Creative Arts and Healing
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  • 2022
    • January
      • WINTER, 2022!!!
        01/07/22
        Dear friends, and hello to anyone who happens upon my website serendipitously,

        My last entry here, i do believe, was in the summer of 2020, when the covid pandemic was "freshly" altering our reality. Now here we are in a new year, still struggling to unite around best practices

  • 2020
    • August
      • SUMMER OF THE PANDEMIC
        08/08/20
        Dear readers, friends, colleagues, whoever might tune in here...

        My last blog was written last autumn, long before anyone could have predicted the fate of the world -- and definitely the fate of Florida, where I live. No one knew back then that a virus was lying in wait, subversively, ge

  • 2019
    • October
      • AUTUMN, COME COLOR MY WORLD!
        10/02/19
        The jerusalem artichoke and swamp sunflowers are blooming like crazy - sending out their bright yellow daisy-like blooms, and because they only bloom in the fall, i take heart that maybe, just maybe, cooler weather is at hand. We have been in an intense heat wave (global warming in Florida is real)

    • July
      • SUMMER TIDINGS!
        07/15/19
        Hello dear friends, colleagues, and strangers who happen upon my site:

        The continuing saga of Katya Nina Sabaroff Taylor (unlimited?) brings us to the present moment, a steamy, typical summer's day in Tallahassee, Florida, where I have resided since 1990. As i look out the window I

    • April
      • APRIL and the flowers of SPRING!
        04/03/19
        I always thought Fall was my favorite time of year, but since moving to Tallahassee 29 years ago (this May), I must say Spring has definitely won my heart. Because I am a gardener, i spend a lot of time outside at "Haiku Garden" my homestead. I have more containers than I can count, fille

  • 2018
    • December
      • WINTER HATH COME!
        12/06/18
        If you behold my yard (through my study window where I am typing), Haiku Garden is ablaze with sun, and if you look closely you will see sheets wrapped around vulnerable cold-sensitive plants like my tropical crotons. You will also see the ragged withered stalks of the Jerusalem Artichokes ready to

    • August
      • SUMMER'S END, FALL IS CALLING
        08/30/18
        Ah, back from an enchanting 12 days in Maine, with Tom, another one of our special "honeymoon getaways," and what a getaway. To be in cool breezes, to even feel a bit of chill, what heaven after Tallahassee's oven heat. To behold craggy rock formations, be misted by the surf, visit

    • May
      • MAY leading into SUMMER!
        05/28/18
        Is it really the end of May, a very rainy Memorial Day? Indeed it is. Having reluctantly joined Facebook in order to reach out with a Prison Wisdom page (hoping ex-students, no longer incarcerated, might stumble across the site, so i can send them a copy of the book), i discovered i had to have a p

    • January
      • TRUE WINTER
        01/18/18
        Dear friends, thank you for your patience as i finally show up again, ready to share the present moment and beyond, my last entry written in Autumn...

        We have had a cold spell, probably the coldest and longest of our 27 years in Tallahassee,
        and while a bit daunting, is nothing compa

  • 2017
    • October
      • HERE COMES AUTUMN!
        10/01/17
        On the first of October, a hint of fall, a relief from perpetual Tallahassee summer.
        A light rainfall makes my yellow jerusalem artichoke flowers shine even brighter,
        and the new broccoli plants are beaded with jewels. As i look out my study window,
        a window that has been in my life

    • May
      • PRISON WISDOM, AT LAST!
        05/27/17
        Dear friends and newcomers to this site

        I am happy to announce the arrival of my long-awaited book PRISON WISDOM, just published and waiting for readers to dive in to its poignant, heart-felt, creative, inspiring words and art!

