at the beginning of this 21st century. We don't seem to have very long memories, or to learn from our mistakes. Nor do we seem to have much compassion for the real victims of these hard times. Ted Kennedy never lost sight of his fight for the dignity of those less fortunate or for our basic responsibility to protect those who are crushed by the mad scramble to the top. He dedicated his life work to economic and social reform. For those of us who believe strongly in the right of every American to basic health care, it was painful to see his seat filled with a rookie who would auction off his own daughters while claiming his victory of crushing health care reform. In the end, he's just a junior senator with a lot to learn. The line in the sand shifted what some feel is a critical inch. Maybe that was a good thing, and the line itself will become more blurry. There are still veterans of the political system who are hopefully more inclined to TRY to work together to solve the immense problems that face us today as a nation. Including two female Republican senators from Maine. Obama perhaps unerestimated the depth of the division, and overestimated the potential of Congress to move past political gridlock to see and solve the immense problems that we face. Would that he will find the strength of an FDR or John Kennedy when he stood up to the steel industry, in his upcoming state of the union.

I truly hope that we are not headed toward the double dip recession - and the next truly Great Depression - which is predicted by many. The Conservtive Coalition is already galvanizing to turn a blind eye to the realities that a system of greed has created, and to celebrate the mantras of laissez faire, smaller government, and to shirk the public responsibility for the casualties along the way. Confusion is rampant, which is I suppose not all that surprising when there are millions of Americans who tune in to only Fox news for their guidance, and actually believe that they find balanced and unbiased reporting there.

Undoubtedly the future will be written. The current state of the union is not the product of one year of this administration, but the cumulative devil takes all run of unprecedented greed in the last decade. Hopefully we can find the words and wisdom of cooperative solution seeking in this undeniable mess we're in. Erasing the lines in the sand would be a good start. Putting down our finger points, and rolling up our collective sleeves would be a good second. But stemming the flow of rampant greed and profit, while lending a hand to the trampled in its wake, is a public responsibility that we must undertake.

I am just one midlife woman playing my harp here. I also think, vote, and work hard to minimize the effects of bad shakes on our most vulnerable little children who will inherit the world we hand them. In 2008, as this economic crisis was just starting to unfold, approximately 20 % of our young children lived in official poverty, and another 20% in low income families. Imagine where those numbers are now - or where they are headed. And the ramifications as we simultaenously are faced with major cuts to human services. I look for strength and guidance in a collective human decency, which I hope exists, and leaders that are not only intelligent but have strong hearts and constitutions, and the humble wisdom, yet strength, to serve a higher public good. I think that we have elected a president who has the potential to lead us through the maze of these very troubled times. I hope that we will listen carefully, and join in the hard work of getting US out of the mess that WE created.

Out with the Old......

