a new year

it has been a long time since i posted anything here. life has taken me down many bumpy roads, some quiet roads and around many unforeseen corners. it is spring again in ohio. i am living on the bike path -- the old railroad bed for the coal company that used to own these lands. the bike path between the plains and athens (a stretch of about 3 miles) contains some rich, beautiful, healthy woods. so far, i have seen dutchman's britches, turkey corn, trout lily, coltsfoot, red trillium, may apple, buckeye and many other plants i can't quite remember the names of. the last few days of warmth have turned the deep wooded hills green with life. april is really the best month to be alive in southeast ohio i think.

i quit my job today. and boy does it feel good. i'm not done working, but i'm done putting up with the craziness of the people i work for. i will stay for 1 more month in my current position for my current employers then be back on my own again. i am hoping to buy a catering truck -- a small one that fits my means and budget. something that is the scale of one lady with lots of big ideas and tons of skills.

i hope to finally -- for once in my life, to be working for myself, to create exactly the kind of life i've always wanted -- one filled with flexibility, abundance, creativity. i am an unconventional sort of gal and have always tried to take the safe road, getting a paycheck and driving myself crazy working for fools with good intentions. now, i want to work for myself (maybe i'm also a fool but at least it will be my own good intentions and foolishness making me crazy and not someone else's).

all is up in the air again. and i am happy. ready to look forward, move forward and shake myself free of the chains i have so foolishly chosen . . .

it is april in southeast ohio. the hills are turning green. the trees are coming out of hibernation. my skin is warm and i sweat freely in the sun. i am filled with hope and expectation and some sense that i am breaking out of a cacoon (cliche i know but it really is true) it is really this moment every year when it feels like the year begins again.

happy spring everyone and here's to new beginnings.

My Favorite Meal of the Year: Morels and Ramps

Yesterday, I ate my all time favorite meal of the year. It is only possible to eat this meal once or twice a year. Three times if you are really lucky -- which I may be this year.



The meal I am referring to is fresh morel mushrooms and ramps (wild leeks) sauteed in butter with red pepper, salt and fresh garden sage served with rice. It is one of the simplest meals I ever make and also one of the most delicious and uniquely satisfying.

Morels are one of the most famous of the wild mushrooms. Rare, elusive and only found growing for a few weeks a year, often deep in the woods. They can appear overnight with just the right combination of warm, humid weather, sunshine and the correct soil makeup.

A morel hunter must develop a keen eye for finding these mushrooms as they poke their multi-toned brown heads above and through the leaf litter that surrounds them. Often you can look at an area of moresl for a long time before you actually see the mushrooms right in front of you. Once you learn to see them, you can spot them easily, from a distance and often out of the corner of your eye despite their camoflaged appearance.

Since I just moved from the deep woods of southeastern Ohio to the city of Dayton, I thought for sure my annual spring meal of ramps and morels would be impossible to come by. But my parents live on a beautiful 3 acres with nice big trees and the biggest patch of morels I have ever seen in my life. They are prolific and growing right next to the driveway under a giant old ash tree. My mom told me they were poking their heads out of the soil, and I quickly went to investigate. I found 20-30 morels, some as large as the mouse for my computer.

With a little rain tomorrow, they could balloon up even bigger. One year, the morels here grew as large as a coffee mug.

The ramps or wild leeks show their leaves early in the spring in the underbrush of the still leafless forest, looking much like a lily or any other non-descript leafy green. But when you pick them, they give off a pungent onion-y smell and their flavor is unique. I always leave the bulb and eat the leaf though some people I know dig up the whole plant. The leaves are so good by themselves, I see no reason to take the whole plant for myself.

If you are lucky enough to have some morels and ramps, you can prepare them as follows for a uniquely and deeply nourishing spring dinner. Please note that my mother is very allergic to morels. I have never met anyone else with this allergy, but be aware that it can happen.


The Best Meal of the Year

Soak morels in salt water to remove bugs (at least 1 hour)
Slice morels into 1/4" thick slices
Heat butter to very hot.
Add morels, crushed red pepper, celtic sea salt and sliced fresh sage to hot butter.
Cook for no more than 1 minute on high heat.
Turn off heat and stir in sliced ramp leaves, stirring until residual heat has wilted them.

Serve over brown rice.

