IT'S BEEN AN AMAZING WEEK SO FAR....

Eliza and I left Marietta last Friday (3/17) and headed to Lexington, KY to see one of my lifelong best friends, mentor, grad school prof, and favorite Brit, Dr. Brian J. Dendle.

There are just not words that can adequately express the tremendous respect and love I have for "BJ." I remember the first seminar I had with him in graduate school as being the hardest and most intimidating class I had ever had...I knew nothing about the 19th century peninsular literature; Dr. Brian J. Dendle was recognized as one of the world's leading scholars in that field. I had never read a single novel by Benito Pérez Galdós; Dendle's claim to fame was his expertise on the man and the hundreds of novels Galdós had written. After two days of cowering in the back of the classroom, I went to plead with my advisor (Dendle's best friend, as it turns out) to let me drop the class. Dr. MacCrary refused, and I had to stick it out.

It was lucky for me because had I dropped, I would never have gotten to know Brian Dendle. My second year as a grad student, I assisted Dendle in a summer travel program to Mexico, and upon our return, I spent the rest of the summer living at his house. Under Dendle's careful guidance, breaking only for a couple of ping pong games a day against him, I prepared for my written and oral exams.

That was over 30 years ago. We've traveled together, served as each other's sounding boards, and spent hours and hours engaged in conversations about many, many things. Brian J. Dendle is one of a very few people in whom I place total and complete trust.

What was really neat about last weekend was that Eliza got to know Dendle again. They hit it off really well, sharing the same sense of dry wit and sarcastic humor. They both had great comebacks for each other in our conversations, and she listened carefully as he talked to her about language, the importance of writing, the necessity of sound verbal skills, etc. He was wonderful with her, as she was with him.

We returned home on Sunday, and on Monday(3/20), Joe Davis and his girlfriend, Elissa, came to the farm for a visit / work days here at the farm. Over the course of two days, we cut down trees, cut up and hauled the brush into burn piles, shored up the grapevines, cut down and cleared the vines around the barn, and made a list of 500 other things we want to get done at the farm. We fixed good food, napped in between our working "shifts," got some good conversation in, and took some great walks. My gratitude to Joe, Elissa, and Joe's dad, John, is HUGE! Those guys worked their fannies off doing manual labor in the snowy cold and loved doing it!

Eliza and I have spent the evening talking about the incredible people we know and who form a part of the farm family. Joe's been around for 25 years or so, and Elissa, here for the first time, fits in as if she's been around that long as well...She's a farm natural! and such a wonderful person.

It's all about love and simple pleasures here. Hanging out.... Working the land..Cooking good food.....Listening to music....there's nothing better to share with those we love and who love us. The Farm...It's home and blessed are we to have so many who share it with us!

Spring poem....I read this every year on the first day of spring. It's a poem by Wendell Berry that I wrote down in a journal I got for Christmas in 1991....So, officially a couple of days late, I now read it again......

At the start of spring, I open a trench
in the ground. I put into it
the winter's accumulation of paper,
pages I do not want to read,
again, useless words, fragments,
errors. And I put into it
the contents of the outhouse:
light of the sun, growth of the ground,
finished with one of their journeys.

To the sky, to the wind, then,
to the faithful trees, I confess
my sins: that I have not been happy
enough, considering my own luck,
have listened to too much noise;
have been inattentive to wonders;
have lusted after praise.

And then upon the gathered refuse
of mind and body, I close the trench,
folding shut again the dark,
the deathless earth. Beneath that seal,
the old escapes into the new.

~Wendell Berry

HOORAY....!!

Winter quarter has officially come to a close for me. I just posted my last set of grades, closed my gradebook, and stashed it in my desk. For a week, I plan on clearing my mind of anything and everything related to work. Plans for spring break? Visit a dear friend, mentor, and former professor in KY who has been an incredible inspiration in my life....See my sister-in-law (sister of my ex-husband) and her daughters...Work on the farm a couple of days...Head to NC to visit parents and Sammy....Hang out with Eliza....Sleep...Walk...Do yoga....Read a novel....PLAY !!!!

My gratitude at the moment is for ....Some wonderful students who didn't let up toward the end....My yoga students for really allowing themselves to think out of the box and get into our Wednesday afternoon practices....My wonderful beyond words office mate, Mary Ann.....My fellow Level 4 colleague, Deb....Tom J. and Dr. Tom....The end of the quarter!

