June 17, 2017– June 23, 2017
lathrop.kendal.org
Thanks to contributions from Residents at
the Northampton campus, there is now a
dog park for furry friends to gather.
Top left: Fran and Marlisa play catch with Lucy,
Waffle and Taylor; Top Right: Dulce Waffle and Pancake are introduced to Molly Brown; Bottom Left:
Sophie, Alice and Waffle enjoy a sunny day; Bottom
Right: Lucy and Waffle playing ball
Saturday, June 17
Wednesday, June 21
Soup: Chicken Vegetable Soup
Soup: Summer Squash Soup
Salad: Marinated Tomato Salad
Salad: Spinach Salad w/Warm Lemon Dressing
Entrée 1: Bay Scallops and Mushroom Pesto
Entrée 1: Oriental Breast of Chicken w/Oyster Mushrooms
Entrée 2: Grilled Flank Steak w/Sweet Basil Onion Compote
Entrée 2: Ginger, Lemon and Garlic Swordfish Steak
Side Dishes: Wilted Kale, Cauliflower, Wasabi Mashed
Potatoes
Side Dishes: Orange Rice, Green Beans w/Toasted
Pinenuts, Cauliflower Polinaise
Dessert: Peach Melba
Dessert: Almond Pound Cake
Sunday, June 18
Soup: Andouille, Crab and Oyster Gumbo
Salad: Fresh Strawberries w/Goat Cheese over Greens
Entrée 1: Horseradish Crusted Tenderloin of Beef
Entrée 2: Seared Tuna w/Lemon Caper Sauce
Side Dishes: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus, Harvard Beets
Thursday, June 22
Soup: Spring Minestrone Soup
Salads: Marinated Roma Tomatoes & Cucumber over Greens
Entrée 1: Batter-Dipped Cod
Entrée 2: Key Lime Roast Pork Tenderloin w/Coconut Sauce
Dessert: Coconut Cream Pie
Side Dishes: Herbed Egg Noodles, Sugar Snap Peas,
Sautéed Zucchini
Monday, June 19
Dessert: Key Lime Pie
Soup: Asparagus Soup
Salad: Marinated Mushrooms and Artichoke Hearts
Entrée 1: Smoked Breast of Turkey
Entrée 2: Pork Tenderloin w/Dijon Leek Sauce
Friday, June 23
Soup: Shrimp and Crab Chowder
Salad: Pineapple Cole Slaw
Side Dishes: Baked Sweet Potatoes, Wilted Spinach,
Maple Glazed Carrots
Entrée 1: Tarragon Salmon Scaloppini
Desserts: Chocolate Cake
Side Dishes: Cous Cous w/Raisins and Almonds, Wilted
Kale, Coconut Carrots
Tuesday, June 20
Soup: Chicken and Leek Soup
Entrée 2: Fried Oysters
Dessert: Strawberry Napoleon
Salad: Basil Potato Salad
Entrée 1: Baked Ham w/Mango Salsa
Entrée 2: Tenderloin Tips in Smoked Tomato Sauce
Side Dishes: Oven Roasted Potatoes, Petite Pan Squash,
Mint Peas
Dessert: Strawberry Pie
In addition to the daily special, there is a
selection of items that are always available.
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HAPPENING AT L ATHROP
This Week’s Activities:
Sunday, 6/18, at 2:30: Music Committee presents
A Celebration of the "Belle Epoque" (MH)
At the beginning of the 20th century,
composers, artists, singers, actors
and writers all mingled at
both the opera houses and the music
halls, and some of the most enchanting songs of the period demonstrate
the influence of both venues.
The arts flourished during this "Beautiful Era," from
the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 to the
start of World War I in 1914.
Soprano Mary Hubbell and pianist
Deborah Gilwood will take us to Paris
and New York to enjoy the charming
music of Claude Debussy, Francis
Poulenc, Reynaldo Hayn, Cole Porter,
George Gershwin, and others. Join us
for a delightful journey with two fine
musicians!
SPECIAL SINGALONG
ANNOUNCEMENT
Our monthly Singalong for June is
moving from Wednesday, 6/21, to
Thursday, 6/29, at 3:30 pm in the Mt.
Tom Room. Mark your calendar now!
Lathrop Community Fund:
By the Numbers
Week #5
Total Raised: $22,235
(74% of our goal of $30,000)
Percentage Donating:
Northampton residents:
Easthampton townhome residents:
Inn residents:
Board members:
62%
88%
44%
73%
Do you know you can donate via credit card on
line?
 Visit lathrop.kendal.org.
 Click on Giving to Lathrop at the top of
the home page.
 Choose Donate Now on the right-hand
side of the next page.
 Follow the prompts.
If you have contributed, thank you very much. If
not, please consider joining your neighbors.
Help keep Lathrop lively!
Jim Dowell
for the Philanthropy Committee
North East Book Club
Tuesday, 6/20, at 1:30pm (MH): The
North East book Club will discuss Little
Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Silver Screen, in the MTR
Saturday, 6/17, at 7:15pm: 20th Century Women
Wednesday, 6/21, at 7:15pm: The Last Word
Still Time to Sign Up!
Wednesday, 6/21: Bridge of Flowers and Lunch at
Ashfield Lake House (Please note the date change from 6/20 to
6/21—due to The Lake House being closed on Tuesdays)
Friday, 6/23: Lunch at the Deerfield Inn and guided
Museum Tour
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OUR L ATHROP L AND
The Super-Adaptable Garter Snake
by Barbara Walvoord
At Lathrop, we find common garter snakes in
lots of places--in our gardens, by our ponds and
streams, under rocks or brush piles, and, like
this one, in the grass along our walking paths.
These little, non-poisonous snakes are super
adaptable.
They adapt to life in very different climes, from
southeast Alaska down through most of the
U.S. Their range extends farther north than
any other snake in the western hemisphere.
They eat lots of different foods--mostly frogs
(swallowed whole!) and worms, but also tadpoles, newts, fish, leeches, insects, slugs, crayfish, small mammals, birds, and occasionally
carrion.
They search for their prey by swimming
(they're excellent swimmers), or by sliding
along the land, tasting the air with their
tongues and also using sight and sound to locate their prey.
the pheremones she secretes. If she has other
suitors, no problem, he just piles onto the
crowd, forming a huge, writhing ball. But some
males use an adaptable, gender-bending trick:
the male secretes a female hormone during
mating, to make other snakes think the guy is a
female. As all the guys rush toward him, he
slips away and finds the gal.
Mating takes place from spring through fall. If
mom has mated too late in the year, no problem; she adapts: she holds the male's semen
