Sewanee Studio Tour

Every year, during the college's Lessons and Carols weekend, some local artists/craftspeople open their studios to the public. This is my fourth year on the tour, and the work prior to the weekend is always involved -- in making books, in cleaning the house, and in setting up my wares. At about five till eleven this morning, I was worried that the crowd would be thin: I had not had a single visitor. At 11:00 folks wandered in and kept wandering in till my last guest, Laura, arrived around quarter of four.

I sold some books, and I talked to some friends, and I met and spoke with some strangers, all of whom I enjoyed. With one, I talked about cats and moving, with another (a neighbor up the street) about the albino goat she saw one night crossing my street in a heavy fog, with another about their daughter and my former student who loves Hollins and is taking a bookbinding course this January, with others -- two men -- the pleasures of living in the country (one in south Alabama and the other in upstate New York), with three women from Huntsville the challenges of teaching as a profession, with another about my oldest brother who had been her high school friend, and with Laura a conversation that ranged from our job searches to a wonderful outsider artist living here in Sewanee to the challenges of special children to her book about hunger and spirituality and to artists' trading cards.

Even had I not sold a single book, it has been a banner day, with open hearts and open hands. Thanks to my guests, all.