        I was 47 years old when I entered the local jail t

    • April
      • SPRINGTIME
        04/04/17
        Yes, and not only is it Spring, all over the land (at least in Florida), but i have celebrated my 73rd birthday, moving me into a number One Cycle (7 + 3 = 10 = 1), that is, New Beginnings.
        And indeed, with the publication of my book Prison Wisdom (due out this month), I leap into a new world,

  • 2016
    • October
      • AUTUMN, AT LAST
        10/11/16



        I have lived thru my first and hopefully my last Hurricane, with Hermine. We were fortunate that none of our very tall trees fell on house, car, or cat, though one tree fell thru the neighbor’s fence into their yard. However, the damage in Myer’s Park, across the road from us, w

    • June
      • Almost Summer Solstice
        06/18/16
        Dear friends - Time has slipped by, for our Tallahassee summer is well underway. My tomato forest is once again bearing dozens of ripe fruit, perfect for bruschetta on a crusty olive baguette, or halved into sandwiches, or gracing a green salad, or just popped into my mouth for a juicy treat. My h

    • March
      • Almost the Ides of March
        03/12/16
        Hello dear friends, strangers, and all who happen upon this site --

        It's hard to believe it's Spring -- the entire winter went by without a single entry.
        That's because I was working hard on my book Prison Wisdom -- and still am --
        I was off to St. George Island f

  • 2015
    • October
      • LATE AUTUMN REPORT
        10/27/15
        My goodness, how did that long oven hot season suddenly depart, and the welcome breezes of autumn stir me to action again? For I am in the middle of my fall classes -- teaching Lifestories at the women's prison, and for OLLI, a senior institute connected to FSU. I also offered a program for the

    • July
      • SUMMERTIME!
        07/15/15
        Dear friends and welcome guests --- My last entry had me anticipating Spring, and preparing to plant vegetables, and I was still wearing jeans and flannel shirts. No more! Now we are in the midst of grueling summer temperatures (in the high nineties with lots of humidity); my garden is sagging, th

    • February
      • WINTER, OR, IS IT SPRING???
        02/26/15
        Dear friends -- Somehow time has elapsed since I last sat here and penned (metaphorically speaking) this entry to you. In the meanwhile, I celebrated my 71st birthday (after the big 70, this seemed like i was starting over, as in one, two, three) with little to-do, had my annual beach retreat with

  • 2014
    • October
      • AUTUMN!
        10/04/14
        At last! The breeze comes through the open window, i'm actually wearing a light robe, and I'm back talking to you, welcome guest!

        While the summer seemed endless, as summers down south tend to be, now it seems to have wooshed by, because of course now is the present moment, and

    • July
      • HEADING NORTH -- Summer Vacation
        07/08/14
        Dear friends and seekers who accidentally arrived at my site

        Summer greetings!

        Tomorrow at crack of dawn I head up to Ithaca NY to visit Ann, my college roommate and friend of 52 years. We have a cottage on Lake Cayuga for a week (and no internet!). Swimming, walking, reading

    • April
      • APRIL AGAIN!
        04/09/14
        Greetings

        Here it is April already – the brutal winter (yes, even Tallahassee occasionally has our version of that), is over, taking with it alas, my seven year old avocado tree grown from a seed, despite my attempts to cover and save it. Luckily I had a four year version of a different

  • 2013
    • December
      • LATE AUTUMN REPORT
        12/04/13
        Dear readers -- as you may know by now social media is not my strong suit. I don't have a facebook page, i don't tweet, and i only blog, here on my site, once each season. my preferred "addictions" (besides good strong French press coffee and half and half) are writing haiku,

    • August
      • SUMMER WINDING DOWN
        08/27/13
        Hello one and all, and especially hello to myself. I try to write every season and I'm overdue.
        Life has a way of wooshing along, and i sometimes wonder, whose guiding the oars? setting the sail, clunking down a bumpy road, flying high above the clouds looking down on this
        turning ea

    • April
      • SPRING REPORT 2013
        04/16/13
        Dear readers, friends, sudden newcomers to this website, welcome!