The Bones: A Poem

I don't usually plan to write a poem. Usually it just comes to me out of the blue. Sometimes I don't even know I have written one until I look back over my journal and there it is. It's almost like I am channeling something greater than me. I am not an actor, only a vessel through which action (the writing of the poem) takes place. It's a little unnerving really since it is almost as if I am not present. I discovered this poem (or half of it) in my journal about a week ago. I loved the raw rough feel of it, the connection to food, the juicy body parts -- and wrote the other half a little more consciously over the past week. It feels true and right -- the distillation of the experience of trying to understand the story of my life, which feels alternately meaningfully huge and silently hidden. Thanks for reading.

The Bones

I’m looking for the meat
For the dark, sour substance of the thing
The juicy bits and morsels that slip
Between the cracks
Get covered in dust
Or rot in the corner

I’m looking for the story
Underneath the story
Looking for the secrets you never whisper
(even in the softest voice)
for the moments you wish you could take back
and the words that echo and slap
my face the moment you utter them

i don’t want to hear the pretty lies
i don’t care about politeness
or the carefully stacked house of cards
i only want truth
a declaration of reality
a single shot at redemption maybe
but always truth

i’m looking for the center of the thing
i want to suck this marrow from the bones
swish the essence in my mouth
swallow and digest
i want to dip the tips in a salty brine
that stops sugar in its tracks
and instantly puckers the lips of your sweetest smile

i want to pry apart your insides
inspect all the parts
dissect your spirit while i hold my breath
i need to see it all
i need to touch every piece
every sorrow, every joy, every pain,
every fear and insecurity
i want them all
laid out and perfectly arranged
on the table while i eat my breakfast

i have to see farther and deeper
peeling away the layers and layers of soft rubbery fat
fatty spirit, fatty soul, fatty body
we must shed this all and stand naked
here in the spotlight
facing each other in a house of mirrors
we have to see everything

i want to cut you down the middle
inspect the heart that beats there
in your chest
touch it, measure it, poke my finger around the insides
i need to understand the way it thumps
the way it swells and shrinks
creating pockets and shadows in between
the folds of skin

i want to touch the stomach and spleen
squeeze the liver to see what you’re made of
taste the ovaries
and gather the testes into my water glass
i want to see you all
pulled apart, like chicken bones
wings sucked dry, emptied of all meaning
in a pile of downy feathers

[maybe then i can begin to move]

i want to sift through the layers
peel back all the skin
hear and see and devour my story
until there’s nothing left but a heap of
meaningless words
a series of images and sounds
that do not even slightly resemble me

in the end i will shit all this
into a freshly dug hole
cover it with leaves
and plant a tree

in the end i will bury the bodies
in the soft brown earth
and plant spring bulbs

i will swallow the sorrow
pour it into the earth,
muster a river that will
smooth the edges of all these bones
carry the feathers to the sea
and rip these anchors from the flesh of my body

i will model this fear after my deepest hurt
shape it into loaves of pain
then look away quickly
as i heave them into the ocean
to dissolve in their salty, rocking tomb

i can’t carry this story any longer
it wants to be compost
to simmer in the sun until it is nothing
but soil, plain old dirt
that will gently cover someone else’s bones
and stories and feathers someday
the meat of the daffodil bulbs and oak tree
will then work relentlessly to break apart those bones
uncover those stories and i will be free

A New Home :)

I haven't posted in a while because I've been in the process of moving . . . again. I've moved everything I own into my parents' house in Dayton, O. It feels good to be here, even though I feel a little funny moving back into my parents house and wouldn't have believed it if you had told me 6 months ago that I would be moving back to southwest Ohio. Funny how life takes you down many paths you never thought it would.

I actually feel really really really relieved to have all my stuff moved into my parents place. Things have been so topsy turvy for me in the past couple (many?) years that having my things here actually makes me feel more grounded than I have in a long time. Like now that my things are all safe in the basement, I can feel more free to roam or settle in or boomerang back and forth between my many different interests. In moving this most recent time, I began to notice a pattern (finally) emerging in my collections -- kitchen stuff, fabric/yarn/sewing supplies, BOOKS and rocks. These are the things I collect. Most of these things are heavy things, which I attribute to my airy Libra self needing to be brought back down to earth from all the flying about I do in my mind, and across the planet. Did I mention how relieved I feel to have all my stuff at my parents house? I love my little dungeon (basement) bedroom/living room/bathroom and the beautiful yard, trees, flowers (blue carpets of squill are the most recent bloomers) and soon the morels will come up under the giant ash trees that dot the property.

