{"id":14780,"date":"2025-06-04T08:53:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T15:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/?p=14780"},"modified":"2025-06-04T08:54:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T15:54:00","slug":"a-discovery-while-walking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/2025\/06\/a-discovery-while-walking\/","title":{"rendered":"A discovery while walking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday I was walking in a new area, along a lakefront in the nearby town of Ellsworth. I spotted a bench in a little evergreen grove that looked like it might be a park, but there was no signage. The bench was appealing so I walked up to it. It was a memorial to someone I knew! I didn’t know her well, but I attend the same meditation center as she and her husband Sylvester Pollet (who passed away in 2007, before my time there). I went to a memorial service for her at the center back in 2023, shortly after she passed on May 28, 2023. Just over two years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MaJo’s Obituary<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MaJo’s memorial bench<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had another fragile connection with MaJo and Sylvester. When I lived in Connecticut, I was more involved in poetry than I am now. I followed a number of obscure poets and poetry groups online. I found out that a complete poetry collection of chaplets* called Backwoods Broadsides was for sale. I had no connection at that time to Sylvester Pollet, MaJo, or even Ellsworth, except as a town I passed through on the way to Franklin, where Sam and I vacationed a couple of times a year. But I felt like I had to have that collection. So I ordered it. It wasn’t expensive and came in a beautifully wrapped cardboard box. I browse the chaplets occasionally, but not as thoroughly as I’d like to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*chaplet = portmanteau word combining chapbook and booklet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My post the day I received Backwoods Broadsides<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting back to the bench — I sat on it for awhile. There was some communication between me and MaJo that there never was in real life. I asked her for help. I’m not sure what kind of help I wanted, some guidance on life and death, I guess. I felt comforted and I still feel a sense of strength when I think about discovering that sturdy granite bench, with her name and “good trouble” engraved on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the chaplets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The box<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Blue Flag iris in bud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was walking in a new area, along a lakefront in the nearby town of Ellsworth. I spotted a bench in a little evergreen grove that looked like it might be a park,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-walking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_9980-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14784,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14780\/revisions\/14784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}