This Month’s Featured Articles…

Woven into the tapestry of our lives is the culmination of all that we have experienced. From the fertile soil of our childhood, formative years where each moment has the capability of leaving an indelible impression, to our howling youth, where our sense of who we are within begins to breathe its first gasps of life. For most of us, assigning a temporality to the meaning of our lives has become a matter of course. For each passing phase we assume the previous has resolved [...]

Great Mountain Forest (GMF) is an emerald jewel in the crown of an area that covers over 6,000 acres in Norfolk and Canaan, CT. It also tells many stories – an understory of ecological diversity, a succession story of trees and families, a restoration story, a conservation story, but most of all, a love story between the forest and its stewards. Working forest GMF is what’s known as  a “working forest,” which according to the World Resources Institute means that it is “actively managed to [...]

  As Thanksgiving fades, thoughts turn to Christmas, carol-singing, gift-giving, and general merriment. But for many it is a season of sadness and despair. Homelessness and hunger are prevalent in so many of our local towns. But Torrington, CT, has two organizations that are helping to bring cheer to those who need it most. Prime Time House Prime Time House, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, is a branch of Clubhouse International, a community-based membership organization designed to support people living with mental illness, offering [...]

Although it is naturally the darkest time of the year, color abounds in the holiday shopping season. Starting with Black Friday (when retailers get out of the red), stores rake in the green with fairy tales of white Christmases in their displays and soundtracks of Blue Christmas pumped through their speakers. Sparkly lights and tinsel dazzle shoppers into purchasing the latest technology, which lights up with flashing LEDs and pulsing blue panels. It’s a sensory overload, really. Pine-scented everything, an endless parade of sweets, and snuggly pullovers [...]

As we grudgingly move farther away from youth and toward the prosaic shelf of adulthood, so too does the feeling of the holiday season at times. What was once the happy mirth of familiar songs accompanied by the closeness of family now has the habit of feeling replaced by obstinate seasonal responsibilities. Often though, we gaze back over our collective shoulders, searching fondly for the nostalgic thread that links the innocent wonder of holidays past with our desire to once again be filled with kinship [...]