31 December

New Year’s Eve. Family Is Where You Find It.

by Jon Katz
New Year's Eve
New Year’s Eve

I kept thinking all week that there was no better way for me to kick-in the New Year than to visit Cardiac Rehab on New Year’s Eve. It was a good idea, my friends there were overjoyed to see Red (me too, to a lesser degree), and he seemed equally happy to see them.

I feel very connected to Patty and Robin and the men and women of cardiac rehabilitation, they are warriors and heroes, loving and uncomplaining. I am grateful to them for making me feel so welcome and supported through a hard time.

Many good and wonderful and strange and troubling things happened to me in 2014, but I have to say that Open Heart Surgery was perhaps the most significant event of the year in some ways, not all that important in others. In 2014, I published a book, wrote hundreds of blog posts, took thousands of photos, co-hosted two Open Houses, made several good and new friends, helped some sheep give births to some lambs, lost others, wrote a play, let go of our first Bedlam Farm, got a new camera, began the glorious and challenging process of healing.

My love for Maria and I our lives together deepened and grew in ways I did not imagine were possible, or frankly even knew existed.

Cardiac Rehab was a defining event for me, I made new friends there, took responsibility for my recovery and my life, got back in touch with my body and began treating it well and lovingly. Tomorrow, Maria and I are having New Year’s dinner at the farm of Ed and Carol Gulley, she and I became friends in Cardiac Rehab, we are bringing a pie and a tray of cookies, she is feeding her family the 35-lb turkey from their own far, Bejosh.

Can’t think of a better place. Life and circumstance did not make it possible for Maria and I to share our holidays with family, that is just the reality of it, but family comes in many different forms and in many different ways, and if you want it, you will find it, or it will find you.

The people in Cardiac Rehab become my family in more ways than one, we are the hero journey together, forever connected. I’ll write more about New Year’s tomorrow, but I wish everyone a meaningful New Year’s Eve. The older people I know keep telling me they will stay at home and “watch the ball drop,” the younger ones are going out to party.

Maria and I are going to engage on some New Year’s ritual with a couple of friends. Much love and good wishes to you tonight, and, of course, tomorrow and the year beyond.

31 December

The Art Of The Chicken Coop

by Jon Katz
The Art Of The Chicken Coop
The Art Of The Chicken Coop

I stopped by the Pompanuck Farm Institute today to pick up a pie and was much drawn to photographing their eclectic chicken coop, a former trailer parked by the Pompanuck Bakery, cozy home of many hard-working chickens who lay eggs for the Round House Cafe, among other places. Chicken coop architecture is an art form around here, a monument to ingenuity and folk art. I think I’m inspired to do a series of photos on Chicken Coop art.

31 December

The Summer Post-It Sign. Remember, Be Grateful

by Jon Katz
The Spring Post-It Sign
The Spring Post-It Sign

In the late Summerl, Maria and I came upon this home-made and very old hunting “Posted” sign, long abandoned in favor of the bright yellow plastic signs that tell hunters the property is not open for hunting or trespassing. Maria, ever the artistic soul, decided to paint the sign, she painted leaves that reflected those that were casting shadows on the sign. Now, the leaves are gone, but they are still there. Maria’s work remains, a beautiful and poignant remember of warmth and color.

The sign is still doing it’s work, reminding us of Spring to come, green things to grow, the return of color and light. Time, like change, comes fast and furious, I love the winter for many reasons, one is that it reminds of how precious the color and the light are to come, and how soon they will come back to me. And you.

I remember the day she painted it, I was recovering from my heart surgery, I was struggling and sweating to move up the hill. It is a benchmark for me now, I nod to it and salute it every day when I go steaming past it. Remember, it calls out to me, remember. Be grateful.

31 December

Red And Tyler Meeting On The Road

by Jon Katz
Red And Tyler
Red And Tyler

I called Tyler to figure out how to get him his Christmas gift – a headset for his new XBox – and he came motoring along Macmillan Road, where we walk. It was a bitterly cold morning and Tyler, as usual, had no gloves, had or jacket. Red spotted him before I did and the two had a happy reunion. Tyler gave us a birdhouse that attaches to a window. You can see the birds but they can’t see you. Being a parent and an old fart in training, I wanted to ask him where his gloves were. I didn’t.

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