We didn’t wear the right shoes. We were dressed in too many clothes for what would ensue. By the end of the first set, we had escaped from our seats and were dancing in the aisle. By the beginning of the second set, we had kicked off our shoes and were dancing up by the […]
It was a busy weekend. I attended a Dance Free, a Celtic Music Concert in downtown Floyd, worked on a poem in preparation for my Writers’ Workshop Monday evening, and put the Museletter, a local monthly publication, together. Not only did I collect submissions and cut and paste 10 pages of the Museletter together, as […]
Break into the peace within…hold your attention in silence…and in the world outside…you will ably master the ten thousand things… ~ Lao Tzu This is my Satsang Group. We meet once a week to study the 8 point meditation program as taught by Sri Eknath Eswaran. All of us mediate for at least 30 […]
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. But, if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. – George Bernard Shaw I returned […]
When my first husband and our two young children moved from Texas to Virginia to homestead nearly 20 years ago, we drove through Riner, the next town over from Floyd, took one deep whiff of the cow manure that was wafting down the road, rolled up our car windows and began to question our plans. […]
Saturday night: A wedding reception was taking place in the back of The Winter Sun building, the same building that houses The Café Del Sol, where our Spoken Word Open Mic’ was to be held. There was a belly dancing performance across the street at the Black Water Loft, and The Jacksonville Center nearby was […]
“ “Wherever you are is the entry point.” Kabir The following essay about living in Floyd is one which aired on WVTF public radio this past Friday and first appeared in my book, “Muses Like Moonlight.” It appears here in its entirety. For the radio reading, I cut paragraph 5, about Bo Lozoff, in order […]
I used to go down the mountain regularly to restock my handmade jewelry at the Roanoke Coop and Seeds of Light. My jewelry crafting days are over, but I have a new product to peddle now… Yesterday, I went down into the valley to tape a couple of essays that will hopefully eventually be aired […]
This Blue Ridge Parkway sign is more my speed and makes me feel more at home, taken on the return ride from taping my essay at the WVTF radio station. What kind of signs have you been reading lately?
You’re golden…I’m red delicious…basking in the sun’s October glory…You’re Adam…I’m Eve… ~ Colleen My husband, Joe, moved to Floyd in 1987 to be a teacher at the Blue Mountain School, the parent-run cooperative school that my sons went to. We first met in the town laundry mat. He was with a couple of BMS parents […]
It seems like we go right from butterflies to spider webs, reminding me that Halloween isn’t too far off. This is the time of year that harvested garlic wafts from my pantry, and I’m startled by the sound of nuts dropping from the paws of squirrels onto our shed’s tin roof. Garden plants are wilting […]
Lately, I’ve been spending more time with vegetables than I have with people. Braiding onions – the tangled hair on the little girls I never had… Lining up Yukon Gold potatoes – more than an Irish Catholic mother’s brood… Babying the volunteer turnip plants that have sprouted up, as though they were orphans needing adoption… […]
