Author: janaseitz1
-
Seeking Your Level
Although we all call Rye home, most of us aren’t from here. We hail from all over the world, often finding our way through New York as so many before us. “Home” becomes a nuanced term when you’re not from where you call it, especially when you’ve started your own family whose home it is.…
-
Get Thee to a Friary
Oh goodness now I’ve gone and done it. I’ve fallen in love. With a friar. Actually 3 friars….and a retreat guide. Not the kind of love in the movies, but rather a healthy dose of “agape,” the Greek word for a love of everyone, whether family or strangers – God’s love. In a Lenten attempt to…
-
Chapter 6: Bad Ass Things To Know
“Peregrination” is another word for adventure, meaning “a journey, especially a long or meandering one.” There can be a lot of time to fill during one’s peregrinations while you’re exploring. It’s nice to have something interesting in your head while trying hard to think of nothing. Emptying your mind of chatter is easier when you fill…
-
Cabin Fever
Let’s face it: we’re all going a little crazy. We’ve been good – really really good. We’ve stayed home with our families for a solid year now. We’ve become intimate with our own houses in ways we never imagined possible. We’ve become more self-reliant, realized that less is more, and returned our focus for the…
-
Laying Down Some Tracks
It was thoughtful of the winter gods to give us a parting gift right before March roared in. That (hopefully) last snowfall was perfection, like a robin’s-egg blue box with a big white bow on top. Everyone was snug as a bug in a rug before it hit, plenty of snowplows standing by to clear…
-
Chapter 5: “But What Do I Wear?!”
This is usually the first question friends ask when I announce I’m going to kidnap them. Even before they know where we’re going. The answer is always, “something comfortable.” Fashion gets the shaft. Most of the time I pretty much look like a wannabe forest ranger. I don’t even notice anymore…until I get stares from the…
-
In The Company of Women
I recently had the honor of going on an upland shoot with G.R.I.T.S., not Girls Raised In The South, but Girls Really Into Shooting. The group was started about fifteen years ago by a Virginian named Elizabeth Fennell, a member of both acronym definitions. The Hudson Valley chapter with whom I shot has a loose…
-
In The Company of Men
I recently had the honor of duck hunting with my friend Charlie, another redneck in the ‘burbs who is an avid hunter and fisherman. As it was the last day of the season, he invited three guides from a nearby shooting club to come along for fun rather than business. I’m sure they didn’t know what…
-
Chapter 4: Know Your Terrain
Westchester County was established in 1683 and named for Chester, England. It covers 500 square miles, of which 430 are land and 69 are water. It’s divided into five sections: Hudson River Towns (bordered to the west by the Hudson River), the Sound Shore (bordered to the east by the Long Island Sound), Southern Westchester (bordered to the south…
-
The Christmas Miracle of 1776
So this is Christmas. And it’s tainted by disease and politics. And its been hard.But chin up. I share a tale of another Christmas tainted by disease (smallpox) and politics (the American Revolution) which may help put things in perspective. I bear glad tidings: our founders prevailed, as shall we. In my ramblings I’ve covered the…