The sun is shining brightly as I prepare to lock the door and walk to my car....
One more quarter and then it's time for SUMMER break!!!!!

HOORAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOONIS TAKES A BOW...

Loonis, the fetch-playing cat and princess of the felines here at the farm, was totally into "feeling her oats" the other day while I attempted to do some work around the side yard. As I pulled weeds, she distracted me by pouncing on every dried blade of grass that wiggled. While I carried off the limbs I pruned, she attacked each pile from some hidden perch along the path to the brush pile. And, more than once, I spotted her feisty grin and swishing tail before she would jump out at me, arch her back, and go hopping sideways across the yard. Her final feat of the day was to climb the grapevine post and swat at my head as I stood there debating where to make the first cut in my pruning endeavors. In short, it was play time for her and time to forget about the pruning for me.

Loonis, named for some famous North Carolinian whose name Eliza and I spotted on a coffee table book , came from the animal pound. The moment I walked in the door at that smelly place, this little gray ball of fur began meowing at the top of her lungs, fixed her eyes directly upon me, and bellowed until I approached her cage. She was quite a persuasive little kitten because she didn't let up until I held her, and when I tried to put her back in the cage, she whimpered so, so pitifully that Eliza and Lori (who had already picked out 2 more kittens!!) insisted that Loonis complete a threesome that we ended up bringing home. (Unfortunately the other two adoptees, Yoda and Bibbis, went to Kitty Heaven not long thereafter--one as a result of illness and the other as a result of an accident.)

That was almost three years ago, and Loonis, the surviving feline from the trip to the shelter, has staked her claim as the only cat who sleeps on my bed (much to Hendrix's chagrin) and the only cat who eats indoors. Currently her favorite pastimes include bringing her felt ball to whomever is at the computer for a game of fetch (and jumping up on the keyboard to dance about until the person there picks up the ball to throw it again...quite annoying when one is preparing an important document like a final exam), attacking the paper as it comes out of the computer printer, swatting at heads from underneath the banister when one walks down the stairs, and randomly zipping through the house while stalking some imaginary bird or rodent.

For me, she's a lesson in getting what she wants and doing so without a second thought. And beyond that, when things get too serious, she's the world's best teacher about the importance of chasing your tail until you flop over, getting up, flashing a big grin, and doin' it again!

Twilight Cacophony....

I grabbed the laundry basket this evening and headed down to the basement...
With ideas ping-ponging around in my head,
I threw the dirty clothes into the washing machine without giving a second thought to sorting them....
Tossed in the detergent ....and
Walked back outside....somewhat dazed, fatigued....

That's whenI heard it - -
The first concert of the year
Down by the pond.
Hundreds of voices announcing their transformation
from tadpoles to wannabe bullfrogs...
Adolescent amphibians
joining in a spring chorus...vibrations in unison...
Crescendo...pause...
The second verse....

It was magical....a connection to the same moment year after year
and to the memories it brings...

The first song of the "peepers...."
March 9, 2006.....

International Women's Day
March 8, 2006

"The campaigns of the people are weak only when the hearts of women are not recruited to carry them out. But when women step in and help, when the naturally shy and quiet woman stands up and applauds, when the cultured and virtuous woman annoints the task with the sweetness of her affection, the campaign becomes invincible." ~José Martí

(The flower to the left is the Mariposa, the national flower of Cuba.)

PROUD MOM.....
(I'm going to brag a bit here.....)

Today, and always, but especially today, I'm a very proud mom. Sweet Eliza, my baby girl who is definitely not a baby anymore, tried out for the high school color guard squad yesterday and was selected! Go Eliza!! She's such a great kid. While other moms talk about the difficulties of living with their teenage daughters, I sit back and count my blessings. Eliza's very easy...easy to live with...easy to get along with....easy to hang out with...She's bright, beautiful, and loving, has a GREAT sense of humor, and enjoys life to the fullest....I'm delighted for her....Can't wait to see her marching with the band and performing on the field!

And Samuel...wow...what an incredible young man! His transformation over the past year and a half has been so great to witness...His mind is active and curious--his intellect, keen. He's hoping to do an internship at a winery in NC this summer, make a little cash, and eventually study abroad. The adventures that await him will be AMAZING, for sure! Samuel's a wonderful person and one of the most sensitive and caring young men I've ever known.

