I Sang This Weekend!

 I SANG THIS WEEKEND!!

What joy it was to reunite with my dear camp friends for our 105^th camp reunion.  There was a fabulous talent show on Saturday night and some of my performing arts counselors and I sang a song that we had sung a few years ago, Play!  From the musical, Finding Neverland.  It celebrates the power of play and says that “the world is so mysterious and wild, when you start to see it through the eyes of a child.”  How true.  

 

What was especially joyous for me was I allowed myself to SING!  I have been very worried about how this would go since I have lost a good amount of my hearing.  I have totally lost the hearing in one ear and have lost some in my good ear as well.  This had sent me into a very scary place earlier this summer.  The thought of losing my hearing and losing my ability to experience and enjoy music was terrifying.  Music has probably brought more joy to my life than almost anything other than my loved ones.  From playing saxophone in the junior high band to performing in musicals throughout my life and then to singing with my beloved acapella group, Custom Blend for almost 12 years, I have experienced such love and community while sharing music.   The Gospel Choir at Dartmouth brought me great joy when I was able to sing with them.  And of course, camp is a community that sings daily.  We sing at meals, we sing every morning when we gather for “assembly”.  The soundtrack of the summer binds us together in such important and special ways. 

 

So how fitting that it was at a camp event that I bravely let my voice shine.  Not only did we sing at the talent show, but we had a small and mighty choir who sang in our final Sunday assembly by the shores of Lake Morey.  You couldn’t have found a more beautiful spot to gather, reflect and to enjoy some lovely music.  I have discovered that I need to place myself strategically so my good ear is next to the accompaniment, whether that be a piano or other singers.  And while some things do not feel the same, I have a lifetime of muscle memory with my voice and my heart to inspire my singing.  

 

We’ll see how far I can take my music in the future but for now, for this weekend, I am ecstatic to have been able to sing with friends and to feel the spirit move me. 

 

I will share some of the song we sang today.

 

Another sun is rising in the sky

Another breeze is blowing down the lake

Can’t you hear the call of all that longs to be

In every single sacred breath you take.

 

Whatever makes an ordinary day

Turn fresh and new and beautiful to see

Well, it’s not the things that we’re so certain of

But chances that we take that make us free.

 

Aloha in the hills, Aloha in the skies,

Aloha in our hearts, Aloha in our eyes

And when at close of day,

That ol’ moon begins to rise,

We’ll bless this very day,

We’ll bless this day with thanks that we’re alive.

 

Written by the incomparable Biff Fink. 

 

 

 

 

What Took Me So Long?

It’s that glorious time of year when the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and I get to be at my beloved camp, Aloha Hive.  With all of the health challenges of the last two years, my participation is limited but still filled with joy and wonder.  I have spent a few mornings a week in the Arts and Crafts barn, doing art projects with campers.  These are girls, age 7-12.  They are exuberant, curious and living their best life.  How lucky they are.

 

When I am not at camp, I have become immersed in art projects at home- mostly multi-media art and collaging.  This is a new avocation for me and I am utterly hooked on it.  I find it peaceful and restorative.  It has given me a creative outlet when I am not able to be in the theatre.  

 

The question I am pondering this morning as I paint in my sketchbook is what the heck took me so long?  There were opportunities along the way.  When I was a camper in my youth,  there was a spectacular art barn with weaving, pottery, jewelry making.  You name it and it was there.  I never went to this barn. Not once.  I was too busy rehearsing for the annual summer show or playing tennis.  What a missed opportunity. 

There have been bursts of creativity along the way like the year we created el-wire costumes to bring to Burning Man.  We were a big hit as we hit the playa after dark.  This photo captures friends Cal and Tedford and sister, Amy.  

  Happily, I have found ways to be creative in my garden and in the kitchen.  And I have reveled in the music and theatre in my life.  What is so much fun about my new passion is that I have the rest of my life to get good at it.  For now, I am just playing.  I am experimenting and putting no pressure on myself to get it right. Not yet.  I did have a fleeting thought the other day of actually showing up at a craft fair someday to sell my creations.  HA!  We won’t hold our breath for that. 

