Day of Rest

My grandparents, both maternal and paternal, lived in Hodgdon, Aroostook County in Northern Maine where folks farmed 6-days a week and attended the East Hodgdon Bible Church. On Sundays, it was essential chores only, and the women cooked in advance – we ate leftovers...

Growth and Judgment

We stood in the entrance hall at Monticello, my friend and I, listening to the house guide. It had been a few years since my last visit, but the artifacts and information looked and sounded familiar. After the house, we toured the gardens. Unlike my previous visits to...

Split Self

Several years ago, my mother gave me a t-shirt with a saying on it: When my gut says, “No,” my mouth says, “Sure, I’d be glad to.” Mother’s observation proved more and less useful: more because upon occasion I did have two minds, one thinking and the other speaking,...

Big Ed

The first time I met Big Ed, he was standing in the high-ceilinged front room of his home, an old plantation turned Victorian farmhouse in southern Virginia. A bear of a man, he turned my nice-to-meet-you handshake into a warm hug. Keith had told his parents that I...

Play

Last week, I brought home 5 flats of vinca major, a couple of sweet-scented viburnum shrubs, a butterfly bush, an assortment of herbs – mint, oregano, rosemary, thymes and sage – and bags of soil prep. Keith helped with the heavy lifting – two truckloads – and...