I suppose one of my greatest satisfactions is that I know my kids make this world a better place...I know that sounds cliché, but it's true, and for that, I am very, very proud.

OK, on to other things....

This amaryllis is the second to bloom here at the farm this winter / almost spring. When I walked into the dining room this morning, it was the first thing I fixed my eyes upon. It's a little pinker than the photo shows...very delicate and feminine. Other plant friends are getting ready to blossom---I'm really excited about the orchids that are sending out bloom shoots.

Best get outside and enjoy the day. It's chilly, but way too pretty to be inside.

May whoever reads this find themselves in a space of total happiness and joy!

~T~

IT'S BEEN ONE OF THOSE DAYS....
when all I can do is laugh at myself....

This morning--
While standing in front of the bathroom mirror waiting for the hair dryer to start blowing air and thinking all the while that it was broken, it dawned on me that I had plugged in the iron.

Later in the morning--
I walked into the kitchen outside my office and stood there with my keys in my hand, attempting to open the refrigerator door.

This afternoon--
I went to the women's restroom to change my clothes for yoga class. I took off my dress, hose, etc. to put on my yoga attire and realized that I had left it on my desk in my office. So, I had to re-dress, go get my clothes, return to the ladies' room, and start all over again.

Two more days until Friday........I think I need a break!

IT'S MARCH !!
(well, not officially as I write, but probably so when folks read this)

This is the drawing on my calendar (Llewellyn's Witches Calendar 2006) for March, and I love it! According to the info on the calendar, it's an original scratchboard piece done by Jennifer Hewitson. I'd really like to meet her and see more of her drawings! (I hope I've given proper credit and haven't committed copyright infringements! If so, someone let me know, please.)

This afternoon, I picked up the pruning shears and began the first in a LONG list of spring chores here at the farm. I've read up on pruning roses, so I snipped the ones back that looked like they survived the winter and proceeded to pull some weeds down around the barn and clear the dead grass and rotten stalks from around the irises and peonies. My mind was working a mile a minute as I visualized what I'm going to plant where and the colors that would surround the house and yard in just a few weeks / months.

I'm amazed at how full the buds are on the early bloomers. Daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips are beginning to send shoots out to test out the temps above ground. It's early, and I hope Ole' Man Winter doesn't come through with a blast that wipes them out.

The corgis and three cats followed me everywhere I worked and added their assistance by getting under my feet and chasing the sticks I was throwing out of the veggie and flower beds. As I was cutting some weeds, I remembered poison ivy lurked in the area last year, so my hope is that all the vines I handled were not that pesty stuff.

I had a great afternoon! When I came in, instead of watching the evening news, I put on some nice jazz, fixed a couple of BocaBurgers and warmed up some collard greens (the Southern girl in me has to have some greens once in a while), and ate a leisurely dinner and looked at the second amaryllis I have in bloom on the table.

Now it's off to write bills.....

Welcome to March!!

SPRING IS SPRINGING.....

These little crocuses have been in the south-facing flower bed for over 25 years now. I remember planting them there hurriedly one fall afternoon because I didn't have any other place for them. So, I just stuck them in the ground with the promise that I would move them the next fall to a well-prepared bed with lots of other annuals.

Two and a half decades later and still in the same place after having been up-rooted various times, these loyal, delicate, precious harbingers of spring herald the coming of warmer weather.

My calendar tells me that Spring officially arrives on Monday, March 20--three weeks from tomorrow. In the Pagan tradition, the Spring Equinox rejoices in the rebirth of spring-- a time when the light returns and begins to surpass the time we spend in darkness each day--a time to contemplate growth and new beginnings....

I'm inspired by the crocuses to sharpen my pruning shears, get the roses and grapes clipped back, turn the compost, get the farm equipment in running order, and dig in the dirt. I'm a double Virgo; both my sun and moon signs are Virgo, and for those of us with that astrological placement, there's nothing better than getting our hands in the Earth! I'm looking forward to bare foot gardening and dirty fingernails!

Wiser than I thought.....

My plan for today was to get away from the office, have lunch with my students, go to the accountant to take care of my taxes, and come home early in the afternoon to enjoy the sun and get a couple of things done around the house....

