island inspirations

sunrise:  5:43

T’s commute is reduced by about 70% when she comes here to the island instead of going all the way home, so she talked us into joining her here for a couple of nights. We had the usual ambivalence about coming, born of that common human affliction best described by the physics of inertia – reluctance to move. After the inevitable rush to catch the ferry and the laden trek across the island, we basked in the satisfaction of being in one of the finest places on Earth.

I have a volunteer commitment back at home for an hour later this afternoon, so I’ll be doing a reverse commute – about an hour and a half each way. It will be good to see how that feels, since J and I are considering the prospect of living more here than at home, once there are no kids around for whom to be a home base. Of course, J can’t be on call from here, but maybe commuting on regular days will become a viable routine.

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I have just registered for a writer’s conference in October. It feels good to be taking active steps now to plunge back into writing the life story of my inspirational friend and colleague, Rachel Field, who lingers in the corners of my mind all the time.

In addition to being a poet, children’s author, novelist, and playwright, Rachel Field was an illustrator. One of her favorite forms of artwork which she used to illustrate several books was silhouettes, cut out from black paper. This island provided many of her silhouette subjects. Though the trees aren’t the very same ones that she knew back in the 1930’s, they are the descendants, and probably look very much like their forbears.

From her writings I have concluded that Rachel was often awake before dawn. Unlike the trees, the sun is unchanged, and I like to think about her watching the same bright orb as I am watching now, seeing the rosy shadows that it casts over the walls of the home that we share, feeling reassured to see it rise over the eastern horizon in celebration of a new day.