        Spring is a rapturous season here in Tallahassee, Florida, where in only mid April
        the tomatoes are ripening and basil lends its aphrodesiacal fragrance to everything it touches (sandwiches, omelets, salads, rice, ad i

  • 2012
    • December
      • DECEMBER CATCH UP
        12/12/12
        DECEMBER CATCH UP

        Dear friends, how could Autumn have totally escaped an entry on this blog? I can't answer that. What I can tell you is that, facing our ritual family year end letter, I wrote two different versions, trying to sum up 365 days in the life of me, and, after reading b

    • August
      • STILL SUMMER
        08/13/12
        The dog days of summer are with us now in Tallahassee, but due to massive amounts of rain, the August grass has never been greener, nor the weeds so prolific. I'm home from my adventures North and am settling back into the familiar groove of life on Myer's Park Drive. In short term memor

    • July
      • SUMMER, again!
        07/03/12
        Yes, summer again. "And the seasons they go round and round, and the painted ponies go up and down" sang Joni Mitchell, and look, the year 2012 is about half way over already! And my workshops and classes are finished until the Fall, and in exactly one week I'm getting on an airpla

    • March
      • SPRING AGAIN!!!
        03/22/12
        Can you believe it? We've gone from the russet leaves of fall (my last entry) to the lush green eden of spring in Tallahassee. I lived through winter, Im sure of it -- lived through my daughter's 24th birthday, Chanukah, Christmas, New Year's, my January birthday, my 25th wedding ann

  • 2011
    • November
      • AH, THE RUSSET LEAVES
        11/19/11
        Ah, the russet leaves let me know autumn is in high gear, at the apex of its charm here in tallahassee. at twilight their soft hues blend with the last calls of the birds, both giving testimony to the beauty of november - saying "hush" "day is done" and a moment of
        peace, a

    • September
      • ALMOST AUTUMN!
        09/16/11
        ALMOST AUTUMN!!!

        In Florida, Autumn is a tease, and what a tease! Here is a poem I wrote on Sept 2


        THE FIRST FALL AIR

        The first fall air is like
        nothing else
        At first you can’t
        believe it
        you think it’s a trick of the soul
        during a

    • June
      • SUMMER REPORT
        06/27/11
        SUMMER REPORT


        Dear reader –

        It is now the summer of 2011, a very hot summer (as all summers are in Tallahassee) but maybe hotter this year? Seems so. One day in mid June when my old high school classmate was visiting, and I took her down to the gulf beach to swim and lo

    • March
      • Spring Report!
        03/10/11
        Dear friends -- The rain has swept my newly planted garden, the cat is on the deck licking rainwater out of a flowerpot dish, the sun is laying a pale stream of gold on the still lush rye grass, the camellias are still singing rose colored songs from between damp leaves, and I turn my thoughts to re

  • 2010
    • August
      • I AM TRYING AGAIN TO SPEAK WITH YOU
        08/31/10
        dear friends, readers, all who happen upon this post

        I KNOW i wrote a blog entry in August. I had just returned from more than two weeks of R and R up North, in Morgantown, West Virginia and Ithaca, New York, including a week long stay at a cottage on Cayuga Lake, and I was revved for th

    • April
      • SPRINGTIME!
        04/16/10

        My Spring to-do list
        plant garden, water garden
        watch my life ripen

        ***

        And, it's time for a catch up. What have I been up to since the last entry?

  • 2009
    • August
      • YES, I'M BACK, AND VERY MUCH ALIVE
        08/11/09
        Dear readers, friends, family, whoever accidentally or on purpose is now reading my words:

        Summer in Tallahassee, I'm back from California where I had to clean out my dad's house of all his earthly possessions -- the end of a chapter, a chapter of having living parents (my mom d

    • April
      • ALMOST MAY DAY!!!
        04/30/09
        Dear friends, fellow writers, and curious ones who just happened upon this blog -- the birds are singing in my little corner of Tallahassee, the golden hibiscus have opened their cups to the sun, and finally, after what feels like years -- my web site designer, Elgin, and I are about to activate t

    • February
      • here it is a BRAND NEW YEAR
        02/10/09
        Here it is a brand new year, almost Valentine’s Day, and I am enjoying my love affair with my two almost hot-off-the press Haiku volumes: MY HAIKU LIFE, and HAIKU MOMENTS, two poetry anthologies that represent four decades of my enchantment with this ancient Japanese “essence” poem. In the next mo

  • 2008
    • July
      • WELCOME!
        07/19/08
        Dear readers, friends, and accidental visitors

        As Elgin, my graphics designer, and I move forward to activate my long-anticipated web site, I welcome you to Creative Arts and Healing Studio, a peaceful, stimulating, inspirational (one hopes) home away from home. Here on this blog, I w