Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Last week Stefanie Hollmichel posted this lovely observation on our nurturing planet. I think when we feel loved and nurtured, we in turn find it easier to love and nurture in return. Maybe part of our troubles come from not believing in the love and nurturing abundance of our Mother Earth. We has so abused… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 25 August 2021
Lately, I've been musing on the debate between those who claim that human nature is inherently selfish and those who say that we are oriented to cooperation and care. I am beginning to think that this is artificial, that the drive to name our nature is, in fact, an urge to excuse our actions. It… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 18 August 2021
I began reading Mark Bittman’s Animal, Vegetable, Junk this week. This might be another formative book. It is trending in that direction. Bittman is tackling our recently soured relationship to food. I can say from experience that this is a daunting writing project, one that I approach obliquely in most of my writing. So I… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 11 August 2021
I spent today marinating my hands in capsaicin. I roasted, chopped and froze twenty pounds of Big Jim chiles. It took about seven hours in my rather small oven. For over an hour afterwards, my hands were searing. I don’t think my skin would have felt any worse if it was actually on fire. But… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 4 August 2021
People have always climbed mountains to gain wisdom. Perhaps it is the embodied metaphor of height, perhaps the clear, thin air. Maybe it is merely the belief that there is meaning in the arduous task itself. But I think it might also be true that mountains offer most people their only escape from others. Mountains… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 28 July 2021
It's been a rough few days. I am very happy to report that my nearly 80-year-old father is now bionic. On Friday night, he was admitted to the hospital with a heart rate that was below 50bpm and was dipping into the 20s. Tuesday, they put in a pacemaker. He is coherent again and a… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 21 July 2021
Because there isn’t an in between in this age of extremes, Vermont has gone from drought to deluge in one week. The heat has broken. Instead, there is a clammy chill that settles in the joints and swells doors well past sticky — there is much kicking involved in leaving the house. I can’t hang… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 14 July 2021
A Dual Book Review The Seed Keeper Diane Wilson Milkweed Editions, 2021 Hummingbird Salamander Jeff VanderMeer MCD/Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2021 Two recently released books are centered on how we save some portion of the world from ourselves. They take very different approaches in writing style, in setting and plot, in characterizations and development. But… Continue reading A Tale of Two Saviors
By My Solitary Hearth 