And then there was a new decade to explore. Hello 2010.
2009 went out with a bang. In the midst of a quiet and wondrous Christmas week, we were woken in the middle of the night by a thunderous crash that shook the house to the foundation. The dog ran from the mud room for safety and assurance. Corrina paused mid-phrase in her book. And I sat bolt upright in bed. "What the hell was that???!!??" Donning my slippers and robe and propping open my eyelids on instant alert channel. The winter wind was raging as I peeked out the bathroom window. A few branches on the roof and deck. Then I went downstairs and drew the blinds on the other side of the house - a holy shit moment. My north windows were completely obscurred by TREE. Up in your face scratching at your new windows tree. OK, well that explains things, and clarifies the next course of action - to assess the damage. I'm just not that fond of dressing warmly and slipping into the winter night, but the thought of gaping roof and snow falling on our heads spurred me onward. What presented on the outside was truly amazing. A 60 foot tree had fallen smack dab into the 10 foot gap between my house and my nighbors garage, wedging itself ino all available spaces. Giving a glancing blow to both structures to be sure, but inflicting what appeared to be relatively minor damage. Punctured fascia board, crumpled gutter, some wayward shingles, and sheared siding. My biggest fear was that the tree had buried my propane tank up next to the house. Sniff, sniff, sniff. Just cold winter air blowing about 35 miles an hour. Back inside, we pondered the possibilities, and continued to check our scents. What's that?.......no just dog gas. After a couple hours of hyper alert, and feeling confident that we were not in immediate danger, we went to bed. The reality in daylight was no less impressive. And the overwhelming response was, "How can you be so lucky???"
Now I suppose that is a matter of perspective. A tree falls in the forest, and noone is there to hear it....does it make a sound?   But a tree falling on your house in the middle of the night does make a sound - the reality of which is somewhat immediately followed by a pillow over the head sort of loud groan. A much more deflating sort of "Ooohhh, ssssshhhiiitttttt......" But to then assess the situation and feel instantly thankful, blessed, and lucky......... well, I guess that's just one of those emotional roller coaster rides of life that keep you hopping.  The roofer, tree man, neighbor, and insurance assessors confirmed the good luck in the ensuing hours. Of course it wasn't their house.......but still. Another nor'easter was on the way, so in true Maine let's get it done fashion, the chain saws fired up, truckloads of brush were hauled away, and now only a few piles of next year's firewood are stacked as a reminder of our good fortune. The snow is finally falling on the coast of Maine, and with luck.......depending on how you look at it.....we'll have some inches before the weekend is over. 
I really would like to try out my new snowshoes, and it's been really odd to have moved all this way north and to have been just about the only corner of the country that didn't have a very white Christmas this year.
So the champagne was good last night, and I managed to wake up from my nap on the couch a little before the new year rang in.
From good health, a happy tho slightly bruised home, and snowy New Year's Day, I wish each and all a truly Happy New Year.

If on a winter's night....

A few weeks or so ago I was sitting between my Celestion speakers, recovering from the swine flu, and otherwise doing nothing but listening to the divine sounds of Sting and friends. Some sounds are so pure and haunting that they are able to stop us in our tracks. How fragile we are. Sting talks about winter in a primal soul searching way. It is his favorite season. A time for true reflection and contemplation. I searched his nowabouts on the internet, and discovered he was playing a winter concert at Cathederal Church of St John the Divnine in NYC in a few days. If it hadn't been sold out, and I was not still sick, I likely might have jumped in my car and driven the 8 hours to light a candle in that incredible setting. Instead, I ordered the CD on Amazon. It arrived in the middle of a blizzard. And with a slice of solstice cake and cup of jingle java from my favorite coffee shop, I again settled between the speakers to revel in the soul searching of winter, and the setting sun, howling wind, and early dark of late afternoon.
Now it is the morning of Christmas Eve.The shortest day - and longest night - have come and gone. My new Maine house is full of Christmas and the scent of cinnamon and oranges and balsam. Corrina arrived from New York last night, along with her new companion Alvy the cat.  Winter in Maine. Our new snow shoes hang ready in the mud room - near the piles of mittens, hats, scarves, boots, and gloves. I am luxuriating in a string of days off with nothing to do but rest, eat well, enjoy good company, play games, read books, make music........   Truly reveling in a slower pace. Sliding into the holidays was somehow markedly different this year. Two weeks ago I was done shopping and my presents were wrapped. The tree was less hassel, tho no less beautiful in this northern home. I opted to forego baking and making candy until last night...and will only make what feels fun and enticing while Corrina is here.
Oddly, the year that I move to Maine, Virginia has gotten walloped with snow, and will have a far whiter Christmas than my corner of Maine. Oh we do have a few inches. The inland lakes are mostly frozen, and the first over-eager ice boater has crashed through the ice and drowned. But the sun will shine today and tomorrow, the temperatures rising above freezing. My new snow shoes will have to wait.
Wait. Wonder. Walk. Wooly. Winter.
Candlelight. It seems to capture all of the calming and contemplative grace of winter. We light candles for those in harm's way. We light candles to measure our sense of awe and wonder. Because it is simple and beautiful and warm. Because the face across the table glows in it's aura. Because our food tastes better - and more celebratory. Our traditions, new and old, circle us in a sense of time of wondering and caring.......for others, for the simple things that sustain us, for sharing the awe and wonder of family, old friends, and new years. The inward and spiritual filling of our souls and taking time to know ourselves and others - and to grow within as we wait for the rejuvenating winds of spring. 
Light a candle...........and Celebrate!