 

For now, I am grateful to have discovered this new aspect of my creative life.  I am appreciative of the campers who I am spending time with this summer as they are inspiring me.  And there is a whole community of multi-media artists on Instagram- #FodderSchool who are inspiring me as well.  Check it out.  Maybe you’ll discover a new part of you too.  Jump in, the water’s warm. 

  

 

 

 

 

Such a Good Dog.. more in the Eight Legs and a Tail Series

 In my last post, I called out my traveling companion, aka the rule following, closer-upper, driver/husband.  See previous post- "My Husband is Driving me Mad".

In this post, I am going to sing the praises of my other traveling companion, my dog, Smooch.  Fair warning.  If you are not a dog lover you might as well stop reading right now, as I'm going to talk about my extraordinary dog and how much I love her. 

What is better than a traveling companion that never complains, is always up for a good meal, will take any chance to make friends with strangers and likes to end the day with a good smooch and a cuddle.  That's my girl, Smooch.  She will turn six next week and still has the very best combination of qualities in a dog- lots of playful exhuberance, and also the ability to just chill for hours, sometimes even days if the situation requires.  In addition to her many charms she has serious skills.  She is a stage manager, a camp counselor and we have almost completed her training to be a therapy dog. Heck, she's even written her own blog.

We will have driven nearly 5000 miles on this road trip. We have stayed in all manor of campgrounds.  Sometimes our sites have been spacious and sometimes, pretty darn tight.  Today, at our last stop of the trip, we are right next to a beautiful creek. Is there anything more fun for a labrador retriever than being next to a body of water with fish in it no less?  In every campsite, we have let off steam by throwing our bright orange chuck-it ball so that Smooch can do her "retriever" thing.  This will entertain her endlessly.  But today probably takes the prize for a lab friendly camp site.

 For much of our trip we were in Denver visiting our daughter and her adorable children.  Smooch got her training with the first grandchild three years ago when I drove out to Denver and stayed for a couple of months to help after Mabel was born.  She proved then, as now, that she loves babies. There is nothing that will rufffle her- not a climbing, poking, hair-pulling baby, nor a rambunctious, almost four year old who will climb on her and rough her up.  No, this dog is the model of unflappable.  In my humble opinion, all babies should grow up with a dog like this

At every turn in the trip, I have hugged her and kissed her and told her that she is "such a good dog". I have done my best to provide her with a great dog life- (remember my off-leash philosophy?)  We visit our friends in the dog park as often as we can (shout out to the Kilowatt gang!) And we have a collection of boyfriends in different places-  Finn in Center Sandwich, Ripley in Ipswich, Ollie right in Thetford and of course her relatively new cousin, Bagel, who she is quite taken with.  Smooch is a dog who loves babies, people and other dogs.  I guess she's kind of like me. The only thing she doesn't do is sing and dance, but there's always time for new tricks. We often anthropomorphize our dogs.  And why not?  We couldn't love them anymore, even if they were special people in our lives.  They are the best kind of family.  I'll take mine on a road trip to anywhere, just about any time.  

My Husband is Driving me Mad... part of the 8 legs and a Tail series

My Husband is Driving me Mad!

 

My husband is a rule-follower and a closer-upper.  I, on the other hand, am a rule-breaker and an opener-upper.  This we have learned on this trip.  What rules you might wonder?  Well, mostly the rules around pets.  There is a leash law almost everywhere.  Smoochy is a country dog who is not used to being on a leash or tied up and I like it that way.  I fundamentally believe in the maximum amount of freedom for everyone always. However, when we arrive at a campground, Michael immediately puts Smooch on a line and I pretty quickly thereafter take her off.  Granted, some campgrounds are very tight and it would feel dangerous to let her loose.  In Santa Fe, there was a healthy bunny population and Smooch is a hunter through and through so we kept her tied up there.  Last night in Tennessee, we were in a beautiful park, the Natchez Trace State Park which was nice and wide open.  We were near a lovely lake where Smooch got to swim and we were able to be a bit more relaxed on the leash rules. Yes!

