maggie steincrohn davis

Fifteen years ago, sparked by a trip I was moved to take, I co-founded a joyful non-501(C)3 band of neighbors, providing (in the thirteen towns on our downeast Maine peninsula) free, health-related assistance to those ill, dying, incapacitated, heartsick individuals who fall between the cracks of the health-care system. Neighborcare, we called it. (Do Google -- maggie davis Neighborcare -- and be in touch if you are moved to birth a similar program in your area. Neighborcare can bloom anywhere there are those with the heart for it. In these times, where so many are separated from loved ones -- and even the best caregiving resources must screech to the edge of their parameters -- Neighborcare celebrates a boundless extended-family vision.)

Caring in Remembered Ways is "food for the heart," and a companion to the Neighborcare vision. The book honors ways of caring the heart knows--deep-seeing ways that go beyond courtesy and kindness and empathy to the living compassion that embraces all the rest. It reminds us that true caring neither starts nor stops at the bedside, but extends to all life and is fitting for caregivers both lay and professional, including physicians, nurses, homecare providers, parents, teachers, clergy---all of us who want to nourish each other in ways we can feel. Ways of being as well as ways of caring weave throughout the book. Surely, who we are colors all we do and give.

Here is more "biography," but of spirit and heart and daily life. These days we hunger to know the essence of people, not merely the facts about them -- who they are, not just what they've done. So . . .

I live simply, though appreciate more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts beauty, in all forms. I enjoy being with people (either strangers or those known to me) who are joyful and kind and purposeful. Despite my education, I'm more of the heart than the intellect, yet ever curious, especially regarding history and "story." I appreciate good music of any kind and love playing pennywhistle ballads, either solo or duet.

I've lived full time on a working farm, on a house boat, in a cottage by the sea, and in two motor homes--now in one of the east coast's last working, struggling, fishing villages, which harbors many more lobster boats than yachts.

I enjoy living spontaneously; at the same time, i value order.

I appreciate solitary or companionable silence.

My children and grandchildren love me and I, them.

I delight in those who can laugh at themselves and would rather love than "be right."

I'm almost a vegetarian (mostly for animal rights reasons).

There are no gurus in my life. Anyone is capable of offering wisdom, I've found, including those who most would consider to be unlikely candidates.

I've taken responsibility for my own health for over thirty years (using herbs, homeopathy, my understanding of the healing properties of food, and much more) and work cooperatively with my physician whom I rarely see.

Years ago, I built a cabin in the woods. After clearing most of the thinnish woods with my bow saw, I dug old boards out of junk yards and bought windows and doors and stained glass from trucks and those taking down old beautiful houses (so many of which I thought deserved to be left standing), this after letting the feel of the land announce to me where my cabin might best be built.

I enjoy chess and pingpong and am pretty good at them. I like reading aloud and being read to, and spending lots of time with my rescue greyhound, Muse.

I love taking long walks. Sailing's great, though I'm not an expert. When I kayak, I prefer inland waters; years ago, in the Everglades, roseate spoonbills ten feet from me, on shore.

Ethnic food -- delicious!

Other pleasures: dancing. singing, watching dvds--everything from beautiful and inspiring movies (domestic or foreign) to gritty detective shows to Dogtown and The Dog Whisperer. Reading uplifting accounts of those who in huge or invisible ways change the world for the better. Making puppets, which I use to inspire children to an understanding of the interconnectedness of all life.

I can’t live without: some solitude, animals—and people who respect and love them --warm laughter, genuineness, soulfulness. For me, witnessing tender, spontaneous, non-dutiful, acts of kindness is the greatest show in town.

Here are some of the "facts" of me:

I am a mother and grandmother. I’ve been a remedial reading clinician at a private school and university, a One-to-One trainer for the Association for Children With Learning Disabilities, a freelance editor, a talk show co-host, a visiting author, a Poets in the Schools poet, a flower essence practitioner, co-creator/co-owner/co-manager of the nationally known concert café in Blue Hill, Maine —The Left Bank — and, now, founder of a new Neighborcare program, Meant for Each Other: help for cats and dogs (sometimes other animals as well) whose families struggle to care for them and keep them.