HOWEVER.....

While waiting for my turn with the accountant, I decided to have a piece of chewing gum- the soft kind that isn't hard to chew, of course. About five or six chomps after I put the gum in my mouth, I felt an EXCRUCIATING pain shoot up my right jaw. Although I didn't sense any tooth parts in my mouth, obviously something had happened to one of my back teeth on the right side.

To make a long story short, I sat in the accountant's office with a wad of Kleenex packed up against the tooth to lessen the pain as I tried to convince myself that it would go away. When the sweet woman behind the desk asked me if I needed help, I realized the my efforts to make it appear that I wasn't in pain were failing miserably.

As soon as I got to the car, I called my dentist, only to find out that he and his staff don't work on Fridays. His nice office message provided an emergency number, and it took very little time for me to call it! When Dr. L. heard the explanation of what had occurred, he ordered me to come meet him at the office immediately. (Then I began to worry that I was REALLY up the creek!)

So, two hours later, I am out of pain (except for a dull throb in the area) , have a prescription for mega-Motrin if I need it, and have found out that I might have to have some extensive dental work in the near future.

BUT, here's the real surprise of the afternoon....An X-ray of my upper back teeth show that I have an impacted wisdom tooth!!! I thought this was a rather strange thing since I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed about 25 years ago, but Dr. L. says one can have up to three sets of wisdom teeth over the course of a lifetime. Great! Now I have to wait and see if there are others of these suckers embedded in my gums ..EERGH!

Despite the unexpected events of the day, I do have some high thoughts....

1) I am grateful to have a dentist who will drop what he's doing (he was in the process of moving to a new house) to come to my rescue.

2) I am grateful for novacaine and immediate pain relief.

3) I am grateful that I will get money back from the state and federal governments (a meager sum, but hey, it's better than paying).

4) The discovery of this heretofore undiscovered impacted tooth confirms the fact that I am a wiser person. After all, it is a WISDOM tooth.....(groan) :0) :0)

Off to start the chores I had hoped to have completed by now....Wishing all a pleasant weekend!

Amazing people...
Their stories are similar and different--Laida, an artist and human rights activist---Manuel, a prize winning poet, author, journalist--both exiled from their beloved Cuba... Laida left the island over 40 years ago, expecting to return within a year of her arrival to the United States, and Manuel came to Miami seven months ago after serving 16 months (many in solitary confinement) of incarceration in Cuban prisons. Neither know how much longer they will have to wait before they return to their island homeland; neither can predict what sort of situation they will find once they get there.

Laida remembers the Cuba of her youth as she works infatigably from her home on behalf of Cuban political prisoners. Manuel's memories of Cuba are more recent; he tells of spending days on end alone with his books, traveling in his mind to various places in the world from his darkened cell.

I listen, as always, absorbing not only their memories but also the pain of their expatriation and their compassion for all Cubans. I get a glimpse of a sparkle in their eyes as they remember Cuba before the Revolution, and I watch the sparkle quickly fade to saddness as the reality of the past +45 years sinks in yet again.

One day, we will all go there...Laida and Manuel returning to their native soil....I, accompanying them to a country whose people have made a tremendous impact in my life, to a country I know almost as well as my own, at least in my mind and my heart....

~To be loved, love.~
-Decimus Maximus Ausonius

~There are never enough "I love you"s.~
-Lenny Bruce
VALENTINE'S DAY 2006......

~The story of love is not important--
what is important is that one is capable of love...It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity....~
-Helen Hayes

~Love seeks only one thing: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love , therefore, is its own reward.~
-Thomas Merton

~Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problems of human existence.~
Erich Fromm

~A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.~
-Thomas a Kempis

~Love is patient; love is kind;
love is not jealous or boastful;
it is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.....~
I Corinthians: 4-8

MOVIE REVIEW...THE PINK PANTHER....

If you are one who can let go, not insist that every movie have some sort of deep interpretative impact, and laugh heartily, then you must see "The Pink Panther."

Steve Martin pulls it off...Yep, as Inspecteur Clousseau, he got as many laughs out of me as Peter Sellers, --so many, in fact, that at one point, I could hardly catch my breath. (And, I will confess to being quite skeptical that even Steve Martin could come close to Sellers' Clousseau.) Kevin Kline comes through as well as Inspecteur Dreyfuss.

