Desert Laura

My little hut on the mountain OK, finally, I'm over it. The fog I've been feeling is gone . vanished. I was talking to a friend the other day about how social workers really do a horrible job of taking care of ourselves. Our lives, our work, consume us. Plus, I'm good at telling everyone else how to relax, but I stink at it. So, little by little, over the past 6 months or so, I've been feeling like my emo kids at school...I had the FUNK. And I couldn't get out of it. So, 2 weeks ago instead of going to the desert to volunteer during my vacation, or to Disneyland with my sister and her family, I went to Cascabel Hermitage in Cascabel, Arizona. Yup, hermitage. On Wednesday, I hiked 1/2 hour up a mountain escorted by Daniel my caretaker, plopped atop a mountain mesa with two 10 gallon jugs of water, a table, cot, chair and tent ramada, and left to my own accord until Saturday. Daniel showed me how to use the "toilet" and said he'll see me down the ...

The White House will have a garden. An ode to Spring, I thought this is refreshing news. The New York Times is reporting that Michael Pollan’s dream will come true, as a 1,100 square foot patch of [useless] White House lawn will be dug up and replaced with 55 varieties of vegetables and fruits. As I'm busy tilling my little patch of earth and planting more basil, summer squash, zucchinis and tomatoes, the White House decided that would be a good idea, too I remember when having a garden was a hippy thing to do. Who knew it'd be the "in thing" nowadays to have dirt under your fingernails and find intense pleasure in pulling out a turnip, or discovering your grocery store is in your backyard. Well, at least for me it is. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the NY Times article : “First of all,” Mrs. Obama said, “there’s nothing really cooler than coming to the White House and harvesting some of the vegetables and being in the ki...