the stretch

December 15 2025

Maybe a tiny house condo? No, it's how the Amish ship a load of ice huts.

The Penobscot Bay Singers performance of the Vivaldi Gloria in a Belfast church was lovely and satisfying and their conductor has the kind of energy that turns regional choirs into stars. Driving home in the dark was fine; the roads were clear and my car has good headlights. We shouldn't be such weiners about it.

Interesting to chat with the Piotti's at intermission. John was the person who started economic development and community building in Unity twenty years ago. He is the model I follow; from him I learned the practice of matching income streams with projects, the efficiency of a director with a governance board rather than a working board, the reality that financial investment and volunteerism go together to build community, the beauty of risk. He designed the building that houses the library.

Six of us in a room for two hours decided what our group would read in 2026. Here it is. We don't just read pretty novels, and we like diving in on current political topics.

winter

December 3 2025

The last pages of the story, The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper, went onto the frames just hours before the first snowfall. A project finished. It won't always be stories. We could use it for a One Small Step project, where two people walk the trail together and discuss OSS type questions.

Stumbled upon this Laura Nyro song while building my December mix. She wrote it in 1970, but it feels totally fitting for the time we are living in. She wrote a bunch of hit songs for other people. Joni Mitchell called Nyro her only female peer. She died in 1997.

Is snow an antidepressant? It bounces light into your eyes. It's nature's cheery way of covering up the fact that everything beautiful is dying down to zero. It creates some pretty filegree to distract us and forces us to contend with it so we don't think about ICE kidnapping people in LaFreniere Park and other sweet familiar places.

      
 
    Christmas in My Soul
            -- Laura Nyro

Come, young braves
come, young children
come to the book of love with me
Respect your brothers and your sisters
come to the book of love
I know it ain’t easy
but we’re gonna look for a better day
come, young braves
come, young children

I love my country
as it dies
In war and pain
before my eyes
I walk the streets
where disrespect has been
The sins of politics
the politics of sin
the heartlessness that darkens my soul
on Christmas

Red and silver
on the leaves
fallen white snow
rung softly through the trees
madonnas weep
for wars of hell
They blow out the candles
and haunt Noel
The missing love that rings through the world
on Christmas

black panther brothers
bound in jail
Chicago seven
and the justice scale
Homeless Indian
of Manhattan isle
all God’s sons have gone to trial
and all God’s love is out of style
on Christmas

Now the time has come to fight
laws in the book of love burn bright
people, you must win
for thee America
her dignity
for all the high court world to see
on Christmas

Christmas in my soul
Christmas in my soul
Christmas in my soul

Joy to the world