Northern palm

April 5, 2020February 1, 2020 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

From behind a curtain of time

March 29, 2020February 1, 2020 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Maybe she was a bowsprit. Or maybe she’s a ghost.

Put me in the top circle

March 20, 2020February 1, 2020 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Of the witch-hat houses I’ve seen to date, this comes closest to the shape I envisioned for my novel What’s Left. I like the way the top room in the tower connects to the attic rather than the master bedroom. Now, if the place were only pink to match the one in the story.

Gardeners’ mecca

March 18, 2020February 1, 2020 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

It doesn’t look like much, this former chicken barn at 688 Bellsqueeze Road up in Clinton, Maine, but it and a larger shed behind it are the operations center for Fedco Seeds, a seed and garden supply co-op geared toward the Northern New England climate. (I had to get that name in, Bellsqueeze, it’s a real, longstanding country road.) Members vouch for its high quality, low prices, and range of selections.

Well, they do call this a warehouse, even if you are welcome to stop by to browse and buy. Mostly, it’s mail order.

Inspired by a Shaker spirit

March 14, 2020December 1, 2019 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

In my novel NEARLY CANAAN, Jaya searches in her spare time for an means of personal expression that isn’t quite poetry or prose but somehow truer to her spiritual stirrings. After I finished drafting the book, I came upon an exhibit of Shaker gift drawings and writings channeled by one member of the monastic community to be presented to another. Sometimes these would also originate as song, and an unique form of musical notation also arose.

Here are a few examples.

Spirit Message from 1843 appears to be a random series of letters or perhaps a new language akin to speaking in tongues.

A Tree of Life, a central Shaker concept

At Lubec Narrows

March 1, 2020December 1, 2019 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Mulholland Point Light sits on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada. It’s seen here from downtown Lubec, Maine, at low tide in morning fog.

American yogis touring India

February 23, 2020December 1, 2019 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

As young yogis living at the Poconos Ashram in Pennsylvania, Bhakta and Jay made a pilgrimage to India in December 1973. It was Bhakta’s first trip to the source of the religious tradition and Jay’s second. Unlike many young American and European aspirants who moved to India to study with a guru, they were teaching and practicing on a rundown farm not far from New York City. Their daily encounters in the household they shared resembled much of what I describe in my novel YOGA BOOTCAMP.

I remember our teacher, an American woman, telling of her first experience with a real elephant in India. I think she would have loved having one on our farm.

Standing in our brahmacharies

February 9, 2020February 10, 2020 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

My novel YOGA BOOTCAMP describes the events of being initiated into brahmacharya and being given the two strips of cloth cut from the guru’s robe as our new underwear, supposedly to restrain our male sexual impulses. As a bit of real-life evidence, here we are at the Poconos Ashram in Pennsylvania in mid-1972. The girls found it highly amusing, especially since we were all living under celibacy.

At least I didn’t use the title of an old hymn here, “Blessed Be the Ties that Bind.”

Candy-striped landmark

January 26, 2020December 1, 2019 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

The distinctive red bands around the West Quoddy Head lighthouse are to help it stand out in the fog and snow. It’s one of 63 still working in the state of Maine and is at the easternmost point in the United States.

Gingerbread village

January 19, 2020December 1, 2019 ~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Sometime after the Twelve Days of Christmas end on January 6, we take our gingerbread decorations outdoors for the wild critters to discover and devour.

Here’s part of a village inserted into a pile of snow on a tabletop.

Looks like it belonged there all along. The squirrels, however, will soon be scampering off with the pieces.