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Jean Stimmell
Jean Stimmell

28 Followers

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Nov 21

Are Stones and Stories Alive?

I was a hardscape stonemason for twenty years, building walkways, terraces, and dry-laid stonewalls. My favorite task was building natural-looking ledges to integrate a new home perched awkwardly on a bulldozed dirt mound, back down into the natural rhythms of nature. I would first conceive what I wanted to build…

Stonewall

3 min read

Are Stones and Stories Alive?
Are Stones and Stories Alive?
Stonewall

3 min read


Nov 16

What’s in a Picture

Taking pictures has been part of my life since I was a teenager. I have included a photo, deteriorated by age, that I took in Vietnam when I was nineteen. The scene looks so peaceful and pastoral it is difficult to believe a war is raging nearby. One might wonder…

Photography

3 min read

What’s in a Picture
What’s in a Picture
Photography

3 min read


Nov 9

Sorrow, grief, and trouble sit like vultures on my psychic fence⁠*

A few years ago, I photographed five vultures attempting to warm up on a cold winter morning by spreading their wings toward the sun. I am using it to illustrate this rant. The title reflects how I feel. I can’t get images of maimed and bloody bodies out of my…

War

3 min read

Sorrow, grief, and trouble sit like vultures on my psychic fence⁠*
Sorrow, grief, and trouble sit like vultures on my psychic fence⁠*
War

3 min read


Nov 2

Dying can be a dance, not a battle

Why do so many obituaries praise the dead for waging a heroic battle against their fate? Why does death have to be described as such a heavy-weight brawl when, in the big scheme of things, death is part of the circle of life? Like it or not, we’re all part…

Dying

4 min read

Dying can be a dance, not a battle
Dying can be a dance, not a battle
Dying

4 min read


Oct 12

Mindful Forgetting

The cricket’s persistent song of autumn used to haunt me, reminding me how brief life is, especially now I’m old. …

Thoreau

3 min read

Mindful Forgetting
Mindful Forgetting
Thoreau

3 min read


Sep 27

Being blind doesn’t mean you can’t see

I had an epiphany reading about how a blind man could still see — and, surprisingly, in a more profound way. Stephen Kuusisto enlightened me about this in his memoir, Planet of the Blind, as described by the poet Mark Doty. “Kuusisto describes a moment in Grand Central Station when…

Being Present

3 min read

Being blind doesn’t mean you can’t see
Being blind doesn’t mean you can’t see
Being Present

3 min read


Sep 14

My Obsession with Hurricanes

As I write this, Lee, a major hurricane, is slowly churning northward off the eastern seaboard. While it’s too early to tell where it will make landfall, it now looks like it will at least brush New England. …

Hurricane

3 min read

My Obsession with Hurricanes
My Obsession with Hurricanes
Hurricane

3 min read


Jul 10

Secondary Passions Promote Beginner’s Mind

I thought I had retired as a psychotherapist, but I continued on by other means writing a column every week for the Concord Monitor. …

Writing

3 min read

Secondary Passions Promote Beginner’s Mind
Secondary Passions Promote Beginner’s Mind
Writing

3 min read


Jun 22

The Donald Show

Remember “The Truman Show,” the hit movie starring Jim Carrey about “ a man who grew up living an ordinary life that– unbeknownst to him– takes place on a large set populated by actors for a television show about him.” Everybody knew the truth except Truman, who was tricked into…

Trump

3 min read

The Donald Show
The Donald Show
Trump

3 min read


Jun 16

Something Snapped

I was struck by a recent essay by Timothy Denevi in the NYT about the writer Joan Didion. On the surface, it seems strange that I should be so affected because Didion was a conservative supporter of Barry Goldwater and distrustful of the Kennedys. …

Polarization

4 min read

Something Snapped
Something Snapped
Polarization

4 min read

Jean Stimmell

Jean Stimmell

28 Followers

psychotherapist, photographer, wonderer…a barnacle clinging to Earth Mother’s toe

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