Clare Consultation, LLCPosted on November 7, 2011 by Mary Clare
Standard Time
I just got on the bus. It’s Sunday afternoon. As I enter, I step carefully around two people rummaging the floor; an older woman with “a serious disability, so I can’t stand up,” and a short balding man. Both are bent over and reaching to pick up the contents of a spilled purse. The large black handbag belongs to the young mom who sits at the front of the bus with an… Read More
Posted on October 29, 2011 by Mary Clare
Bloke – AKA Barber Babes Redux
Halloween. Perfect. A day when we let ourselves be a bit less in denial of the fact things both are and aren’t as they appear. Change is change is change. This is the storefront I wrote about in May. My new friend Justin is the botanical artist who recently took over the space 6 months after the Barber Babes had to call it quits. Over the past few years Justin has followed… Read More
Posted on October 22, 2011 by Mary Clare
These Questions Belong to You Now
I’ve had three meetings so far today. One with a Yaqui man who is a veteran and a student. “For me it is a question of balance,” he said. “Internal balance. External balance.” Half of his bagel sat on its small plate with one semi-circular bite gone for the entire time we talked. I also met with a woman activist. She had a question. “I’m just so curious about what people would… Read More
Posted on October 16, 2011 by Mary Clare
A Squirrel Story
Wednesday morning, October 5, I was filling time before my mom arrived at the Portland airport. She was on a nonstop from ATL that had left at 3 a.m. Pacific Time. She turned 77 in September. That’s a long way on little sleep. She’s my hero! The real truth of the matter is, I had been a bit uber–intense (who me?) with getting the house clean and adorable enough for my mom… Read More
Posted on October 9, 2011 by Mary Clare
Video of this Week’s Book Release Event
Books shipped on October 1. By Thursday night at Annie Bloom’s Bookstore in Portland, OR the word was out enough to draw a full house for the first public reading from 100 VOICES – AMERICANS TALK ABOUT CHANGE. We were thrilled with the turn out and completely delighted with the fact that the store sold out of books. Now, thanks to the talent and generosity of friend and volunteer, Jesse Combs here… Read More
Posted on October 2, 2011 by Mary Clare
Mr. Prude – III
“I didn’t make the second cut.” Mr. Prude was smiling. We’d run into one another again in the crosswalk on Sandy Boulevard and I’d turned to walk with him back toward the dialysis center. We stopped to stand on the sidewalk just beyond the old Barber Babes (EX:C blog, “I’m Not Done Yet,” 5-21-2011). Mr. Prude had been telling me about being just back from Joseph, OR where he’d spent a week… Read More
Posted on September 11, 2011 by Mary Clare
Moments in the Weave
It’s 9-10-11. I just landed in Washington DC National Airport. Tonight my niece will be married on the banks of thePotomac– first of that generation. Wow – turn-turn-turn and all of that – change, for sure! Constancy, too. Expense, distance and daily matters of consequence set aside as all the family that can gathers. This is what families do. It’s one way we love each other, taking these opportunities to cinch up… Read More
Posted on September 4, 2011 by Mary Clare
Listening to the Military
It’s Labor Day. Over the course of our country’s history, one place many people have found work has been in the military. I’m not a military person. I know a few veterans and I like them but outside movies, newscasts and the anti-war protests I’ve been a part of over the years, I know almost nothing about military service. I hadn’t counted until now, but turns out six of the people who… Read More
Posted on August 14, 2011 by Mary Clare
The Streets of London and a Bridge in Portland, OR
There are weeks when I think, “I have no idea what to write in this week’s blog.” Really. Lots of them. Then, without fail, events turn. They may be close in like with bus rides, or widespread like weather, or painful like the death of a dear one. They can also seem to have nothing to do with one another, and then, out of the nowhere of random neuron firings, I see… Read More
Posted on August 7, 2011 by Mary Clare
Climate — Listening to know for sure
I have a friend in South Dakota who lives in a town that flooded last month. It was near completely under water. I have another friend who lives in Akiak, Alaska who told me about the tundra taking on a smell, thawing for the first time in his life or in the lives of his ancestors who have lived there for many thousand years. Then there was the photo my dad managed to… Read More