Blogs from Our Graduates

Several IMA graduates are finding their path into businesses and organizations by making it and walking it. Read about what some of our alumni are up to these days.

Anne Smith studied sense of place, creative writing and especially memoir, and place-based community building during her time at Goddard. Out of her studies, she also started her own business and blog. In One Little Window, she writes about building community, raising her son, and making things to become more self-sustainer and close to the sources that sustain her. Quoting Eleanor Roosevelt in her sidebar, she reminds us ""One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility." This blog explores everything from preparing to raise to chickens to feeding the birds to resurrecting a 1942 knitting pattern. The blog is accompanied by Anne's business site, One Little Window, which brings to readers ways to buy vintage clothing sewing and knitting patterns as well as eco-products Anne makes, such as cloth napkins.

Scott Youman's new blog, This Energetic Man, is a marvel of a website when it comes to great writing prompts, inspiration, vision and replenishment. As Youmans describes his site, "This Energetic Man is a space on the Interweb to share my work and insight as a Transformative Language Artist. My work involves writing and the use of poetry, literature and myth to provide experiential workshops that help expand and affirm our humanity. The insight I offer, imperfect as it may be, arises from my work and continued interest in personal growth, spirituality and anti-oppression work." His site also lists writing workshops and retreats he offers.

Jeanne Chamber's great blog, The Barefoot Heart, isn't just the "ruminations of a red dirt girl" but powerful good writing about life and meaning, punctuated with ample humor. Jeanne describes herself as "a complicated simple girl fluent only in southern and english, i feel beautiful when wearing dangly earrings and dresses that caper. sundays are my most creative day, so i try to have at least 7 sundays each week. whether telling them in cloth, clay, or chirography, stories are my oxygen, characters my blood." Her posts include musings on bioquiltographies, travels with outrageously intriguing characters, explorations of the ordinary in which all manner of magic resides, plans and revisions of plans to live with greater vividness, seasonal transformations of us, and there's even good eats: occasional recipes. Much of her writing lands on how we can bring ourselves greater power and voice through simple, constant and nuanced awareness. 

Visit all these blogs to see what Anne, Scott and Jeanne are cooking up, and how it might enhance your own possibilities.