See it..Let me know if you laughed...anyone who doesn't get a good chuckle going at the sound-proof room scene needs a laughter support group! :0)

TODAY AT THE FARM....
It's Saturday morning...overcast, chilly, tiny snowflakes beginning to fall...
Today, I don't plan to venture away from the farm...
I'm going to have some tea...
Maybe go back to bed and watch a movie...
Get up later...
Do some uninterrupted yoga..in the silence and with a heater nearby to warm me up....
Make a pot of home-made veggie soup...
Read about pruning (grapes, roses, red bud dogwood await the spring snips)
Begin to write the paper I'm going to deliver in Baton Rouge next week...
Listen to Leo Kotke, Cassandra Wilson....some soft jazz...
Take a walk in the snow later on today...
Look into the amaryllis a thousand times today....

GOOD NEWS !
Yesterday I learned that a person who is very dear to me is pregnant...Never thought she could conceive, always wanted children...a huge surprise for her and her husband...the Universe at work....¡Qué alegría!

And...the days are getting longer...My plants in the bathroom / solarium are beginning to bud...Two orchids have bloom spikes...My geranium is about to bloom...We are just a little over a month from spring (officially.....)

¡¡¡Olé!!!

Breathe....

That's the message for today, Tanya..
Plain and simple...

Involuntary, conscious
The ocean's waves....

Deep, expansive...

Inhale.............................
(pause) ...
Exhale.....................................
(pause)...

Begin again......

Relax...

Sweet instructions....

Open the throat...
Relax the face....,
Lengthening the spine...
Smiling from the heart....

Breathing in, I relax my body...
Breathing out, I calm my mind...

Ahhhh...

I breathe......

The Path Home
Those of you who have been to the farm know this walking path well. Around the time of my divorce four years ago, I started mowing out designs in the fields...I can't remember why I did so...I think I was just out on the tractor one day, consumed by thoughts that I wished I weren't having to think about at the time, and realized I was way off the beaten path and doing circles in the center of the field....It turned out to be a sign from the Universe--these fields were to become my canvas as I putzed around on my faithful little orange Kubota....

Anyway, there's a huge spiral in the field behind where this photo was taken, a peace sign (which I have yet to photograph) two little valleys over from this vantage point, and another spiral in an adjacent field. The big plan for the spring, once I get the tractor checked over and can be sure I won't get hung up in front of all passersby, is to cut a tremendous heart in the front field that will be very, very visible from the road on the ridge. I wonder what the neighbors will say about that ???????

Once the heart's completed, the message from the farm to those who travel along the Warren Chapel Road will be all about LUV & PEACE....Groovy, isn't it???

SPIRIT...
He chose to relax in the sun on the ledge of the silo rather than take a late afternoon walk...

I headed on down the path to the back of the field, all the while thinking what it must be for him as he hunts and tangles with the other farm cats with only three legs....

And, does he really feel his missing foot as he scratches at this ear with his phantom appendage?

Spirit is the third in a line of white cats who have adopted us at the farm - -preceded by Dover, a mesmerizing feline who could sleep soundly on the floor while two dozen people danced around him, and Ghost, who also lost a leg in a trap and healed himself by lying on magnets. Dover lived a long and good life here; Ghost disappeared shortly after he went outside for the first time after losing his leg.

Forty-five minutes or so later, as I returned back up the path toward the barn, I heard Spirit, engaged in what I refer to as "cat opera"..... No longer was he perched on the silo ledge, but he stood just outside the barn door, head cocked, tail swishing, glaring at Loonis and daring her to take the next step, waiting to pounce on her when she did.

After several moments of stare-down, Spirit nonchalantly turned and hopped away, with a smug twinkle in his eyes that signaled he knew he was still alpha cat around the farm. I watched him return to the silo ledge, clean himself proudly for a couple of minutes, and again, stretch out in the afternoon sunlight on the silo ledge.