 

The closer-upper vs. opener-upper issue has to do with the shades in our rig.  Remember, our Mini-Max is only 18’ long so it is tight inside. I am in favor of having the shades and the windows open as much as possible.  Michael, on the other hand, keeps closing them up.  I mean seriously, who’s going to be peeping at us through our windows?  It’s almost impossible to see in and even if you could, so what?  Maybe it’s all of the time I have spent backstage in the theatre with clothing flying in all directions and actors in various stages of dress and undress. (La Cage Aux Folles comes to mind).  Maybe it’s the skinny-dipping that I learned to love at my summer camp.  Or maybe it’s the time I have spent at Burning Man in the Black Rock City where clothing is definitely optional.  I simply don’t worry about people looking in at us.  Peep away people!

 

I guess Michael and I are a classic case of opposites attract. He, an introvert.  Me, most definitely an extrovert.  We were talking recently about how introverts have trepidation about rejoining society as the pandemic (hopefully) winds down.  Michael actually thrived during the many months of quarantine.  He loved the quiet and solitude.  He prefers to drive in silence.  If I were driving on my own on this road trip, I would be blasting show tunes, listening to NPR and audio books and podcasts.  But I appreciate that he is doing the driving so I nap a lot.  I did not thrive during quarantine.  I missed my friends terribly.  I enjoy quiet times too but also come alive from the energy of being with people.  This is why I love the theatre and my camp.  It is also why I miss my working life when I had a wonderful team with which to share my days.

It is also well-documented that I am the sunnier personality in this combo.  My cup is always half full and I always expect the best from everyone and everything.  My husband is the complete opposite.  Of course, being locked up together for over a year during the pandemic and then spending every second of every minute together on a six-week road trip is a good test for any relationship.  Fortunately, we still make each other laugh and hopefully, mostly, bring out the best in each other.  We are pretty evenly matched in Quiddler.   We both love to create things- culinary masterpieces, theatrical sets, gardens, and of course, a loving family.  We will probably avoid each other for a week or so when we return home but then we’ll start planning our next adventure.  

Eight Legs and a Tail- My Friends are Along for the Ride.

There is so much to share about our wonderful visit to Denver.  I could wax poetic for days about my grand-nuggets.  They are both delicious and it was pure joy to get to spend 3 + weeks with them and of course their parents too.  I also got to spend some precious time with my sister Amy and her wonderful husband Andy.  It was a delight to see how they are becoming full-time makers between Amy's felting creations and Andy's wood-working masterpieces.   I will write more about that leg at a later date but now we are back on the road.  I want to talk about the friends who are along for the ride.  We left our dear ones in Colorado and I wept for most of the drive to Santa Fe.  I cannot even describe how sad I feel to leave these precious children on the other side of the country.  For more on that, read my blog from a few years ago- The Dirty Secret About Grandparents. It doesn't get any easier.  But our first stop was a total blast when we had dinner with my old and dear friend Peter Zandan in Santa Fe.  My my.. the years slip away.  It felt so utterly comfortable to be with him and his friends, despite the almost 50 years (gasp) since we were in high school together.  Good grief, how is that possible? With a visit to Meow Wolf and a stop at the Agora, the shopping center that my family company owns, it was a very full trip. 

And then it was back on the road again to our next stop in Oklahoma.  We traversed a good stretch of Route 66 today.  On each leg of the journey, I have thought of my dear friends who come from this part of the country. When we traveled through Kansas on the way out, I thought of Mary Gaetz who comes from Salina.  From New Mexico today we drove into Texas and I thought about my wonderful colleagues Ally Fluke and Bryan Farrington who live in Texas. Tonight we are in Oklahoma and I’m thinking of my lovely friend Jenn Langhus.  Next we are on to Arkansas, where my talented friend Memory Apata comes from.  In Tennessee, I'll be thinking about Chris Kohn.  We will drive near Memphis where Michael designed their public library so that will be a treat for him.  And then onto North Carolina to visit with our in-laws.  What is better than in-laws that you LOVE to spend time with.  

So how lucky are we?  We are on an adventure.  We are still speaking to each other.  More on the trailer woes in another post.  We have dear friends who we visit and/or remember along the way.  And at the end of the trip, we will return to our beloved Vermont and so many friends who we can't wait to see.  For me, hugging my friends is at the top of my list.  I can't wait to return to a beautiful Vermont summer and re-connect with so many folks that I care about.  

