Eremite Mike’s Blog: Reflections on Solitude, Exceptional Contemplative Prose

March 19, 2009

I found Eremite Mike’s Blog after Mike left a comment on this blog. Though Mike didn’t leave a link to his blog (perhaps because the blog is quite young), his comment revealed a clear empathy with the hermitic path, so I searched him out. I am continually impressed with the profound beauty and depth of his [...]

Umbrage, W.O.O.S.H. & Positive Press for Hermits

March 15, 2009

If I were an umbrage-taker, I’d probably be inclined to start taking umbrage with the recurrent and often-unwarranted bad rap meted out to us hermits in legend, lore and now online.  (I’ve always wanted to use the word “umbrage” in a sentence.) Taking umbrage with anything feels a bit spiritually unevolved, though, so I usually just chuckle when I run across these continual hermit defamations. [...]

Can You Get Blog from a Hermit? Not for Awhile.

February 15, 2009
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This blog is six months old today and this will be my last post for awhile. It is premature to conclude my blogging experiment altogether – I have more to learn about blogging and more to learn about myself as a blogger.  I have several more posts mentally drafted, several most memorable hermits to write [...]

The Un-Vows: Put Two Smarties Under One Roof and Sometimes "There Will Be Blood"

February 6, 2009
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Griz and I have been married for 27 years. This week we sort-of celebrated with a dinner out. But the truth be known, the celebration was coincidental to our anniversary date. We were in the mood for a dinner out, and – behold – it happened to be our anniversary. More often we celebrate our first date  – [...]

A "Called" Writer: Memorable Hermit Thomas Merton

January 15, 2009

I will generally shy away from the consecrated Catholic hermits in this blog.  My exposure to and understanding of Catholicism is so limited that it hardly seems fair to mention even one.  But Catholic mystic Thomas Merton [1915-1968] wrote so eloquently about silence and solitude that he belongs on my list. Merton’s poems, essays and autobiography have a [...]

Lake Griz

January 1, 2009
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The stream at the low corner of our property can’t keep up with the snow melt.  At this time of year it normally runs swiftly, but stays at a maximum width of two or three feet. I’m naming the current flood expansion Lake Griz.  If  Griz could find a way to arrange it,  he too would [...]

Fragile Hope of Christmas Wreath on a Locked Gate

December 24, 2008

Griz and I are lean on Christmas traditions. Christmas loot for the “next generations” is often  mailed rather than delivered in person. The Christmas festivities in which we do participate don’t occur every year and rarely on Christmas Day.

But even in those years when I do no other Christmas decorating, I like to make a wreath for our gate.

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It’s my way of honoring  the beauty and sentiment of the Christmas season. I don’t define myself as a Christian, but I consider Jesus Christ a great spiritual teacher. Any religious tradition that celebrates peace, love and compassion is a positive thing; and humankind needs all the positivity it can muster.

Ironically, when we first moved here in 1995, we had no gate. But as the population increased, transitioning the area from from rural to suburban; our long, gravel driveway (with no buildings visible from the road) became more and more inviting to random “explorers.”

At first we didn’t close the gate all the time, let alone lock it. Now it’s locked all the time - when we’re home and when we’re not - a sad symbol of changing times.

The circular shape and evergreen component of wreaths symbolize the eternal cycle of life.  Perhaps the reason I like to put up a wreath each year is to sustain my fragile hope that eventually we’ll change direction – cycle back  to a time of fewer gates and fewer locks - a time of peace, love and easy trust – the legacy I believe Jesus Christ had in mind.

May the hope and loving peace of this holiday season sustain you through the coming year.

By Trish | Posted in Family, Hermit's Rants, Home, Privacy, Psychology, Solitude, Spirituality | Tagged , , , | Comments off

Sunset Deprivation and the Privacy Trade-Off

December 9, 2008

Here’s a ho-hum autumn sunset through the stand of deciduous trees in the southwest corner of our property – about the best we get of visible sunsets.dsc_0277

Our evergreens, many of them 50 and 60-year olds, are great for the year-round privacy we value; but they do deprive us of those unobstructed sunsets so everpresent in our sailing days. When you live aboard on the West Coast, you are often a part of the sunset. I do miss that.

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Such is the nature of life – there are always trade-offs to be made.

By Trish | Posted in Home, Nature, Privacy, Sailing, Solitude | Tagged , , , , | Comments off

Most Memorable Hermit J. D. Salinger. I Get It, J.D.

November 17, 2008
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J. D. Salinger will be 90-years-old on January 1, 2009. The Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1951.  Salinger’s reclusiveness has become as legendary as his literary contributions.  He seriously defends his privacy – with a high fence, occasionally with a shotgun, and persistently through legal means. A curmudgeonly, misanthrope if I ever [...]

Documenting a Life: Hermit Dick Proenneke "Alone in the Wilderness"

October 24, 2008

No Most Memorable Hermits list would be complete without Dick Proenneke (1916-2003) whose hermit life can frequently be viewed during PBS pledge-drives. “Alone in the Wilderness” tells Proenneke’s story of life alone in Alaska, relying on simple hand tools and his own physical labor to build  his cabin and sustain himself with little outside assistance – no small feat [...]