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You are here: Home / Archives for Little Women

Little Women

Today It’s All About Me

December 7, 2011 by admin

Wow, thanks, Jodi Aman of Heal Now and Forever, for the blog award! It’s always exciting to be recognized by one’s peers, especially by someone whose work I admire.

Here’s the catch: To receive the award, I need to write seven things about myself. Seven? I can usually come up with one, especially when I’m trying to make a point, but seven feels monumental. I’ll give it my best shot!

  1. My first name is Beth, after a character in Little Women. I have a sister Amy, also named from the book. Of course, I also have other siblings NOT named from the book (John, Valerie, and Bryan), but I can’t explain that. I have Beth’s shyness and Jo’s bluntness, which don’t mesh well together. I stopped going by Beth at age 33 when I decided I felt more like a Nadine…whatever that means.
  2. I spent years on a spiritual quest and ended up converting to Judaism. I am not into the rituals so much, but I love the emphasis on ethics and integrity, and the concept of tikkun olam (repairing the world) is an integral part of my philosophy.
  3. I grew up in a blue-collar household, where I was taught a strong work ethic. This is where I get my populist leanings and start spitting nails when people speak of the working class as “lazy.” I would challenge any of these pompous politicians, especially one who thinks poor children aren’t being taught to work hard, to spend one day in the shoes of these Americans who give so much and receive so little. Oops, I’m getting political again!
  4. Ill health defined much of my childhood, and in my late 30s, I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for many years. These days I am strong and energetic, and I am grateful, grateful, grateful. This is why I am so into organic, local foods, gardening, yoga, and other forms of stress reduction. Every time I hike a mountain, I remember the years that I couldn’t. I hope I always do.
  5. I graduated from college at age 45. For years I didn’t admit that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, so I would take classes, trying to come up with something else, ANYTHING else, that I could do. Finally I gave up and admitted that good or bad, I write, and I’m not much good for anything else. Because I was still dealing with the ill health in #4 above, I finished via “distance learning” from Eastern Oregon University in an accredited degree program. Better late than never! It was a proud moment for me.
  6. Julia Cameron is my hero. I found her book, The Artist’s Way, in 1997. I had always wanted to write but didn’t know how to get started. Within three weeks of practicing the principles in her book, I started to write, and I haven’t stopped. Her work, which focuses on unblocking creativity, also led me to start quilting, taking photographs, traveling, and more. I thank her not just for the writing, but for opening my life to adventure.
  7. A former co-worker started calling me Spa Woman because I love massages and facials, hot springs, and all other forms of pampering. I liked the nickname, so I use it online frequently as an alias.

As part of accepting this award, I will pay it forward by recommending other great blogs — stay tuned! I will offer those tomorrow as part of my Thursday Books and Blogs entry. Thanks again, Jodi!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Heal Now and Forever, Jodi Aman, Julia Cameron, Little Women, The Artist's Way

A Writing Pilgrimage

April 19, 2011 by admin

Orchard House
A Writing Pilgrim Visits Orchard House

When Louisa May Alcott penned Little Women in the 1860s, she didn’t want to write the book. Her publisher had asked her for a book about little girls for little girls. Louisa, who grew up as a tomboy in an unconventional household, said she had no idea what to say about little girls…until she was reminded that she had three sisters. She finally agreed, and the rest is history. She wrote the manuscript in just a few months, and I doubt she ever could have dreamed the impact it would have.

Nearly 100 years later, in a small town in Illinois, a woman who loved Little Women as a child names two of her children after characters in the book. And now, after passing more than half a century of my own life, I have finally visited Orchard House and seen the desk where she wrote her classic story. Now a writer and attempting to embark on my own fiction career, visiting Orchard House is my version of Mecca.

We flew in to Albany and made our first literary stop in Amherst, home to both Emily Dickinson and later, Robert Frost. Emily came alive as much more than a fascinating recluse, but also as a woman who asserted her independence and whose poetry broke the rules of its day. She wrote on the backs of envelopes and other scraps of paper, making editing notes in the margins. A local newspaper published several of her poems, heavily edited and without her permission, much to her displeasure. We still know little about her, because most of her letters were destroyed at her request. We do know, though, that she drew inspiration from nature, often walking on her family’s land, connecting to God as she did so.

Later, we took the scenic route to Stow, traveling along the rolling hills. It’s still chilly there, so the trees are just starting to bud. The crocus flowers have emerged from the ground and have started to bloom. In a few more weeks northern Massachusetts will be alive with color, but even in its current, starker state, it invites the creative spirit to come alive.

When one visits Concord, history springs forth from every corner. From a window at the Old Manse, where Emerson lived for a time, his grandparents saw the first shots of the Revolution on the Old North Bridge. Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, who also lived in (and was evicted from) the Old Manse, wrote on the window panes with her diamond ring, leaving their mark…it displeased the Ripley family who owned the house at the time, but not enough for them to replace the glass. For that we are thankful!

Orchard House has its own surprises. May Alcott, the sister on whom the character of Amy was based, had a successful career as a fine artist before dying young after the birth of a child. While living there, she drew figures in pencil all over the window trim, and the unorthodox parents didn’t scold her. Those drawing still exist, as do many of her paintings that grace the walls of the home.

The mark of the Transcendentalists lies everywhere. The ghosts of Emerson, Thoreau, the Alcotts, and others wander Concord to this day. Here, people fought passionately for the abolition of slavery and for women’s rights. Not every venture was successful, as some of the Transcendentalists were notoriously impractical. The Alcotts, for example, nearly starved to death as a result of Bronson Alcott’s communal living experiment at Fruitlands. They intended to live off the land, but no one really knew how. Thoreau had the knowledge but kept his distance from Fruitlands, preferring to visit from time to time.

Visiting these homes and exploring my literary ancestry, I felt images and scenes fill my mind. I came home with a new armful of books to read and questions to ponder, hopefully restocking my writer’s well for new stories and ideas. The most interesting aspect of the trip came about as an “accident,” though. I had originally planned to travel alone. This was, after all, my Mecca and no one else’s. As the trip grew closer, my husband, who had had other plans for that weekend, asked if I would mind if he came along. I said no, as long as the purpose of the visit remained intact. He hasn’t read these books, although I did sit him down to watch Little Women to learn the story! In a rare twist, I did most of the talking on this trip while he listened.

In the end I understood how much of myself I keep to myself. He and I have spent six years together, and for the first time I cracked a door open to invite him into a part of my world that has heretofore been mostly a secret. This happened in the same week that I am interviewing editors to look at Change of Plans, with the intent of getting it out to an audience. Perhaps this trip was my declaration to “come out” more as a writer, to let go of my Dickinsonian tendencies. I hope so. I just know that in visiting some of my heroes, in hearing their joys and sorrows, triumphs and tragedies, I am renewed and ready to write again.

Alcott Grave
Alcott Grave on "Authors' Ridge" of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: books, Concord, creativity, Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, MA, nadine feldman, nadine galinsky, novelist, novels, Thoreau, Transcendentalism, Transcendentalists, women, writing

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