Searching for Spring on the Mesa
Too much dust and too little rain make Spring hard to find in the high desert. Or maybe it is my unpracticed eye. I have to look hard to find the rebirth here. Long walks on the mesa over time provide pleasure and surprise. And maybe I am learning the seasons. Still one has to be observant to find even the tiniest hope.Desert gifts can be guarded with thorns,the beauty may be subtle.Or it might be a burst of joy when least expected.On the mesa it rains in Spring but it always [...]
Stuff I collect: Bells
Not just any bells...animal bells, old bells, bells with a certain patina, a history, a story.Check out this yak bell a friend trekked all the way home from Nepal for me...friends know what friends like.It hangs neatly next to my sheep bell, the one I stuffed in my luggage when I was in Portugal. I am still looking for a sheep bell here in Chinle. But for now I have this cow bell. A treasured find at the local swap meet.Each one has a distinct sound and shape and size.Just imagine what I [...]
AFS: Touch a Life, Connect with the World
Thea was a foreign exchange student from Norway. She lived with us for a year, ten years ago. She shared her culture, language and poetry, literature and food. Her smile, her successes and fears, her strength and her good humor, her enthusiasm for life. For a year she was part of our family, sister, daughter and friend.In a recent note she wrote:Right now I am sitting in a brownstone building in Brooklyn, eating a granola bar and drinking a cup of coffee. I arrived yesterday and I am staying in NYC until the 28th [...]
Where I Was 30 Years Ago Part Two: A Poem in Memory
In my last post I noted that I was in the Peace Corps in Malawi 30 years ago. I was a teacher. Recently a student found me on the Internet and sent me a letter. I included excerpts from that letter. Since then I have had a few more emails from my student. He listed ten students from my class who have died of aids since I was last in Malawi.When we were there Steve would come home from the operating room covered in blood to his underwear. It ran off his body [...]
Where I Was 30 Years Ago: PC Malawi
To begin with 30 years ago I was younger...a lot younger. I was in the PC in Malawi with my doctor husband and first one child(Peter who came with us) and later two children(Christopher was born there.I was a teacher in Nasanje and taught English Literature and English as a second language. I taught about 40 students who shared desks. When it rained on the tin roof, it leaked and the pounding was so loud that the students put their heads down and I had to stop teaching.I was required to teach [...]
Signs of Spring in Chinle
Snow melts in the mountains, water runs in the canyon.Greening mesa, birdsong and nest building (even though my phone still says 10 degrees in the AM). Grass turns green. One tiny patch in our back yard has taken hours of coaxing and why grass in the desert you ask? Anything green brings joy.Winds have started with a vengeance which means dust everywhere. It piles up on window sills and this is just the beginning. This will last until nearly autumn. Gusts up to 70MPH.Steve attacks red silt on the patio with equal vegeance [...]