Category: thoughts

  • the slow melt

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    Today, the sun is shining and the sky is painted with a soft blue palette that has been obscured by clouds for days. Yesterday, snow fell in large, fluffy conglomerations that stuck to surfaces and created slick sheets of ice. As I was out walking this week, noting the beauty of ice crystals on the bushes along the street, I also spotted the quickening of spring beginning to show in the branches of trees and bushes I passed. The color is returning to the newest sections of tree branches. The buds are visibly fuller. Things are moving below the surface–sap…

  • 38 Years of Roe v. Wade

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    Today marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, when women gained the right to safe, legal abortion in this country. 38 years ago this month, I was born. It has always meant a lot to me that I was born in the month that Roe v. Wade changed women’s history in the United States. Choice has been one of my fundamental issues as an activist, and it has been increasingly difficult to watch the continual attack on our hard-won right to have the freedom to choose what we do with our bodies. Many anti-choice activists portray women who have abortions…

  • LePage, Martin Luther King Day reflection

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    This morning, MPBN reported that Maine’s governor LePage asked citizens to reflect on the shootings in Arizona on MLK Day. He stated that no politician pulled the trigger, and that political rhetoric was not the cause of the shooting. He asked that Mainers reflect on how this level of anger and violence happened, and suggested that we should come together. It is fascinating to me that he can see no connection between his telling the NAACP to “kiss my butt” and the kind of violence that happened in Arizona. While those remarks may not “cause” much more than an uproar…

  • Quiet reflection/gazing forward

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    The wind roars in the trees around my house. The light is beginning to dim; its orange glaze covering only the tops of the pines and maples now. Earlier, as I sat bundled up with William Powers’ book 12×12, I found myself reflecting on this place I have begun to settle into. I know the patterns of the day now–the sun hits my chair in the living room from about 2:45-3:15pm, and then it drifts behind the neighboring buildings and fades to a golden-orange. I have come to understand the crows’ migration from north to west to east throughout the…

  • Unpacking boxes, uncovering poems

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    It has been a long time since I have written, partially due to the fact that I spent the majority of April and May figuring out, and preparing for, my recent move to Portland.  I started my new job this past week, and have been unpacking the last of my boxes in between trying to participate in life outside my house. It has been a challenging few months–in splendid, growth-full ways.  I will soon be wrapped up in figuring out the Maine Women Writers Collection, which is what brought me to Portland.  I hope this period will be inspiring, since…

  • Inspiration

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    I have been in a serious creative slump for a while now.  I try to tell myself it’s all part of my process, which it is, but that ends up feeling a little disappointing.  I want to be writing, painting, creating.  I want to be expending my creative juices on more than just tweaking my newest gluten free bread recipe find.  But instead of writing and painting, I’ve been cooking, reading, studying, dating, thinking about how I will make a living after my grant ends in August, and other worthy activities. Something shifted today.  I don’t even know what happened,…