inside her body over the cold winter. Then she
fertilizes her eggs and has her babies in the
warm spring sunshine.
The babies are born alive, but mom takes no
responsibility for their care. They're on their
own, with all their adaptable traits, at Lathrop,
which offers them lots of places to hide, hunt,
mate, and bear their young.
Garter snakes are usually active during the day,
but when it's hot, they may adapt, and be most
active at dusk and dawn.
Garter snakes are a nice meal for a huge number of predators. When threatened, they slither away, swim away, or, if caught, they excrete
a bad-smelling substance from a gland near
their anus.
Guys outnumber gals, so mating is a huge competition for the guys. The guy finds a female by
Common Garter Snake at Lathrop
The Land Conservation Committee invites
new members no matter what their level of
mobility. We have a good time together, and
there is lots of interesting work to do. Contact [email protected].
4
WELLNESS MATTERS
Gratitude is a Positive Choice
By Rob Olmsted
I
spent the last week hauling rubbish, cleaning and
patching my rental house, left in rough shape by my
tenants. It’s been quite a saga, and as we all do, I’m
writing and rewriting the story of how it all happened,
who I believe they were, and who I am on the other
side. The truth is, I like the concreteness and physicality of such work, but I also enjoy the opportunity to listen while I work to the many good podcasts that inform, inspire and uplift. Here is a link to one you might
find worth your time: http://freakonomics.com/
podcast/why-is-my-life-so-hard/ . It looks at a study
on the headwinds/tailwinds asymmetry, our human
tendency to put more emphasis on the perceived headwinds that make life challenging and under appreciate
the positive tailwinds that ease our way.
Now it is my intention to acknowledge the choices that
are in play in every situation, so while I’m scrubbing
away and grumbling about the nerve of those tenants, I
was also looking for the thoughts that kept me motivated and able to push through. In my many conversations with residents here, I was reminded about the
essential practice of gratitude; and so even while dragging out the moldy carpet, I tried to remember with
thanks for the equity they helped me build, to the various tradespeople and who provided upkeep help along
the way, and to my wonderfully willing son practicing a
little payback on this rainy day.
In the world of positive psychology there is a lot of research being done on the benefits of gratitude as a daily
practice. I will link here a long article from Robert Emmons of UC Davis and Berkeley’s Greater
Good Magazine: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/
article/item/why_gratitude_is_good/. For those of
you wondering how to cultivate more of this life affirming view of the world, here is Professor Emmons’ list.
Thanks for the chance to share what inspires me!
10 Ways to Become More Grateful
Robert Emmons offers everyday tips for living a life of
gratitude.
1. Keep a Gratitude Journal. Establish a daily practice in which you remind yourself of the gifts, grace,
benefits, and good things you enjoy. Setting aside time
on a daily basis to recall moments of gratitude associated with ordinary events, your personal attributes, or
valued people in your life gives you the potential to interweave a sustainable life theme of gratefulness.
2. Remember the Bad. To be grateful in your current
state, it is helpful to remember the hard times that you
once experienced. When you remember how difficult
life used to be and how far you have come, you set up
an explicit contrast in your mind, and this contrast is
fertile ground for gratefulness.
3. Ask Yourself Three Questions. Utilize the meditation technique known as Naikan, which involves reflecting on three questions: “What have I received from
__?”, “What have I given to __?”, and “What troubles and
difficulty have I caused?”
4. Learn Prayers of Gratitude. In many spiritual traditions, prayers of gratitude are considered to be the
most powerful form of prayer, because through these
prayers people recognize the ultimate source of all they
are and all they will ever be.
5. Come to Your Senses. Through our senses—the
ability to touch, see, smell, taste, and hear—we gain an
appreciation of what it means to be human and of what
an incredible miracle it is to be alive. Seen through the
lens of gratitude, the human body is not only a miraculous construction, but also a gift.
6. Use Visual Reminders. Because the two primary
obstacles to gratefulness are forgetfulness and a lack of
mindful awareness, visual reminders can serve as cues
to trigger thoughts of gratitude. Often times, the best
visual reminders are other people.
7. Make a Vow to Practice Gratitude. Research shows
that making an oath to perform a behavior increases
the likelihood that the action will be executed. Therefore, write your own gratitude vow, which could be as
simple as “I vow to count my blessings each day,” and
post it somewhere where you will be reminded of it
every day.
8. Watch your Language. Grateful people have a
particular linguistic style that uses the language of
gifts, givers, blessings, blessed, fortune, fortunate,
and abundance. In gratitude, you should not focus
on how inherently good you are, but rather on the
inherently good things that others have done on
your behalf.
9. Go Through the Motions. If you go through
grateful motions, the emotion of gratitude should
be triggered. Grateful motions include smiling, saying thank you, and writing letters of gratitude.
10. Think Outside the Box. If you want to make the
most out of opportunities to flex your gratitude muscles, you must creatively look for new situations and
circumstances in which to feel grateful.
5
NORTH NEWS
Meeting House Activities
Sunday, June 18