Against the current

AS THE CROW FLIES....OR NOT...
About 14 years ago I met a remarkable man in Bisbee Arizona. Jim Babcock, a multi-dimensional, creative, brilliant, and somewhat manic eccentric. He was a geologist, artist, writer, landscaper, and when I met him, proprietor of a truly eclectic bed and breakfast. In my few encounters with him on visits there, he said a lot of thought provoking things. Kind of scared the crap out of my young daughter on one visit when he started ranting a bit of existential stuff about her past and future incarnations. Later - years later - she remembered it clearly and admitted that it somehow did make a lot of sense. Anyway, the one thing that he said that always stood out the most to me was this. If you watch the way that all the birds are flying, and you head in the other direction, you'll never have any competition. I've thought about that often in a lot of contexts over the years, and it still rings loud for me.
Jim was one of a kind, and I'm sure there are lots of stories still circulating about him out there. He was, I suppose, a troubled soul, who lived life very large - when it wasn't consuming him. In very odd ways I've never quite understood, he reminded me a lot of my own father, who was almost exactly the same age. I expect they would have never cared for each other had they actually met in Cochise County, where they each spent much of their last years. But they both lived lives very much against the current, and each in their own way found unique reward far from the main stream.
I don't consider myself bold or brazen or driven enough to compare to Jim or my father. But something gleaned from them was the courage or at least curiosity to swim against the current. In a standardized and evermore globalized world, we are expected to funciton like lemmings. Go to school, get a job, get married, raise a family, invest in the stock market or retirement fund, buy insurance, join a church and health club....... and hope that it all works out. Then, when the shit hits the fan for the whole kit and kaboodle....like it has now in these economic times...I guess there's comfort in knowing that everyone is in the same boat. Of course the sad thing is that there are a lot of folks now feeling like they're going down with that boat. Not just the unemployed (more than 10% of us!) but also the overextended, the disenfranchised who can't buy insurance even if they want to, the health fanatics whose knees are caving underneath them. And unfortunately, in my line of work, we see the aftereffects like tidal waves sweeping through the little children who have no clue as to why life is so topsy-turvy.
I'm not sure there's anythng close to sense or comfort in bucking the system or status quo. Who moves to Maine when it's time to think about easing up and retiring? I can't tell you how many people raised their eyebrows at my decision, and questioned my recollection of the meaning of the word "winter." Who buys a house where taxes are some of the highest in the nation, and the economy riddled with some of the toughest problems out there? Hmmmmm, all good points....and ones I'm pretty sure I was well apprised of when I made my move. But there is something here - beyond long cold winters and high taxes, that is hard to pinpoint. Incredible beauty, for sure. Also, a spirit of deep-rooted survival and independence. A tendency to create, and to conquer challenges in unique ways. To commune, commiserate, question anyone's authority, and stubbornly refuse to conform to someone else's idea of what we should be.  Where there are WalMarts and McDonalds up here (few and far in between) there are a LOT of people apologizing and wishing that they'd never let that happen. There are more people here making lives in fully individualistic ways than anywhere else I've ever been.