Farm Update
As I sit down to write this, the wind is howling outside, and Hendrix the Cat, aka, Fatty, has been banging at the kitchen door, pleading his case to come in for the evening so he can sleep on the heat register and sip some warm milk. (I'm sure he's also entertaining thoughts of hopping in bed with Eliza or me as well.) Eliza's doing her homework while talking on the phone (hmmmm..is that considered multi-tasking??); Annie and Molly, our two corgis, are snoring like two ole' geezers in the big room, and Loonis, the farm's feline princess, is insisting that I stop my work here at the computer to play fetch with her. (For those who don't understand, Loonis likes for anyone who is occupied at the computer to toss her small felt ball down the hall. If one doesn't comply, she hops up on the computer and dances on the keyboard.) The other cats have sought refuge in the warmth of the barn, and Luther, the beta fish, continues to rejoice that I moved him from the cold kitchen. When I noticed he had been in suspended animation in his bowl atop the refrigerator for 48 hours or so, I feared he had gotten too chilly and placed him on the pie safe in the dining room amidst the Christmas decorations. Thank goodness he quickly returned to life and began to flirt with the images of Mrs. Claus on the Christmas card I stuck behind his bowl.

The holidays have come and gone. This year's Christmas tree got moved out of the house last weekend to begin its year-long wait for the 2006 New Year's bonfire. We're three weeks into January now, and ---Samuel is well into his second week of spring semester at Appalachian State. He's registered for 20 hours; his classes, particularly The Science and Cultures of Wine, sound extremely fascinating to me-- Eliza's finished her first semester of 8th grade (with a 4.0 GPA) --Tanya's joyfully (?) juggling schedules at both Washington State Community College and Marietta College-- Bobbi reports that she's been dealing with Isabella's recent bout of earaches but is otherwise thriving and loving life in Philadelphia---Brett has returned to Olney Friends School to finish out the year. The smile on his face over the holidays indicates that "hay romance en el aire"--Joe can hardly find time to breathe outside of his clay studio at Ohio University (but loves every moment of the grad school experience and the creative spirit that surrounds him)--LoriBeth's doing things like sunbathing on the beach every day on Maui, whale watching, and nanny-ing ( And yes, I am envious!)--Meera's returned to California where she's working before beginning grad school (probably at Stanford) in the near future.It was so good to see her New Year's Eve! Meera, the thought of working with you on educational reform keeps my wheels turning!--Dana and James, future writers and eco-poets, continue their doctoral studies at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln--Seth spent the holidays in Utah, I think, before returning to Tennessee for New Years--

While everyone else is away doing their thing, Eliza and I hold down the fort and look forward to the next round of visits from all of the farm family. It will only be a couple of months until the longer days return, the crocuses pop up, and many of you will be back at The Farm for a visit... Warm hugs and a beer on the deck await you all....

Until then...always love, infinite love.....Tanya

Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet González

I took this photo, which I call "Understanding at an Early Age," in July, 2003, at a vigil on behalf of Cuban political prisoners that was held outside the Miami Convention Center during the NAACP National Convention. My dear friend, Laida Carro, several Afro-Cuban exiles (two of whom were ex-political prisoners), and I spoke to an official delegation of the NAACP leadership (including its CEO, Kwesi Mfume, and Director of the Washington Bureau, Hilary Shelton) and others who had recently traveled to Cuba. Our goal was to get the NAACP to speak out in favor of the political prisoners and gain the organization's support for a call to release of all Cuban political prisoners. (Unfortunately, our meeting produced little more than a token recognition by the NAACP officials, and later we were to learn that the same officials with whom we had spoken and who had visited Dr. Biscet and other political prisoners while in Havana had brokered a trade agreement with the Cuban government.)

The postcard the young boy holds shows the photo of Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet González, a Cuban physician who has been imprisoned for all but a few months since the late 1990's. Dr. Biscet, an advocate of non-violent civil disobedience, is a student of Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King...He is truly a man of peace.

I post this blog in honor of Dr. Biscet and all he represents for the Cuban people. After spending months in solitary confinement for refusing to wear the uniform of the common prisoner, Dr. Biscet remains in prison, his spirit unbroken and his call for democracy in Cuba reverberating in the hearts of many courageous people on the island. His faith and love of his beloved Cuba sustain him; from his prison cell, he lives a life of service to the Cuban people, and his message is one that authorities in Cuba have not been able to repress.

I didn't get the name of the boy in the photo---I only know that he was there with his family. But, for some reason, I saw in his face the face of the man in the postcard he was holding, and at that point, I knew that Dr. Biscet was there among us, guiding us in silence, in peace, and with dignity.