We made these memories for ourselves — #berkshireweekend

What can we imagine for 2023? … Looking ahead, I’m hoping for a rise in returning energy.

As I began writing this week, I was thinking about this question on my 45th birthday and looking through photos from the last year. About this time I was walking through Hopkins Forest in 5 degree weather with sun on the snow. And remember the day after the ice storm when every tree on the ridge was coated and shining?

2022 has held quiet moments of intense beauty. And still, 2022 seemed to carry a tiredness. We were all blinking between the pandemic and the election.

I remember moments of color. Spring bulbs opened on the hilltop at Naumkeag, and Frantz Zephirin’s and Tomm El-Saieh’s paintings came to town — Loas in the Haitian woods and bright abstractions. My summer interns tasted asparagus at Tu Le’s microfarm and fresh corn tacos at Nudel.

Some nights flooded with the energy of dance and music — a zydeco bandleader from New Orleans, a choreographer from Lagos, tap performers in Brazilian rhythm.

But finding this kind of energy could take a long and steady effort, and making and sustaining it could take more. This year, I’m wishing us momentum and sweetness, like a kayak on the river in the sun.

Flashes of color

Color appears this week even on overcast days …


A walk along the shore of Lake Paran in North Bennington gives a clear view. Mass MoCA celebrates artists in Building 6, and North Adams brings wellness and candlelight downtown. Eloise visits the Norman Rockwell Museum, and a wall hanging ripples with mountains at the Bennington Museum. And the Clark opens free to all this winter, as their newest show explores drawings from the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris.

Events coming up …

Find more art and performance, outdoors and food in the BTW events calendar.

Yellow crocuses show a hint of color in early spring.
Mar 19 2024 @ 5:30 pm
Naumkeag will celebrate the coming of Spring in a contemplative evening guided by mindfulness-in-nature facilitator Sandrine Harris, to feel the energy of welcoming new growth and transformation.
A book quietly opens its pages in golden light. Creative Commons courtesy image.
Mar 19 2024 @ 6:00 pm
Local author Effy Redman shares her memoir where disability meets transcendence, suffering becomes hope, and the individual expands into community.
Microphone. Courtesy photo (Creative Commons) by Ernest Duffoo.
Mar 20 2024 @ 7:00 pm
Dewey Hall holds storytelling events with a group discussion exploring themes, similarities and contrasts within the stories as a whole

By the Way Berkshires is a digital magazine exploring creative life and community — art and performance, food and the outdoors — and I’m writing it for you, with local voices, because I’ve gotten to know this rich part of the world as a writer and journalist, and I want to share it with you.

If you’d like to see the website grow, you can join me for a few dollars a month, enough for a cup of coffee and a cider doughnut. Members get access to extra stories and multimedia, itineraries a bookmark tool. Let me know what you're looking for, and we’ll explore together.

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