In my novel What’s Left, Cassia has every reason to wonder. What does it mean to be Greek-American?
How does your own family identity shape your life?
~*~
Just what does that identity mean?
Author: Jnana Hodson
In downsizing to a remote fishing village in Downeast Maine, this eclectic writer feels everything's coming together.
Kinisi 53
spirited / noisy / disturbed
Orthodox Easter
Second person, singular, in the end
In poems spit out from the heart and gut, sometimes the “you” is God!
Looking both ways
rather usually either/or aesthetic I find pleasing when it cloisters balance, order, tasteful in adornments and stylish you don’t see too many up this way in such possessions as clothing, what could be a trick question but instead they detest news briefs intruding on soap operas especially since a house comprises much more than domesticity
Ten dream moves in our new project
As the inspector said, the house has good bones. And as others have confirmed, the place feels good.
If I were living here solo, it would be too big for my needs. The second-floor could be reserved essentially for guests in season.
For two of us, both working from home, that second-floor would definitely come into play, and adding a daughter and son-in-law to the mix, even as frequent visitors, makes for yet one more set of calculations.
So here’s what we’re looking at on the horizon:
- Raise the roof into extended dormers across the second floor, plus an addition over the mudroom.
- Get heat for the second floor.
- Grade and better define the parking area.
- Install a wood stove or fireplace in the main parlor.
- Redo the old bathroom, moving doorway to the hallway rather than the dining room.
- Add an upstairs bathroom.
- Add small butler pantry between kitchen and dining room and move washer-dryer to second floor.
- Remove the ramp to the back door and move back entrance in the mudroom.
- Add a deck – we do miss the Smoking Garden – and implement a garden design – one that’s smaller but deer-proof.
- Enlarge the front porch.
It sounds like a lot, but we’re finding it exciting. We did just as much in Dover, only piecemeal.
A part of the violin is named after this
We could throw in a few exotic festivals to liven things up
One of my favorite lines I cut out of my novel What’s Left, was this quip:
I want some backbone in my religion. You can’t sit without it.
But as I looked at the flow of the story, I just couldn’t find a good place to develop some pushback from Cassia in her teens, where it would have been most appropriate.
Still, if you know anything about the practice of meditation itself — often called sitting — you just might enjoy the double-meaning.
Another way I thought of raising more color regarding their Buddhist identity was through rounds of Tibetan holidays. The names and special touches alone can be charming: New Year’s archery; incense to drive away evil ghosts; Sho Dun “yogurt festival”; the Meeting of the Eight Guardians (stay inside to avoid evil outdoors); Golden Star to wash away greed, passion, jealousy and to abandon ego; the washing festival. Think of the picnics and ritual bathing.
I might have also built something on the Eight Auspicious Symbols, including conch shell, parasol (crown), victory banner, golden fish, or treasure vase. The Endless Knot is the name of a chapter, though.
Beyond that, I kept looking for synonyms for Buddha or Buddhism. One of my favorites, which I didn’t use, is the hanging cliff-side wonders. Some of those monasteries are no place for anyone with a fear of heights!
~*~
Many traditions have special dishes for specific holidays — secular or religious. Sometimes it’s even a family thing, rather than something everyone does.
What’s your favorite “holiday food”?
~*~
A bird’s-eye view from the front
In sharp contrast
I recall two poet-friends:
One a public high school teacher, quite prolific as both excellent poet and gallery-exhibited photographer, did most of his work during the busy school year rather than the summer; he could never quite figure out why the pattern was exactly opposite of what people would expect.
The other, having all the time in the world to write, could produce only disconnected flashes – nothing sustained or full but wild all the same.
They were buddies.
Jnana's Red Barn 