I will be starting my annual spring raw food fast soon. I will be posting recipes to go along with it. Simple guides to using raw foods to cleanse the system at the start of a new year. Last year I did this raw food fast and I felt amazing, energetic, clear -- all my muscles felt clean, revived, energized, my mind felt the same. I have treated my body poorly this winter -- getting out of shape, over-indulging my sweet tooth and generally just eating my way through feeling bored, broke and somewhat ill. Blech!!

I will also be starting work on the farms next week -- I will be working primarily on two CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) called Smaller Footprint and Wild Soil and sometimes at a third CSA called Heart Beet Farms. I can't wait to get my hands dirty and be outside on a regular basis. This winter has lasted far too long and the spring is inching along so slowly, it's about to drive me crazy.

Check back soon for updates on the farms, raw food recipes/spring cleanse and a little story about buzzards.

NO NEW COAL IN OHIO!!

HockHocking Earth First! decided to kick off our newly revived group with a No New Coal in Ohio! campaign. Ohio is now in the cross-hairs of a major energy project that would bring 3 new coal plants to Meigs County, Ohio and 2 new plants to Mason, W.Va. in the next several years as well as a resumption of underground coal mining that could begin as early as this year. The completion of these plants would create the highest concentration of coal-fired plants in the country.

Racine, Ohio is a town of less than 1000 inhabitants sitting on the banks of the Ohio River. Gatling, Ohio LLC, based out of Beckley, W.Va. has been busy buying and leasing mining rights and conducting pre-blast surveys on privately owned lands in Meigs County. They are preparing to begin blasting on a 90-acre coal prep site, slated for development in the floodplain along Yellowbush Creek, near Racine.

Citizens have requested a public meeting with ODNR to answer questions regarding changes Gatling made to the original mining permit application since the 30-day public comment period ended almost a year ago. They have yet to confirm a meeting to answer community questions. The local newspaper, however, is reporting that blasting could begin as early as April 14^th, 2008. This in spite of the fact that, as of March 23^rd, ODNR has not issued a mining permit or a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit to Gatling, and in spite of the fact that ODNR is alleged to have stated it would be almost impossible for them to provide the permits within that timeframe.

Additionally, Ohio EPA, ODNR and Army Corps of Engineers have repeatedly denied citizens’ requests for a 401 permit, which would evaluate the impacts of the proposed mining site on groundwater. Amazingly, each of these agencies determined there would be no significant impacts to the water despite the presence of 3 high quality streams running through the proposed site which would sit on two overlapping flood plains and empty almost immediately into the Ohio River.

In Gatling’s communication to local residents, the company states that blasting activity aimed at removing overburden, building up the minesite in the floodplains and potentially building sludge impoundments could begin April 1^st and last through September.

Completion of the prep site would pave the way for Gatling to process the coal it proposes to gather from its 2000 acres of new underground mines (this is the initial proposed mine site which would be expanded in 5 year increments to encompass a much larger area in coming years). The prep site and the underground mines would cement Racine as the heart and soul of mining activity in the area.

Gatling plans to mine the area for the next 40 years and Tim Myers, Gatling’s former Chief Engineer, told community members that the company intends to begin doing sludge injection into underground abandoned mines when they re-apply for their permits in 5 years.

If plans continue unabated, citizens of Racine and surrounding areas could hear blasting nearly every day for the rest of the year, will face potential damage to drinking water supplies, will be at risk for increased flooding, subsidence and dust from the processing plants. In addition, roads could be impacted and the county will be strapped to deal with potential damages. Finally, many landowners get free gas and royalties from natural gas wells on their properties, which are also at risk due to underground mining.

The context for increased mining activity is the recent approval granted by the Ohio Power Siting Board for two of the five proposed coal plants in the Meigs County area. The AMP-Ohio plant is slated to begin construction in 2009 and, if completed, would burn 12,000 tons of coal per day. AEP received approval to build an IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) plant, also in Meigs. Many environmental organizations approved this plant, staunchly defending IGCC “clean-coal” technology as the best available. Almost certainly, none of these organizations’ leaders are residents of Meigs or surrounding counties.

Meigs-CAN (Citizens Action Now) is the only community-based group currently working to stop all new mining activity in the area. Since their inception, they have educated residents about their rights in relation to the siting of mining related activities, including pre-blast surveys, regulatory processes and public participation. They conducted listening projects to identify community concerns and created opportunities to address those concerns. They are currently receiving no major funding and are almost exclusively citizens of Racine and the surrounding countryside.

