Chester Chatter: Back in touch with nature

SHHHH! CARD SHOWER FOR RUTHIE: Ruthie turns 80 on Dec. 31. She would love to hear from you. Just send your notes to Ruthie Douglas, 15 Breezy Lane, Chester, VT 05143. Thank you!


By Ruthie Douglas
©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC

As we near the end of the year 2020, we have to agree the year has certainly been unusual.

It has also been a time to reflect on how we conduct our lives. Many of us have learned under the pandemic to make do with less.

When Don and I were first married, we rarely went out. Instead friends came by for a game of cards or to play board games. We often sat on our porch quietly visiting. In the early evenings, deer would come down to the Williams River for a drink. And kingfishers would dive in to the river from their perch on the telegraph lines.

In a way, 2020 has been a way to reconnect with our senses, a way to reconsider and reconnect with nature.  Many of us have created a nice comfortable home for ourselves, but never spent time there to enjoy it.

With the recent restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic we must spend more time at home. So look around and perhaps you may notice many things that you no longer need.

Scene and heard

The snow has brought skiers up for a good time on our slopes and the conditions are great.

Like so many people our entire family cannot get together for Christmas. It will be a difficult not to enjoy my daughter Jeanie’s cooking and the hugs from all of my family.

A very Merry Christmas to all!

 

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Filed Under: Chester ChatterCommunity and Arts Life

About the Author: Ruthie Douglas is originally from Springfield but has called Chester her home for 58 years, and has been writing the Chester Chatter column for more than 40 of those years. Ruthie is also a longtime volunteer throughout the community.

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  1. Thom Simmons says:

    “At times we feel the need to go back to plain things. To stones, earth, grass, wind. To things we have known a long time, to what we knew when what filled the hours was dirt and a few sticks, a pile of leaves or some thin, white bones from a long dead bird. The huge rock near the creek, was not too hard to lie on then and the sun on bare skin felt warm. We did not feel the press of time as we do now. The world seemed firm and real, and life was slow, and long, and good.”
    -Carolyn Elkins