I’ve lived on a working farm, in my cabin in the woods, on a houseboat, in a cottage by the sea, and in a motor home. These days, I’m delighted to be living at the tip of the tip of the Blue Hill peninsula in Stonington, ME.

For many years—and for over ten books mostly for young people, I was published in New York and elsewhere (e.g. Holiday House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster). In 1993, I created a grassroots, direct-mail publishing company to move my books into the world in ways that reflect the kinship vision expressed on their pages.

My non-fiction book, Roots of Peace~Seeds of Hope, was generously praised by Howard Zinn and other well-known people; Roots is in its fourth printing. One of my picture books, The Best Way to Ripton, was a Junior Literary Guild selection. Another picture book, A Garden of Whales, now published by Firefly Books, won a Vermont Publishers merit award, was a bestseller in Maine bookstores, and is about to go into its fifth printing.

What follows is the story-behind-the-story of my book, Glory! to the Flowers, which was illustrated by a brilliant(!) fourteen-year-old girl.

The inspiration for Glory! to the Flowers blossomed in my mind in the Sierra Nevada Mountains summers ago, seconds after I finished watching a remarkable video I'd been invited to see.

I'd gone to California to be part of a flower essence intensive. The video, Messenger of Beauty, was shown toward the end of the conference. It included book excerpts and paintings from the work and life of Russian-born Nicholas Roerich, a gifted, multi-faceted man devoted to goodness and truth and beauty and the perpetuation of culture.

Watching the video, I sensed I would be writing a book for children (of all ages) that celebrated flowers and the work of Edward Bach, flower essence pioneer. I also knew that I wanted the word Glory! in the title of this book, and that I wanted to write an extensive, lyrical, simple-to-understand author's note about Bach and essences and flowers. That was the extent of the inspiration.

Home in Maine, sometime later, I wrote Glory! To the Flowers which bloomed forth fairly easily. Soon after, I set about to find an illustrator. As with Roots of Peace, Seeds of Hope, I wanted all aspects of creating the book to occur as locally as possible.

I did find an illustrator, a wonderful one, though right from the first, we began to experience some logistical challenges.

Around this time, a teacher called me from a middle school in the next town over. She asked if I would be a mentor to Cara Raymaker, a fourteen-year-old who had outgrown the capacities of the school's gifted program. Had Cara read any of my books, I asked, and I sent some over. I did not want to assume, automatically, that Cara would want to work with me. It was important she felt some connection with what I was doing and who I was.

After reading my books, Cara wanted to meet. We did this one afternoon in a cubicle in her school— Cara in black leather jacket, ears dripping earrings, face smooth and pale, lips dark, hair pointed upright in various places, I in flowered skirt and long hair and no makeup. Despite the differences in our appearance, we clicked!

We decided mutually with full support of parents and teachers that Cara would come to my cabin in the woods once a month where we would play music, eat good food and write and draw and walk and learn from each other.

In the meantime, Glory's illustrator and I amicably parted company. As with Roots of Peace, again I was missing an illustrator. I raised my eyes to heaven and wondered when another would appear. But there she had been all along, or so I saw when I began to see Cara at work with her colors in her free and easy, but distinctive, style.

"Would you like to illustrate Glory!?" I asked her one Saturday, for I'd read Glory! to Cara and knew she was fond of it. "Rad! Cool!" said this young wonder.

And so began a dance between us—creative and smooth and joyful. I paid Cara good money to illustrate the book. She was worth it. As I said in my Glory! bio, "Every book I write is born with all art vividly ablaze in my mind's eye. Cara has understood this and welcomed input. . . With unflagging momentum, she's steered the artwork course we've plotted—this, exquisite evidence of her bedrock confidence. No one, of any age, could have been more consistently responsible or encouraging."

These qualities were essential when disasters struck during the printing process. Glory! was nine months late making its way into our hands. Cara was supportive during this "slow' time even though she'd dreamed of the book coming out before the first snowfall!

Looking back, I hardly remember the printing constraints. More important is my friendship with Cara, which has flourished. Certainly, she is a model for others. It's Cara's hope that all young people might be ". . . totally fearless and true to themselves doing what they love to do."

Do stay tuned -- a blog is on its way . . .