With Mountain Justice Spring Break in Meigs County, the Heartwood Annual Gathering in Shawnee State Forest (Ohio) and the EF! Round River Rendezvous in southeast Ohio, there is the potential to gain significant strength to use in support of local organizing efforts. As many have said, it is impossible to shut down a plant once it is in operation, but very possible to stop a plant from being built before it’s even broken ground.

NOTE: This information is based on a phone interview with Elisa Young, a founding member of Meigs-CAN. To join the resistance or for updates contact Elisa at – 740-949-2175 or elisayoung1@hotmail.com

Living on the Dole

I applied for food stamps this winer. I wasn't sure I would ever do this, having a proud working-class background that instilled in me the feeling that I should always, no matter what, be able to provide for myself. But after being unemployed for almost 6 months and being really sick this winter, something had to give. I applied and realized that my income -- even working full time for the past 2-3 years - made me eligible for other government subsidies. And definitely eligible for food stamps.

In order to receive my monthly food stamp allowance, the State of Ohio requires that you "work" at a pre-approved site, usually a non-profit or some other community service facility. This is a requirement only for food stamp recipients who are also unemployed. I have to work 23 hours per month in order to maintain my eligibility. Being a lover of all things food related, I chose to work at a local food pantry and soup kitchen. It has been an enlightening, eye-opening experience.

I grew up in poverty in southeast Ohio, but my family always valued gardening, fresh healthy food, homesteading to some extent -- milking a cow, raising a calf for slaughter, collecting fruit from the fruit trees, etc. We always ate really well, even though we qualified for free lunch at school and didn't always have enough money for the coolest clothes or the best shoes.

My experience at the food pantry has shown me an entirely different face of rural poverty. People are unhealthy, desperate, proud. There is a hot meal served every week and in the few weeks I have been there over 50 people have showed up in this little backwater town in rural southeast Ohio, most of them hungry. Many of them come every week, they chat with their neighbors, hug their friends, laugh and sing, say the Our Father together before eating and always come back for dessert and sometimes for seconds.

The food served is terrible. It is canned, processed and passed off as food, but it's really just sugar, trans-fats and salt disguised as food. I've eaten there both weeks and have felt my digestion go to shit after eating only these two meals of processed, packaged food-like substances. It is a wonder to me that people can eat this way and not die of malnutrition or simultaneously of an overdose of chemicals, sugars and salts. When they go through the pantry, they get much of the same -- sugary cereals, canned vegetables, canned fruits, processed cheeze spread, beef stew in a can, frozen pizzas pasta, sugar coated snacks. There are cases and cases of candy and chocolate.

I began to ponder last night a large grant funded project in which I could pay 50 people in rural Appalachian Ohio in varying states of health or disease, to eat a diet made up entirely of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and meals made from scratch with organic locally grown produce. I would want to handle the food prep and serving and partner with a doctor who could monitor health conditions of the participants. My guess is that many of the participants' health problems would decrease (after an initial detoxing period that would undoubtedly be somewhat uncomfortable), they would have more energy, maybe even begin to feel clearer in their minds, more empowered. In general, they would just feel healthier and better able to deal with stress, relationships, etc.

I believe it would create a radical change in most of the participants' lives. It is amazing to me that people eat the crap that they do and still function. I truly believe that food is the first medicine we put into our bodies. It can buffer us from illness, stress, emotional instability and can also poison us slowly, rotting our insides and clogging all the systems that are supposed to keep our complex bodies functioning properly. I think it is no wonder that people in this country are so disempowered and disenchanted. We are poisoning ourselves from the inside out with food that creates ever more powerful cravings but never fully satisfies.

Sara's (Raw) Beet Salad

". . . the recipe is officially known as "Sara's Beet Salad." Yeah, everyone who has tried it raves about it. What a way to gain fame and immortality!"

This was an excerpt from an email I got from a friend about the fresh beet salad recipe I gave him last summer. I made this salad up after I got back from traveling in South America. It was in Peru and Ecuador that I was first introduced to beets. Until then, I had only seen beets in a can and what a travesty that was -- the beets in the can and my ignorance. In the Andes Mountains, they put fresh steamed beets and raw avocados on beds of lettuce, sprinkled with lime juice and call it a salad. I was inspired by the South American beets -- even though I just realized that I never even learned the word for beets. ( I just looked it up and it is remolacha -- pronounced with the emphasis on the -lach-)

The food in South American markets is so fresh and full of flavor and color that it was really difficult to return to the dull, drabness of the flavors and colors of the typical North American supermarket. The food down south of the border made me feel alive in a way that most conventionally grown food in the US could not live up to. I suppose in retrospect, it was my travels in Latin America that brought me round full circle to my current food preferences and philosophy which includes at its heart: local, seasonal, organically grown, sustainably and justly produced and made from scratch. I hope to make my life work providing food that fits this criteria to as many people as possible.

