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by Jennie Reichman I recently took a Saturday off from work to spend the day with my friend Hannah. She now works as a veterinary technician in Woodstock, VT, but back in the days of Experienced Goods at 77 Flat Street, we worked together and became...
Solace Blessing That’s it. That’s all this blessing knows how to do: Shine your shoes. Fill your refrigerator. Water your plants. Make some soup. All the things you cannot think to do yourself when the world has come apart, when nothing will be normal again. Somehow this blessing knows precisely what you need, even before you know. It sees what will bring the deepest solace for you. It senses...
The Center for Solace (CfS) maintains a commitment to follow the guidelines of the CDC, NIH, and VT Department of Health in regard to all contagious diseases. As guidelines can change due to the activity of a specific pathogen, CfC’s guidelines and requirements may also...
There is a warm-up technique that actors and singers use to release tension called “Horse Lips.” It involves blowing air through your relaxed lips, causing them to flap and make a sound like a horse’s whinny. It is almost impossible to hold tension in your...
by Hilary Farquhar February has been a strange month. My mother got shingles at the end of January, which led to a cascade of issues that landed her in the ER. As luck would have it, my sister, who is Mom's primary caretaker, had a severe...
by Jennie Reichman I think I’ve mentioned in this space that my mother was a young German woman during World War II. She endured bombings, displacement, walked and hitchhiked to Czechoslovakia from Berlin, scavenged for food and experienced many other hardships. She met my dad, an...
Serious Illness Program (SIP) Volunteer Training Begins in April 2025 The Serious Illness Program was created to offer support, solace, and assistance to people going through a life-altering serious illness that may or may not carry a terminal prognosis. Become a SIP Volunteer! This is a wonderful...
By Jennie Reichman Live from Brattleboro, It's Experienced Goods! Driving to the grocery store on a recent Sunday, I was listening to the New Yorker Radio Hour. The interviewer was talking to magazine editor Susan Morrison about her biography of Lorne Michaels, creator of the iconic late...
Demystifying the care of a body after death For as long as humans have existed, we have cared for each other at the end of life, including after death. Caring for a body at home is often legal and practical. Brattleboro Area Hospice provides volunteer support to...
By Jennie Reichman The inspiration for this month’s article begins with a spatula. Not one I bought for a dollar at Experienced Goods, but a green silicone number I purchased sometime in the mid-1980s while visiting my friend Ruth in Seattle. She had taken me to...