It’s holiday season now. Normally at this time of year everyone is so busy. This year I’m enjoying the quietness, the peacefulness of it all. It seems easier to focus on the meaning without so much going on. The thing I love about the holidays is that at its best, it’s both celebrating what we have, and reaching out to others and giving. Especially this year, let’s remember to reach out to others. This week we have music from Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, Dave Wiesler, Mary Cay Brass, and Bare Necessities. Julie reads poems by Susan Reid and Margaret Atwood, and Margaret Youngberg reads a poem by Sarah Williams. Take care, everyone.

Being at home in this pandemic sometimes feels like being suspended in time. My thoughts linger on memories of how things used to be, all the rich and wonderful experiences we’ve had together. I also look to the future and wonder what the world will look like afterwards. I carve out a daily routine focused on now, and the needs of today, but it is to a backdrop of memories and visions. This week we have music from Nightingale, New England Tradition, the Arrowsmith:Robb Trio, and Bare Necessities. Julie reads a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Margaret Youngberg reads a poem by John Donne, and Ben Williams reads a poem by Sara Teasdale. Take care, everyone.

Lately I think to the outside world beyond what I can see from my windows and my front porch and my neighborhood. While my day-to-day life is more local than it has ever been, more and more I’m drawn to shows about travel, fantasizing about cuisines from around the world, learning about other cultures, and I wonder what other people’s lives are like. Traveling in the mind. This week, we have music by lydia ievins, Wild Asparagus, Mary Lea, and Andrew and Noah VanNorstrand. Julie reads poems by Rumi and Charles Baudelaire, and Ben Williams reads a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Take care, everyone.

This week, we have music from Crowfoot, Jeff Warner, Andrew VanNorstrand, and Andy Davis, Becky Tracy, and Keith Murphy. Julie reads poems by Ross Gay and Susan Reid, and Ben Williams reads a poem by Kitty O’Meara. Wherever we are this Thanksgiving, I want to give thanks for the richness of this community, the beautiful music, the dancing and laughter that are normally a part of our traditions, and the wonderful people in it. Hard times can make us feel gratitude even more strongly for what we still have, and inspire us to savor the joys of life among the hardship, and the small beauties and kindnesses that are always around us even in the darkest days. Let’s remember to reach out to others and support each other to keep our community connected. Together, we can get through this. Take care, everyone.

Our outdoor walks have changed because the leaves are gone, the days get dark early, and it’s getting cold. And they’ve also changed because the pandemic is worsening. This is uncharted territory for most of us. With the darkness and the cold and the isolation, we find ourselves drawing inwards. There is a richness to be found there. And yet we should remember to reach out to people around us who are isolated. This week we have music from Tim Ball and Sophie Orzechowski, Wild Asparagus, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, and Julie Vallimont. Ben Williams reads the text of a hymn by Frederick Hosmer, Margaret Youngberg reads a poem by Walt Whitman, and Julie reads a poem by John O’Donohue. If you’re enjoying this podcast, join our community of supporters on Patreon! Take care, everyone.

It’s a time of great change in our country amid what is already a time of change, with the pandemic and the seasons. To anchor myself, I latch onto the rhythms of cyclical things, like the changing of seasons, the tide coming in and out, our breath as it comes in and out of our body. This week we have music from Chimney Swift, Ian Robb, Anadama, and The Bright Wings Chorus. Charis Boke reads a poem by Kabir, and Julie reads poems by Ellen Bass and Cale Young Rice, with music by Rachel Panitch. Take care, everyone.

Well, it’s Election Day. And there is a lot of uncertainty about what the future will hold. I hope that this beautiful music and poetry lifts you up. We all have memories of joyful times stored within us, and getting in touch with those memories can help us remember what we are fighting for, the wonders of our world, and help us get through dark days. Abraham Lincoln once recounted, “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!” This week we have music from Nightingale, Lissa Schneckenburger, the Teacups, and a live recording of Julie Vallimont with Anna Patton, Lissa Schneckenburger, and Elsie Gawler. Elizabeth Alexander reads her own poem, in a recording from the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. Ben Williams reads a poem by Derek Mahon, and Julie reads a poem by Rumi. Take care, everyone.

While the geese are migrating this fall, I’ll be staying put. I’m getting out my warm clothes, firing up the heat, lighting a backyard fire from time to time as a way to see friends. And bracing myself for change. And I’ll be thinking of the incredible feat of migration, the way the birds and other animals travel thousands of miles, and yet always come back. This week, we have music from the Greenfield Dance Band, Keith Murphy, Phoenix, Tristan Henderson, and Pete Sutherland. Julie reads poems by Mary Oliver and Rumi, and Lorelei Erisis reads a poem by Susan Reid. Have you seen our Patreon yet? You can find the link to our Patreon or donate directly here: https://starsintherafters.com/donate/. Take care, everyone.

As the days get shorter, and colder, and the fall colors begin to fade, we might see each other less now that it’s harder to be outside. But we can find a way, and sometimes remembering how things used to be, while also imagining what they could be, gIves me just enough spark to motivate myself to reach out. The fact that we miss our friendships, our communities, and our traditions so much shows how important they are to us. And they will still be there to rekindle whenever the growing season begins again. This week we have music from lydia ievins, Maivish, Lissa Schneckenburger, and Jacob Chen. Sam Sanders reads a poem by Susan Reid with piano accompaniment by Aaron Marcus. Ben Williams reads a poem by Sara Teasdale, and Julie reads a poem by Albert Phelps.

Fall colors are everywhere. The mornings start cold now, but then the noontime sun burns off the fog over the mountain to reveal the trees with their hues of yellow, red, orange and infinite shades in between. There’s so much going on in the world right now, so much uncertainty on both a big scale and in every day life, my head is spinning. Fall is all about change. So without knowing what’s ahead, today I sit in the sun and embrace the beauty of what we have right now, and the promise of things to come. This week, we have music from the Echo Women’s Choir, the Arrowsmith:Robb Trio, Andrew VanNorstrand, Live Wire, and Jeremiah McLane. Margaret Youngberg reads a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Julie reads a poem by Susan Reid, and Ben Williams reads a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Take care, everyone.