Life Thoughts Travel

Do You Believe in . . .

By Susan August 28, 2023

Do You Believe in . . .

I am not crazy. Eccentric — maybe. But not crazy. Juju/Woowoo not my thing.

But . . .

My ‘Our Mackinac Island Scattering’ blog (July 28, 2022) describes scattering my folks’ ashes below Arch Rock into Lake Huron last summer with my sister, on Mackinac Island, the setting of happy family gatherings of our past.

Of Arch Rock, Judge Advocate Samuel A. Storrow wrote, in 1817: From the Lake it appears like a work of art, and might give birth to a thousand wild and fanciful conjectures.

My mother was complicated. When I scattered my mother’s ashes, delicately, I said: “Good bye. I think you were happy here. Yes. I think you were happy here.” Her ashes fogged the pebbly Straights of Mackinac shore. Ebbing. Tiding. Gently.

One year later and I am back in northern Michigan with Tony and Roady, escaping Tennessee’s summer heat and humidity. Every day we spend time on Lake Michigan. Every day my mother’s spirit animal visits.

Do you believe in spirit animals?

Last updated on August 28, 2023

In 2006, researching for my last literature paper at Oxford, I stumbled onto the late 17th-century court of Queen Mary of Modena, consort to James II. I was intrigued because she had so many female writers in her court—rare for the 17th century. Before heading back to the states, I met with my professor, Peter McCullough, to discuss a book idea stemming from that research. Peter had stunned me with his compliment of my paper—“One of the most beautiful Bread Loaf papers I’ve read . . . The work of an artist by an artist.” He was encouraging about my book idea and later agreed to be one of my Beta readers. Rain Dodging follows my quest for a sense of Mary’s spaces, to breathe the same air, to imagine their lives, visiting palaces and manor houses in England and Scotland and exploring their sublime back roads. Rain Dodging is a kaleidoscope of memoir and mystery, a collage of images and events. As I travel through Britain, I take you on a journey through my life and into a 17th-century royal court. You'll watch the connections unfold, from tales of a troubled childhood to wild days of college and young adulthood, the music scenes in Los Angeles & Nashville, and to my growth as mother, teacher, writer, lover, and solo traveler.