We'll keep trying to capture the adventure.  So stay tuned.  And thanks for joining us on the journey. 

Eight Legs and a Tail- We Made It!

No Wifi!  Where's the power cord?  How about the dog food?  Where the heck did we put our toiletries?      Are those windmills? (that's an inside joke for my Man of La Mancha friends) This was the soundtrack  of the last days of the journey. 

The highlights of the last two days included an impressive  mosquito population in Indiana.  Clearly they have wintered there.  Here's hoping they don't continue the journey back to New England for the summer.  Then we drove by endless burnt fields in Kansas. This must be a Kansas thing as I've never seen a burnt field in Vermont.  My husband, who is a wealth of little known facts, regaled us with factoids on windmills, oil refineries and farming practices in the prairies of the midwest.  The windfarms are quite stunning. No tilting at windmills for this merry band.   We made a quick stop in Sharon Springs, CO for lunch on our last day.  You would have thought the year was 2019.  There was not a mask in sight!  Weird. 

Then we crossed over into Colorado.  What joy to see our two grands.  Everyone was so excited to see us.  Smooch headed right out to the backyard to hunt down the squirrels who frequent the bird feeder.  Mabel is entranced with the Trailer and is signaling that she wants to move in. We all went out for story time after supper.  It's pretty cozy.  We hope to do an overnight or two which will certainly be an adventure.  And Warren, who arrived in December, is now a big, roly poly, happy baby.  If there's anything more joyful than meeting a roly poly grand baby for the first time, I'm not sure what it is.  

So we will be here for a few weeks with a week planned at a campground in Golden, Colorado.  That will give us a chance to really try out the rig for more than a quick stop-over.  We'll see if we can't finally figure out where to put everything where we can find it. 

Thanks all for coming along on our journey.  Perhaps we'll do an update from Golden and later on our return trip home.  Happy Trails!
 

Eight Legs and A Tail- Smooch’s Tales from the Road

Look at that face!  Does that look like the face of a dog who would disappear into the forest in the night? Does that look like the face of a dog who would try to explore every culvert she comes upon?

My Mom has been doing most of the blogging but I thought it was my turn. I thought I should tell you what it’s like for me traveling on this great adventure out to Colorado. 

I have a pretty sweet set up. I have a very comfy bed in the back of the truck and I get to sleep in the big bed with my mom and dad in the trailer. That suits me just fine..

Last night  we camped at Daniel Boone State forest in Kentucky I went on a little adventure. Most of the time I’m tied up at our campsite but once in a while my mom doesn’t tie me up. I sit very innocently on the grass looking like I’m not planning to go anywhere. But last night my Mom and Dad were playing a game inside the trailer and they weren’t really watching me so I thought I would take a little walk-around. By the time they realized I wasn’t there it was dark. I could hear my dad yelling at my mom. He’s such a rule follower and I could hear my Mom calling to me with her flashlight in the dark. She sounded a little freaked out. But I came back soon enough. I also discovered so many amazing culverts. I love a culvert no matter where it is. My Mom didn’t particularly like me exploring in them.  She always says - you never know what you might find in there- especially in Kentucky. But that’s exactly why I do it. You never know what you might find. It might be something awesome.

Today we drove to Indiana. We are at the Harmonie State Park which is actually quite lovely. But here’s the most fun thing I’ve done all week. I got to swim in the Wabash River. Oh it was sweet. After each swim, I would go onto the bank and roll in the mud. That felt sooo good, like having a massage. So now we’re back at our camp- just chillin, getting ready to cook our supper.

Tomorrow I hear we’re going to really  put some miles on. We plan to have two long days on the road before we get to Denver. Boring. But when we get to Denver I get to see my Mabel and her new little brother. His name is Warren and I haven’t even met him yet but I love babies. I am also going to see Sydney, my cousin, the black lab. She and I are great friends and I’m also going to see my Aunt Ames. I’m very excited to see everybody. So that’s my report. See you on the flip side.