Staff Blog
Faith in Vermont: Once More to the Water
“It only gets really hot in Vermont for about one week every summer.”
That’s what we tell ourselves here in order to make ourselves feel better about Vermont’s widespread lack of central air conditioning.
It’s...
Faith in Vermont: In Which I Butcher Some Chickens
“So, what does one wear to butcher chickens?” I asked my friend Courtney over the phone. We were confirming our plans for the following night; I was focusing on the priorities. (The answer, in case you were wondering, is: anything...
Faith in Vermont: Marriage, Thirteen Years Later
July 20, 2002, 8 AM
I spent the night with my mother at The Colony Club on Park Avenue in New York City, where the wedding reception will take place.
I didn’t sleep much; I was too excited. Instead, I finished reading The Things They...
Poem: Celebrating 100 Years of Middlebury Language Schools
Celebrating 100 Years of Middlebury Language Schools
Can I say a word I haven’t said before,
speak in a field’s blossoming tongue?
Pledge to keep my pledge, speak
...
Faith in Vermont: A Midsummer Sampler (With Kids)
“I am so bored. I’m bored to death!” moans my 7-year-old daughter.
We are three weeks into summer vacation. For one of those weeks, she attended a day camp at Lake Dunmore. For two and a half of those weeks, her...
Faith in Vermont: Changing My Mind
It can be humbling to write a bi-weekly newspaper column: Few things more effectively highlight one’s capacity for change – or inconsistency, denial, and flip-flopping. I’m not convinced that this is a bad thing; isn...
Faith in Vermont: The Moms Are All Right
This column will be published immediately following the last day of Addison County’s 2014-15 school year.
But I’m not going to write about the complex bundle of emotions that summer vacation inspires in parents: the relief of no...
Faith in Vermont: Take It Easy
My daughter stepped off of the school bus the other day, handed me her heavy backpack, and – as is her custom – made her way slowly up towards our house by walking on top of the rock wall alongside the driveway. As she neared her...
Faith in Vermont: Lessons from the Garden
The older I get, the more I love gardening.
I have commented previously in this column about my ambivalence towards gardening -- the result of a childhood spent watching my parents slave away each weekend in their garden...
Faith in Vermont: American Girl Dolls and the Decline of Civilization
Grandparents get to do whatever they want -- that's my philosophy.
It wasn't always; like most first-time parents, I tended to be overly controlling when it came to toys, food, and naps. But my children are blessed with four...