Full Red Wolf Moon Eclipse and Ragdale

Great photos by my friend Jerome Boom. I knew I could rely on him to watch the eclipse for me. 

Turns out I was “serving time” for my residency at Ragdale Artists' Community located on the former country estate of architect Howard Van Doren Shaw in Lake Forest many years ago (2010) when the Full Red Wolf Moon occurred. 

I wrote a poem about it:

The Museum of Michael’s Mind

Poetry: Wolf Moon

As I lie in bed tossing and turning

The ideas of the day, 

The moon floods my pillow,

And sleep evades me.  

Largest of the year and full,

The cheese man smiles,

On his bronco, the cowboy bucks,

A young girl’s hair flows.

In my Ragdale bedroom,

A round window hole is punched through the wall.

Barnhouse red on the outside,

Playhouse blue inside.

The double circle of glass inserted

Is slightly cracked, although not broken,

And even with its center gently misted,

The window to my world is not clouded.

The walls and floors pulse with the creativity,

Of the artists who have worked here before,

And the Spirits and Family of the Past

Take delight in what we now do.

I process the day and its events unfolded,

Set goals and desires for tomorrow.

I wonder at the wonder of being here,

And turn over to avoid Moon Burn.

Ragdale Barn Play House Bedroom Window by day

The Barn at Ragdale

Jean and Gregory: A Heavenly Conversation

This was shared with me by my dear friend Susan Page Tillett whom I first met during my time at the Ragdale Artist Residency Program in Lake Forest in 2010. At the time she was the executive director and "guardian of the muse" at Ragdale, her mother was living with Alzheimer's, she was supportive of me and my journey with Gregory and Alzheimer's, and it turned out we had many mutual close friends.

CONVERSATION BETWEEN JEAN PAGE AND GREG MAIRE, OCTOBER 4, 2015

NOTE:  Today is the anniversary of my mother’s death five years ago, as well as the day of Greg’s passing, also of pneumonia, also after years of Alzheimer’s.  The one has made the other very poignant. 

They meet in Heaven.  I see my mother sitting with her feet up on her Eames chair, in her house on P Street in Washington DC.  Gregory comes to her front door.  He is so tall that he needs to bend slightly to cross the threshold.

J:  There you are.  I’ve been waiting for you!  Can I fix you a drink?

G:  I would enjoy a glass of wine red wine.  It has been a long time since anyone has offered me one.

J:  Well, you finally decided to join us here in Heaven.  What do you think?

G:  It looks more like Earth than I thought it would.  I was expecting more Pearly Gates and clouds.

J:  It looks like that sometimes, but sometimes it just looks like a glass of wine between old friends on a Sunday evening…and I feel we are old friends.  We have my daughter Susie in common.

G:  Yes, really she knew Michael better than me, but I saw her warmth and her beauty at Ragdale.   She also extended great kindness to me, being comfortable going out for dinner with me when I couldn’t remember what a fork was for or how to eat my salad.   She was unrattled by that.

J:  You have me to thank for that.  I gave her a lot of experience watching Alzheimer’s patients.

G:  Yes, I know she felt the pain of your long stay very much. 

J:  She has a tender heart, my girl, which means that it is frequently broken, but it makes her who she is.

G:  It makes her a great woman, Jean.  I am not sure you always saw that in her.  She loved so many people at Ragdale.  She made that a welcoming home of creativity and possibility.  She held the heart of that place, welcoming each person.  I know that Michael talked about how kind she was to him.

J:  Yes, I think it is true in many ways that I didn’t see her great compassion and kindness.  She didn’t need me to as much as her sisters did.  Despite her father’s wounding of her, she was always a pretty healthy little chicken, but I’m glad to hear it from you.  It makes me proud as a mother and I do watch her and I did come to greet her when she came to Heaven.  I was in her vanguard, but perhaps its always been a bit more about me than her.  We are who we are Gregory…you and Michael, Susie and me, we are all as we are.

G:  So, what will I do here in Heaven, Jean?

J:  Well, you will see, it is very much as on Earth.  You do what you do, you love what you love, but we let go of so much striving.  As an architect, I know you love beauty.  You will find great beauty here and harmony and wholeness and peace.  I think that peace has been the greatest gift to me here.

G:  I don’t know what that will look like for me.  I know that I will want to spend a lot of time watching Michael and seeing how he does.

