Ival Stratford Kovner
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| Ival and Ron sitting at Trail Train Stop NY State with Cole |
This was written by an A. I. on request by my husband, Ron - we were curious how Artificial Intelligence would write about a trail it never could or would hike! (Click on the image to read it.)
AppalachiANNA was originally written on the 75th birthday of the Appalachian Trail
Appalachianna
- Ival Stratford Kovner MS, MFA
Old girl, you have been there through three - now four - decades of our memories.
My family hiked along your route at Cornwall Bridge to meet my future husband in the Nutmeg State.
He and I camped along your sections near “Height of the Land”.
We encountered breath-taking vistas overlooking the Lakes of Rangeley.
We’ve made tracks in your mud.
We’ve made long parallel ski lines in your snow.
You shielded us - extending limbs of multi-colored leaves.
You’ve exposed your contours through grey, barren branches.
Your Balance Rock in Maine is a joy!
We were dwarfed perched upon your giant, granite shelf.
Presidentials are your buddies.
We’ve felt you curl yourself around their winding ridges as we climbed.
Our old springer spent seventeen good years along your byways, always running.
She once encountered a baby moose in your Granite State.
You have not disappointed us in nearby “Big Apple” New York State:
Cats Rock, wooden marsh walkways, even a train station solely for your hikers.
I’ve gathered rocks along your well worn paths, deposited into my husband’s backpack!
One more, beloved springer puppy dashed along your marshes on your 75th birthday!
Today, I hold each smooth stone, a reminder of your beauty, my dear Appalachianna,
Happy eighty-sixth birthday in 2023!
Our newest puppy springer waits to sniff your trail !
The trail will be 86 on 8/12/23.
Youngest female recently finished -age 15.
A 76 year old female had 300 miles to go!
Karen Sheahan was a flight attendant for 35 years
and brings a global view.
Lindsa Vallee's poetry told the story of a self-sown sunflower seed that grew to
the height of her second floor porch and remained strong even after its leaves
had dried up and its drooping head was bursting with seeds that fed the birds.
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| Two corellas share a sunflower head |
Click here for lecture by Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle
Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle, a writer and teacher, was formerly the Associate Director of the Mind/Body Clinic and a Teaching Fellow of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, where she pioneered how to bring meditation, yoga, and cognitive behavioral therapy into the medical domain to treat stress-related and chronic illness. She and her team developed one of the first training programs in Mind/Body medicine in the country and trained health professionals under the auspices of Harvard Medical School.Formerly a therapist in private practice and a Co-Director of Greenhouse, an alternative mental health collective, Olivia worked with individuals, couples, and groups. She also spent years serving as a Hospice volunteer.
Olivia's teaching and writing are inspired by over forty years of practice in psychology, Buddhist meditation, and other wisdom traditions. In addition to her roots in Christianity, she has practiced primarily Vipassana (Insight Meditation) and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as in a devotional tradition from India.
Having taught contemplative practices in a wide variety of settings such as government agencies, hospitals, churches, businesses, school systems, and meditation centers, she is currently focusing on conscious aging, elder issues, and living the contemplative life.
Her award winning book, Ten Thousand Joys & Ten Thousand Sorrows: A Couple's Journey Through Alzheimer's, is a narrative memoir of how she and her husband handled his illness, drawing inspiration from their background in Buddhist practice. Her book was translated into Chinese, Korean, Dutch, and Japanese, and recorded for the National Library Service for the Blind. Now an elder with two grown children and four grandsons, she lives in Massachusetts and loves to spend time in Vermont where she grows vegetables, welcomes family and friends, and steeps herself in the glories of nature.
References:
Prayer for the Grace to Age Well By Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu
When the signs of age begin to mark my body, and still more when they touch my mind,
When the illness that is to diminish me or carry me off strikes from without or is born within me;
When the painful moment comes to which I suddenly awaken to the fact that I am growing ill or growing old; and
Above all at the last moment when I feel I am losing hold of myself and am absolutely passive within the hands of the great unknown forces that have formed me,
In all these dark moments, 0 God,
Grant that I may understand that it is you—provided only my faith is strong enough—
who is painfully parting the fibers of my being in order to penetrate to the very marrow of my substance and bear me away within yourself.
Henri Nouwen, Dutch priest and author
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