The beet salad is prepared as follows:

Sara's (Raw) Beet Salad

2 large organic purple beets, shredded
olive oil
fresh lime juice
3-5 fresh cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh ginger, shredded
2-3 Tbsp. red onion, shredded
black or cayenne pepper to taste
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp Bragg's liquid aminos or 1/2 tsp. tamari

Add olive oil to grated beets until beets are just coated, but not swimming in oil.
Add juice of fresh lime, to taste.
Add minced garlic, ginger and onion.
Add pepper to taste.
Add ground cumin, parsley and Bragg's.
Mix well together and serve.
If you serve this salad with avocados, the avocados will really bring this light, airy salad back down to earth. They are a great compliment to each other. However, if you are feeling heavy, slow or sluggish, just eat the beet salad by itself or maybe with some rice or salad greens (even better). It is an excellent cleansing salad.

Building a Thatched Hut

A friend recently asked me to tell her more about my experiences building thatched huts. Since I realize this is not an experience many people have had I will describe it a little here and include a picture. This picture shows the Winter Solstice house with about half of its thatched roof finished (ca. 2002).

For 3 summers I worked at a reconstructed 12th century native american village site/archaeological park called SunWatch (www.sunwatch.org). There are way better photos of the buildings at the official SunWatch website. My job for 2 of those years was to supervise a team of international interns in doing archaeological reconstruction, which essentially means we were building daub and thatch houses using 800 year old post holes as our blueprint. We tried to match wood types, post sizes, roofing material (native Big Blue Stem prairie grass) daubing materials (clay, prairie grass and water) as closely as possible to what appeared in the archaeological record.

For instance, early excavators found intact chunks of burned mud dauber nests when they excavated the site, buried under about 1.5 feet of flood deposited topsoil. These nests were often imprinted with the Big Blue Stem seed heads, this grass being a native and very tough prairie grass. They then looked around to see where mud daubers build their nests currently and they were almost always found at the tops of walls, under the eaves of the roof. This led archaeologists to believe that the ancient mud daubers did much the same thing and since big blue stem seed heads were clearly visible in the nests, that the roofing material largely consisted of big blue prairie grass. This is a simplified and shortened version of all the thought that went into this particular question, but gives you an idea of how these kinds of interpretations are made by archaeologists.

SunWatch is a unique place in that it is an in situ reconstruction meaning it is "on site", in its original pre-historic context. There are not many reconstructed village sites like this one, where you can walk inside the cool shade of a thatched hut, sit on a bench made of rough cut branches and kindle a fire in a hearth that was used some 800 years ago for cooking meals of corn, deer, beans and squash. It truly is a unique experience.

My work at SunWatch was very creative and at times maddening. I loved collecting materials -- looking around the forest for straight black locust trees that were just the right width and height, cutting endless bunches of Big Blue, looking for just the right curve of the piece of wood needed to fortify the corner of the roof and shaping hearth after hearth after hearth, hoping that this time it wouldn't crack as badly when it was fired. This was also my first introduction to medicinal herbs since I put together an exhibit in one of the cabins detailing what types of herbs were found in the archaeological record, how they could be used medicinally and hanging actual bunches of the herbs gathered from our very own prairie for visitors to see, smell and touch.

It was maddening because I question everything and always felt that there wasn't enough critical thought and current research going into the process. That even though SunWatch was a version of a living museum, it was still too heavy on the museum and too light on the living. I felt we needed to be constantly questioning past interpretations, re-interpreting new and old findings and researching old documents and artifacts to see if anything was missed.

I wrote my Master's Thesis on my work at SunWatch -- see the link below. In it I talked about how archaeological data can be used to inform restoration ecology. In using archaeological data, especially botanical data, restoration ecologists can make choices about what set of criteria they are restoring an ecosystem to, rather than arbitrarily picking a generic and 'pristine' ecosystem that existed when Europeans arrived, as if the environment was a static thing and totally unaffected by the native people who were living here.

http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/search.cgi?q=DeAloia&field=&pagesize=30


Anyway, building thatched huts was quite an experience. It is nothing like the thatching that is famous in places like England or Scotland. The kind of thatching I did requires much more maintenance and would never keep a modern house dry. But it was a lot of fun and is a really great conversation starter or pick up line. Hey baby, can I thatch your roof??