J:  Yes, you will at first.  You will want to see how he memorializes you and how he gets on with life.  The ties do lessen, as they must, in order for them to go on and us to be fully here.  Just like on Earth it all takes time but it all works out, so just give it time.

G:  OK, I can do that.

J:  You know there are wonderful books to read here and people to talk to.  I mean everybody who is anybody who has died is here and you can talk to them.  It is better than a book club or the Sunday paper to encounter them directly!  And we have things that we work on, things we didn’t get right in the last life, or we didn’t get finished.

G:  What are you working on Jean?

J:  I had a lot of issues with my parents.  I loved my father and I lost him.  I never forgave my mother for his death, so I’ve had to learn to see them in three dimensions rather than two, to see my father’s foibles and my mother’s gifts and to review my own foibles as a mother.  To watch my children and my grandchildren grow.

G:  Thank you for welcoming me this Sunday evening, Jean.  I appreciate it very much. 

"Broken for You" By: Stephanie Kallos

I had the honor of spending some time with Stephanie Kallos while she and I were in residency at The Ragdale Foundation: An Artists Community in Lake Forest, Il. 

REVIEW: While Margaret, Gus, Wanda, Troy, Susan, Bruce, M.J., and Irma live their lives on a day to day basis you will discover that you have  moved in with them, are celebrating their joys, and suffering their sorrows. Through themes of love, family, and friendship; through bowling allies, the theater world, and art galleries; through Manhattan, Seattle,  and the holocaust; you will find that Broken for You is more WHOLE than it is BROKEN! Stephanie Kallos is a master with words, ideas, thoughts, and emotions. Read her. Love her.

I had the honor of spending some time with Stephanie Kallos while she and I were in residency at The Ragdale Foundation: An Artists Community in Lake Forest, Il.

Dear Stephanie,

Just finished the 500 plus pages of Sing Them Home. I relished every night before bedtime that I could spend with the folks of Emlyn Springs. The more time I spent with Larkin, Gaelen, and Bonnie the more I got to like them. Watching them develop and deal with change was great. Eli and Vinny were good too. Aren't we all the product of our childhood and our families? The twist towards the end of the book was perfect. naturally I couldn't go to sleep until I finished the book to find out what happened. 

Dear Michael,

It always means a great deal to me when readers take the time to share their responses. I'm just so glad that you enjoyed spending time with the good people of Emlyn Springs; one of my goals in writing SING was to send a Valentine to small town America. I have a special place in my heart for little towns and the people who live their lives there.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO VISIT THESE SITES:

Stephanie Kallos

Ragdale Foundation

Scott Turow at Ragdale Event

This evening, Scott Turow spoke at a Ragdale Foundation event that took place at The Evanston Women’s Club. What a treat it was to hear him talk about his previous work, his current release Innocent, and how he goes about doing what he does. Not only a successful author of many novels, Scott continues to practice law, travels around the world to discuss his writing, and donates his time to various organizations like Ragdale. He is an intelligent, well spoken, humble, gracious person.

He spoke of the various characters in his books as one would talk about family and friends or enemies. He not only has created them, but now they are real! One memorable quote among many from this evening’s presentation is that “Authors are really writing only one book, no matter how many they have written. They are writing, if they are lucky, about what they are passionate about.”

YOU MIGHT WANT TO VISIT THESE SITES:

Scott Turow

The Ragdale Foundation

In The Ragdale Attic

Yesterday evening, The Ragdale Foundation hosted an event in it main building, the 1896 summer home of Howard Van Doren Shaw, before it is closed for renovation. Approximately 150 people attended, an open bar was set up in the living room, appetizer stations were located throughout the house, and there was a silent auction. People were encouraged to visit the house from top to bottom with “Resident Artists” and Ragdale staff stationed in the major rooms talking about the history of the house, about the residency program at Ragdale, and the artists also presented some of their work.

I had the honor of participating in this event with my station being in the Attic. During my residency, which was in creative non-fiction writing, I also did a photo documentation of the attic before it was cleaned up and packed away in preparation for the renovation. Even with all the packing, there was a lot to be seen in the attic. Besides talking about my residency experiences I created a slide show of 100 photographs of the attic in its glorious splendor. The show was backed with music from “Peanuts” via piano music by Schroder; very appropriate attic, toys, cast off antiques, old clothing in trunks for dress-up, dusty artifacts and wonders type music. You can see photographs of the attic at my site.


HERE IS A SITE YOU MIGHT LIKE TO VISIT:
The Ragdale Foundation