14 January

Farm bucket, in the storm

by Jon Katz
In the storm, the bucket

Four years ago, when we were rebuilding two of the barns, my friend Ben on his tractor dug up this old and battered bucket, perhaps the oldest artifact we’ve yet found on the farm. I put it on a fencpost outside of the Dairy Barn. And when it snows, it is my way of measuring the depth of the storm. I might retire this old bucket and bring it into the farmhouse, and use it as a flower pot on the screened-in-porch.

14 January

Making a turn, Route 61. Conflict and struggle. And beauty

by Jon Katz
Making a turn, Route 61

At the turn, Route 61

“Uprooting yourself from one way of life to another involves conflict and struggle. But out of the struggle comes a kind of power, and even beauty.”

– Jacob Lawrence, 1992, “The Great Migration, An American Story.”

Might trade in the truck for a smaller, greener car. Planning first phase of the Library tour which gets underway a week from Sunday. I’ll be blogging all the way. StartsĀ  next Sunday, the 23 at 2 p.m. at the Pember Library in Granville. Monday in Cobbleskill, N.Y. Tuesday, Salisbury, Conn. Wednesday, Richboro, Pa. (Bucks County), Thursday, 7 p.m., the Rochambeau Branch, Providence Public Library. Friday, Osterville, Mass., 2 p.m. Scituate, Mass., 6:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m., Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard.

At times in my life, and recently, I’ve felt like a bulb pulled out of a garden and dragged about. Leaving home is a big rip, leaving your life behind. It takes a long time to heal the tear and root again. There is conflict and struggle. And beauty.

14 January

Donkey Love. Victim Stories

by Jon Katz
Donkey Love. Victim Stories

I think a key element to a spiritual life, or a creative one, is to change the story. I often told victim stories to myself. My family, my life, my work, publishers, insurance companies. I’ve stopped telling those stories, or trying, out loud or in my head. Don’t do any good and keeps me in a place that is fearful and angry. I think of it as making room for life.

I should say in my blogging and ramblings, that I speak for myself. I don’t tell other people what do do, and I am not interested in arguing my ideas with other people or in defending them. They are just my ideas. They work for me, and for me alone. Everyone in the world has a different story, and the right to tell it in the way that works for them. I’m done with the victim stuff. Not the story I want for myself.

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