Hi all, I was just listening to Pavarotti singing Panis Angelicus. You can hear it in iTunes in Pavarotti The Duets album. Almost as good as when we sang it!

Dear Classmates, This picture captures what I am doing now! The two students pictured were presenting their thesis study at a conference (I was their research advisor :)). I love teaching! It sounds like the nuns had a profound effect on all of us! I became an Occupational Therapist after Cal - and after 17 years of clinical practice decided to pursue teaching what I loved best - occupational therapy. Mothers Farraher, Persch (sp?), McHugh, and Brownlow  (and others of course) were amazing teachers and I think of them often. They taught me critical thinking and how to write - and I am forever grateful! 

I am always amazed when I think of how influential Menlo was on my life - how big it looms in my past - especially considering I was only there two years - 3rd and 4th academic! All of you had seemingly known each other for years - and yet you were so welcoming to a newcomer! It was odd too - that I was assigned to the yellow dorm my first year - which was all 4th academic and me! I am grateful to all of you for making me feel at home. I try to emulate that when we hire new faculty! 

Marianne Kossman-Hart and Suzanne Taylor Herbst.

I'm going to begin writing a message now and then and see if we can get a dialogue going about the present. It's been 50 years since we graduated and much life has flowed down the river. 

I just got home from Tassajara Zen Mtn. Center. Every spring after the winter practice period they have a work period to get ready for the summer guest season. My first work period was in April of 1994. My friend Peter had invited me to do a retreat at Tassajara in May, I sent him a deposit, then called and said I better not spend any extra money. I guess at that point I was in Zen Center's system and they sent me a brochure. I browsed through it in my office one morning, saw that they had a work period in April, it didn't cost anything to go, and I had a skill they needed. I had no idea what was at the end of the road, knew nothing about buddhism, just threw my tools in the truck and headed over the mountain from Carmel Valley into the Ventana Wilderness. I arrived for the afternoon work circle and the work leader said they had a period of meditation in the morning that we were welcome to join or not. The next morning I went to the zendo, was pointed to a place on the raised platform, and sat on a black cushion between two others. It was quiet, I listened to the sound of the creek and birds at the crack of dawn. After a while I heard my mind say, "I have no idea what this is about but whatever it is I need it." That began a twenty year relationship with Zen Center with 6 of those years living the life of a (reluctant) monk at their 3 practice places. Before that first work period I had much sorrow in my life for about 3 years. I'm grateful to my friend Peter for inviting me to a retreat (he knew I was suffering on a few levels) and that my skills as a carpenter were the gate to practice.

This is a photo of the footbridge over Tassajara Creek. I made my dining room table from the original support piece that this one replaced.

If you want to touch base on FACEBOOK our reunion page is:

CSH Menlo Class of ’64 50th High School Reunion

Our reunion site's URL is http://SHSMenlo1964.classquest.com, so you can bookmark this if you want...

Thank Jude for this one!

Thanks for the kudos, Jude, but this will be hillarious! I want everyone to use our site to pull each other closer to one another through your contact info, family pictures, comments, messages, and your help in finding classmates that may have fallen off the radar. I realize this isn't facebook (although I might throw a page up this week-end....hhmmmm), but as simple as it is, I think the site could be a great way for all of us to catch up with one another, show off our grandkids, husbands, dogs (cats too), and maybe find a connecton that we hadn't planned on just by communicating! Let's try it and see what happens. If you have any suggestions for the site or just a crazy idea you want to bounce off us, email me and I'll see what I can do. No recipe sharing just yet, but if I can figure it out...okay, okay, okay!!! 

Darn it, now I can't find my glasses! 

Lovingly

Everyone can thank Chris Kolowich Brennan for getting this website up and running.