Alphabet Soup Compiled by Martha Allen
Poems by Lagunitas Community School 6 th and 7 th grade class
Storm by Maddy Horne
The slow, soft, pitter, patter Quickly turns into a constant roar As if the rain Has an idea to flood On, off, on, off, on, intensify, repeat This seems to be the code for this storm The birds gather on the field Feasting on the bedragled, waterlogged worms
Just Born by Audrey Gagliardone
Just born. Like the flowers blooming in the morning dew. Dawn rising from the dark night She goes to school, a few years off. And now, faster than a beam of light, A colored blur… She's all grown up. Moving out. I didn't see her much after that, but I know she is living on her own now. She ages like a speckle of water, drying in the sun. And like a book, her life closes. The final words of her story are faint as silk. The sunset peacefully sinks beneath the mountains, weak light, fading.
From their flooded homes They were washed from
The water flows on
The dew drops Gather on the waterlogged leafs, The plants unable to take Anymore water front he sky
Troubled Times by Sage White
The sun slowly approaches the world As if it is a kid being pushed into the middle of a stage It slowly gains confidence It comes out
What helps you get by when you're having a bad day and you just feel like giving up? What do you do? Do you go for a walk in nature with a pet or do you deny it all and watch social media. For me what helps me get through is hanging out with my friends and family and playing sports. What helps me get by during hard times is staying busy and not focusing on the negative but focusing on the positive.
And brightens the world Fern (A New Voice) by Larken Sylvester
As the tip of my new-born wings unfurl, Exposing miniscule drops of soon-to-be sunshine-battered pollen, A squeal threatens to burst From my joyful tongue. The forest’s shaded comfort begins to glow With a raw Luminescence. Unheard of.
Who Are You? by Indi Zimring
Who are you I am the sun just before it breaks the dawn I am the rain damp and sweet like sugar I am the echo of ghosts in the dark I am the snow topped hills crisp and bright I am the pencil that draws the night into the sky I am the spark of hope in the horizon I am just one star in the night sky shining among others Who are you?
Unspoken of. Unthought of. the presence of a new outrageous, dream-driven, catastrophically controversial Opinion.
Reflections by Suzanne Sadowsky
So here I was depressed with no job, no place to go, no meetings, very few local friends and not a clue as to what to do with myself for the rest of my life. I needed help. I decided to go ahead and phone my friend Sharon Lebell in Woodacre to share my plight of loneliness and despair. Sharon is a generation younger than me and much wiser. She listened and generously offered to come over to my house and sit with me, have some tea and just talk. After a few weeks Sharon had an idea: she said I should take a pad of paper and for the next ten days, make a list each day of 10 things that I could possibly want to do or accomplish. It didn’t matter what. It could be anything – travel, go to graduate school, look for a husband, anything, no matter how unrealistic or possible it might seem. By the seventh day of this exercise, a vision emerged: it came to me that I wanted there to be a Jewish congregation in my San Geronimo Valley community. After all, there was a Catholic Church a Protestant church and Spirit Rock. So why not a Jewish congregation? How to make that happen? And so I began. I went to see Dave Cort at the San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center and asked if I could put a brief notice in the Center’s free quarterly newspa- per. Dave said he would check with the Center’s Board Director, Jean Berensmeier who was the editor of Ridgelines (now named Stone Soup ). The next day Dave got back to me and said Yes, Jean said that it would be OK. And so in I placed a notice in the February 1992 issue that said: “A Jewish congregation is forming in the San Geronimo Valley. If you are interested, please give me a call.” A dozen or so Valley people got together for the first time at my house in Woodacre. A couple of weeks later we had our first delightful Friday night Shabbat celebration. A few of us soon agreed to meet regularly. Steve Friedland facilitated our discussions at the home of Richard and Penina Maier (of blessed memory). We chose a name, the Jewish Congregation of the San Geronimo Valley, developed a mission statement, created By-laws, formed a Board of Directors and officially became a 501©3 non-profit religious organization. I had a new sense of purpose. I was no longer alone. I had found my Jewish community. Between 1938 and 1940, when I was a very young child living in Brooklyn, the Nazis had begun occupying Eastern Europe, rounding up Jews and sending them to concentration camps. To save their children, some parents were able to make the heartbreaking decision to send their children away to England where they were
In the Beginning….
I remember like it was yesterday—a rainy, winter morning in January 1991, thirty-five years ago. I was in the midst of an existential crisis. It was one of those really dark, bleak mid-winter days in the San Geronimo Valley, a day that matched my mood. Heather, my 17-year old was off for the day to high school. In another year she would be going to college. Here I was, an unemployed middle-aged, divorced, single mom, the sole support of my family. I was alone, by myself at home with no place to go, nothing to do. No sense of purpose. A couple of months earlier I had left my job. I was an Economist, a Division Chief, at the Bureau of Labor Statistics Regional Office in San Francisco. It was a really good responsible position and an interesting career. I could have continued to work, but after 34 years with the BLS, it was time and I could hardly wait to leave. I was able to retire on November 30, 1990, my 55th Birthday and I was so thrilled. No more getting up at the crack of dawn to catch the commuter bus in Fairfax to the City. No more weeks away from home for out-of-town business trips. I realized there would be a lot of uncertainty for us. Heather was also going through a time of major transitions in her own life. But it was time. When Heather was 7 years old and in the 2nd grade, I had been diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer and given less than a 30 percent chance of surviving. David Lakes was my Kaiser oncologist. I was scared to death, frightened that I wouldn’t live to see her grow up. What would happen to her? Who would take care of her? But after a year of surgery and chemo, the cancer went into remission. I had sur- vived. All that time when I was being treated and for the next eight years I had been longing for the time when I could retire and finally become a stay-at-home mom. It would mean a much lower income, much less money to live on. At some point I would find part time work, but in the meantime I knew we could manage.
Page 14 SGV Community Center Stone Soup
Reflections continues on page 19
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