I hope I can live up to my own expectations of charting new courses here. Of simplifying life, and living at a pace that allows time to really clebrate and enjoy the company of amazing fellow Mainers and the incredible beauty here. Of finding my own underlying creative winds and following their lead. Ah-yup. The snow birds are all heading south, and I am truly pleased to be settling in to a quieter pace and place where I believe I really can hear myself think better. There is one truly Maine cartoon that always makes me chuckle. A Mainer is sitting on the porch and a car with out of state plates pulls up, rolls down the window, and someone leans out and says, "Does it matter if I take route 1 or route 90 to Camden?" The guy on the porch keeps rocking and says, "Don't matter to me one way or t'other."  If that makes no sense to you, Maine is probably not your kind of place. If it made you laugh out loud, you probably already live here. If it made you chuckle, you might want to come take a closer look.

Jet Setting

900 MILES
This past weekend, for the first time, I flew to Virginia as a visitor, and back home to Maine. It was a little strange revisiting the house I had lived in for almost 20 years, now a rental, to do yard maintenance. I keep a little apartment in the basement there, but opted to stay with my dear friend Pam, as the time was short, and given the new arrangement, felt more natural.

Both routes south and north were unbelievably swift and uncomplicated. Heading to Charlottesville, after my brief layover in NYC, I got on the plane with two prominent film critics - also headed to the Virginia Film festival. I felt a little smug in their company, and eavesdropped on their commentary about upcoming films and discussions. With such short hours for catching up to friends and my house there, I limited myself to a mere 3 films. One was remarkable - Mother and Child, a new thought provoking adventure by Rodrigo Garcia, son of the infamous Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Rodrigo is known for writing roles for women that stars will play for little promise of financial reward, and this was another in that lane. The performances were stellar, especially that of Annette Benning. I urge you to see it where you can when it is eventually released in May of 2010. You can check it out before then on imdb.

I wish I had photos to share from the flight back home to Maine. The day was splendid, and the views incredible. Lifting above the Blue Ridge in the early November morning, the hills were peppered with the late fall colors and pink glow over the blue mountains. Still the light haze that renders the subtle hues of Virginia. High above Long island sound, I traced the shoreline to memory to later research the dot that I imagined to be Harrison and home of my daughter, and was delighted that I was fairly close in my intuitive guess. Flying into Portland, across the Casco Bay and islands gave a feeling of peace and comfort, despite the noticeable decrease in fall color from just a few days ago. In a mere 4 hours and a few minutes I had jumped from my Virginia home to Maine. The easy 90 minute drive up the glorious coast gave me time to relish both the ease of transitions and the beauty of the coastline of which I expect I will never tire. Brunswick, Bath, Wiscasset, Waldoboro, Thomaston, Rockland. Turf and bays that are etching their familiarity slowly into my soul. It helped of course, that the Indian summer had followed me northward, and it was approaching 60 degrees.
I arrived at work midday Monday, a little late for my weekly provider meeting. Relaxed, rejuvenated, and marveling a bit at the ease of transitions between here and there. Checking in at home a few hours later, all was well with dog and boiler. Having neighbors to keep an eye on things is huge, and hugely appreciated.

Now it is another Friday, and I am looking at the luxury of my three day weekend at home. I will rake the last of the leaves, and do some bagging and 'banking' - stacking them tight against the north and west foundation walls to add a little extra insulation against the winter cold and winds. Arrange the last of my firewood, and buy a couple more tarps to keep it relatively dry.  I brought back my favorite cookie sheets that I had forgotten in the move northward. My little Jotul is ready to light. I am excited about the thoughts of baking and decorating for the holiday season ahead, and very happy to be at home in Maine. I am warmed by the reconnections with dear friends in Virginia, and the ease of jetting down to see them. I expect that my flow of visitors will trickle to a halt in the winter months ahead, and give me time to wallow in homefires, projects, and growing my community here. The quiet and calm beauty of Maine covered with snow. I am comforted with knowing how easy it is to get on a plane and change climates when the need arises, and thinking a little about my February escape. But more overwhelmingly at the moment, I am loving the settling feeling of hunkering down for the winter. Stop by for cookies and tea or a game of Scrabble if you're inclined.