Veggie Currry

My sister sent me this request . . . "do you have any recipes for spicy indian food using cauliflower & potatoes".

And I do in fact have such a recipe. Here it is. This recipe was scaled down from one used to serve 40 people so definitely play around with the amounts of veggies needed as this will likely make enough curry to feed a family of 10 -- I made this for a permaculture class with Peter Bane that I helped cater last summer. It was a big hit. Also go light on the cayenne and hot chile until you know what you like. You can always add more hot stuff but it's really hard to water down hot stuff once it's already cooked.

Not much time for writing today. I am starting to build this site and adding features when I can. It's a lot of fun but kind of a long and tedious process since I have no clue what I am doing. Hope you like it!!

Veggie Curry a la Sara

¼ cup canola oil
1 tsp. Black mustard seeds
1 Tbsp grated ginger root
½ head garlic, cut into thin slices
1 cup finely chopped onions
3 Tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp. Turmeric
3 Tbsp curry powder (hot curry if you want it spicy)

2-4 green peppers, seeded and sliced into bite size pieces
2-4 pounds carrots, cut into ¼ inch thick slices
1 head broccoli
1 head cauliflower
4 medium sized potatoes, cubed

2 ½ cans coconut milk
1 bunches scallions/green wild onions
½ hot green chili pepper, seeded and minced
1 Tbsp salt
1/8 cup cilantro, minced

¾ cups peanuts (optional)
1 tsp. Cayenne pepper (or to taste) – depends on how hot the chili pepper is or you can omit the chili pepper and just use cayenne

Heat oil, adding the first 7 ingredients and cooking thoroughly in a large, deep stock pot
Have all veggies cut into bite sized pieces ahead of time.
Add the veggies to the oil mixture
Mix scallions, chili pepper, salt and half the cilantro into the coconut milk
Add coconut milk to the veggies and simmer until veggies are soft over high Heat

Add peanuts and cayenne pepper during the last 10 minutes of cooking and allow to cook until veggies have reached the right amount of hotness. The longer you heat it, the hotter it will get.

Garnish with additional cilantro and serve over rice.

A Recipe for Childhood: Blueberries

This is a mid-winter picture from the east side of Blue Hill Bay -- less than 5 miles from where I was born. If you could pan around to the left you would see the small town of Blue Hill which is a lovely little town in mid-coast Maine. It was listed (along with Athens, Ohio -- the place I currently call home) as one of the 12 Best Places to Live You Never Heard Of by Mother Earth News. Somehow I am deeply connected to both places.

The hill in the distance is one of the three mountains making up Mount Desert Island, where I spent much of of my early childhood. When I was young -- 8 or 9 years old -- my best friend Elihue and I used to row our little dingy out into the middle of Bass Harbor amidst huge cargo ships, sailboats and lobster boats. We also spent hours and days exploring the rocky coast line near Bass Harbor Lighthouse which was about 2 miles from my last Maine home. I remember running fearlessly and quickly over the rocky coast letting my feet guide the way -- never hesitating and never falling. We found some huge caves that led way back into the shoreline. It was a pretty magical childhood really.

When I returned a few summers ago with my friends, I once again decided to run fearlessly and quickly over the rocks way down the coast, leaving my friends far behind. The smell of the ocean and the pounding surf, the rough, sharp rocks, the spray of the ocean as it moved endlessly, the sound of seagulls above and the endless coastline (Maine has the longest coastline of any state in the US -- longer even than California's, though the state is much smaller) kept my feet moving and my footing solid. The motion of my body over these rocks a memory that required no thought process.

I associate that feeling with freedom from way back in my childhood and was happy to know that even as an adult, I could move over that landscape almost like a bird -- no fear of falling, only the quick pushing off of one foot, the jump to the next rock, pushing off again, and again.

Behind the photographer in the above photo is a hill with a bumpy unpaved road that becomes a mess of mud and ice throughout at least half of the year. That road leads to the Circle Farm, the old name of the hippie commune where I was born. It is covered in low-bush blueberry fields and some 5-6 houses spread out through the 80 or so acres of the Farm. It is my second home.

My recipe for remembering what it feels like to be a kid goes like this:

In mid August find a large, open blueberry field
Sit down in the middle of it
Eat as many blueberries as you can from that spot
Move on to the next spot
Keep eating blueberries
and move on again, until you can't possibly eat another blueberry and at some point later you will probably, as I did when young, make some pretty awesome blue poop.