The Garden Club of DeLand It was somewhere close to my first week settling into my rather strange new life in DeLand that I stumbled across the marvelous ladies of the Garden Club. Returning north from an estate sale, I happened to pass a sign that read “plant sale today”. I pulled into the Garden … More Gardening for Life – part 2 –
It was a blank slate, a vast, greenish brown, terribly ordinary space that terrified me. Yet at the same time, it spoke to me, beckoned to me, sprinkling my imagination with limitless possibilities – most of which were thoroughly inappropriate and unrealistic. I was baffled and amused by the similarities between my life and my … More Gardening for Life – Intro
Following our standard Wednesday morning card game, Robin, Carol, Claire and I had gone to lunch at Bake Chop. We were led to the back table against the wall. I took the seat in the back corner facing the restaurant and Carol was sitting on my left. Robin sat across from me with her back … More Why I’m Terrified of Babies
Of course, I got all the money. Dad disinherited both my brothers because they all hated each other. Now they hate me too even though I do send my younger brother money every month. He wants more so he hates me. There was no way our dad would repair broken fences or rebuild burned bridges … More Dredging the Depths
When people ask me about my strangest experience, it is usually my early days in New Zealand that come to mind. It was a very hard story to tell because it is simply too bizarre to be believable. For years I never told anyone because they were sure I was making it up. It is … More Culture Shock New Zealand: a New Yorker does the South Island – 1980
In 1991 I moved to Jogjakarta, on the island of Java, Indonesia, for doctoral research, a lone, female grad student in an entirely different world wanting to learn about entirely different ways of speaking and being. I had to radically recreate myself through a new language, a new way of dressing, a new attitude, to … More Under A Burning Sun
For my 17th birthday, my high school boyfriend, Jerry, took me skydiving. It was summer 1972 and we drove to Stormville, NY, about an hour from Northern Queens where we both lived. I did not know it at the time, (or maybe I did but don’t remember), but this ‘gift’ was intended to scare the … More The First Time: My Adventures in Skydiving
Kay and I arrived in Cape Town toward the end of what to date had been a spectacular time in South Africa. We had done our 4 day safari at Kruger National Park, enjoyed a wonderful, if not occasionally frightening, road trip around the Western Cape including the wine district and up through the Karoo … More Adventures in Cape Town
Exit Strategy: An exit strategy is a well-planned approach to ending post-disaster project support through a controlled and gradual cessation of activities or passing responsibility for the project to a local partner or community of beneficiaries. I wrote these words during my tenure as projects coordinator for the Australian Red Cross in Aceh following the … More The Exit Strategy
When I was about 15 years old in 1970, my Aunt Sylvia let me ransack her attic and take with me anything I wanted. She was a professional singer and her collection of street and stage outfits consisted of dozens of boxes of items dating from the 1940s through to the 60s. I was set. … More Gloria Swanson’s Dress
Laine Berman 