Living Designs

I've kept a personal journal for years, and about 15 years ago started rereading and then trashing journals from childhood. Really, they were incredibly boring, repetitious, obsessive. I reread them for my own memories, but felt they simply wouldn't be things I'd like to leave for others to read. There are journals worth reading. The writings of Winston Churchill, of Virginia Woolf, the diaries of Anais Nin, or the journals as novels of Doris Lessing. However, I've always wanted to have some sort of worthy journal. One friend notes down all the books he's read, movie he's seen, etc., and he makes small notes to himself about his impressions. So: Diamond, Jared. (2005). Collapse. NY: Penguin Press Science. I read this after having read a manuscript about anxiety disorders, written by a bright and interesting psychiatrist, with whom I'd hope to work on a manuscript, as a copyeditor, editor, co-writer. I started delving back into genetics, biochemistry, etc, ha...

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Have you ever fallen asleep in the grass, or in the woods, on a warm, slightly breezy day? It's the most delicious experience to feel that safe in nature. Copyright 2007 Elizabeth M. Burke

I don’t see children playing outside these days. Not even in rural areas. On sunny, snowy winters, I’d expect to see children out sledding, building snow forts, or skating. In the summers, I wonder why I don’t see children out playing kick the can, or any of the myriad of other games children create when they get together. I’m not the only one who has noticed this. My adult friends say the same. I’ve seen more elderly and middle-aged people outdoors—sledding, flying down a hill, laughing, arms in the air, and then trudging back up the hill, their skin looking healthily flushed, faces open with smiles. I’ve seen middle-aged men out playing with a remote control toy airplane. You could tell from their body language they were having fun. In my youth, kids went outside after school. We were physically very active and healthy. We learned through each other the rules of fair play. We became concerned about changes in our neighborhood that affected our playing fields. We gained in coordinatio...

Anxiety has been treated for years as an individual medical problem, but it has also been treated as a problem related to a stressful environment. Therapists and doctors recognize the role stress has in our lives, even if they don't focus much on the systems we live in. They more often focus on how you as an individual manage the stress. I think it is important to look at both issues, because I believe environments and systems (people systems, work systems, community systems) can be very stress inducing. We think we "should" be able to handle stressful environments, without wondering whether in fact we have created environments we are not really well able to adapt to. It's an odd question to ask one's self: How is it humans could create systems and environments they aren't really well suited to--spiritually or health wise? But I think it is an important question to ask. In fact, humans have created systems of living that end up collapsing. In my work with peop...

The first image is a wood block print, two-color. The second is of a species of Datura that has arrived at the beaches of Long Island, Maine--an new arrival. It is a watercolor. Creativity is not just imagining things, but being attentive, and allowing our individually honed perceptions to find expression.

When people think about decorating their homes, they often think about "buying" things, and getting things finished. But a home can be an expression of deep needs for belonging and being able to express the self without fear of judgment. As much as a a house may belong to us, we may wonder if we belong to a home. It can be extremely therapeutic to consider one's home a process of self and family expression, rather than a showroom for someone else's design, or a showroom of market determined values. If you're decorating or modeling your house thinking only of its resale value, can you truly feel "at home"? Are you afraid that if you hand-paint a wall, as this wall in the picture, someone else will think your house "too funky"? Ah, as long as the walls are intact, the cellar dry, the electric wiring good, the plumbing operational, why not express yourself fully? You can repaint that wall before selling your house. But I also believe that a home w...

The Yurt : July 13, 2006 This is my 20 foot-wide yurt on an island off the coast of Portland, Maine. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but inside is a mystery of light and space. I built it as a means to have a place I could live in when others were using my family's cabin, because I want to live simply during months when it is feasible. The aesthetics of living in a building where you can hear the birds, the ocean, the wind--all very clearly--is very different from those of living in a building where you hear televisions, cars, loud music you may or may not like. Living without electricity really gets you to think about energy and light. Living without running water really gets you to think about how much water you use daily generally when in contemporary housing. That awareness can bring a greater appreciation and value to resources we take for granted. Summer 2006 readings: Gawande, Atul. "The Malpractice Mess: Dealing with Doctors' Mistakes." (2005, ...