Ways of Seeing: Could crisis be something else?

“Happy new year!” “Happy new year!” With The Holidays soon to be past, you’ll hear it from just about everyone you meet on the street. It’s a pleasant greeting. Friendly. Well-meaning. Cheerful. But I am not cheerful. I am glum. I am grouchy. I do not think 2025 will be a happy year in our corner of the world.

I pull up to the stoplight, and there she is, standing with her cardboard sign — HOMELESS. ANYTHING HELPS – looking hopefully to each driver. It’s morning. By afternoon will she still be hopeful? Her eyes are tired, her hair unkempt, her coat too thick fo … (read more)

As you enter the Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, moving past the display of newly published books, you will encounter another collection of titles the staff has assembled. These titles relate to a rotating monthly theme — Women’s History, Horror Stories, … (read more)

I think this bit of wisdom has come to me to guide the final third of my life.

It’s a common misconception that unhoused people are not working. The truth is quite the opposite; 85% of the families served by John Graham Housing and Services have one or more working parents.

The little saucer landed gently in my side yard and the little green creature hopped out onto the lawn. 

A wise friend recently asked a question which I’ve been pondering ever since. “How do you cope,” he asked, “with the times we are living in?” 

Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.  

I traveled to Washington, D.C., last year. When I arrived with my little vacation suitcase and emerged from the Metro, I encountered a sight which took my breath away.

It’s not that Mr. Fossil Fuels hasn’t provided me with a comfortable and delightful life; he has.

We first noticed the house while driving back and forth from work in Middlebury to our rented apartment in Sudbury. Red brick, out in the country, with lots of windows facing Route 30. For sale by owner. “What a nice house,” I would say to my husband Bill … (read more)