2:30 Concert: Deborah Gilwood & Mary Hubbell
Monday, June 19
10:00 Art Studio—LL
 11:00 Yoga
 2:00 Healthy Bones and Balance
 3:30 Global Spirit TV:

Tuesday, June 20
9:00 Hiking w/Hans
 1:30 North East Book Club

Wednesday, June 21
10:00 Men’s Group
 12:30 Nifty Nineties Pizza Party
 2:00 Handcrafts Group

Thursday, June 22 (Trash Only)





9:30 Walking Group—Meet at the Bench
10:00 Errands Van Trip
10:00 Art Studio
2:00 Healthy Bones and Balance CANCELED
4:00 The Handmaid’s Tale
Friday, June 23
10:00 Games - Library
 11:00 Yoga

Other Meeting House Uses
Tuesday, June 20

12:30 Bridge Group
Happy Birthday
Peg Bedell
Arky Markham
Staff Office Hours:
Rob Olmsted: Monday
Wednesday
Friday
Thom Wright: Thursday
Friday
8:30 ~ 9:30
8:30 ~ 9:30
1:00 ~ 3:00
8:00 ~ 4:00
8:00 ~ 4:00
Neighbor Care News
The Neighbor Care Group is
here to help. Sharon Rulf is
June’s contact person.
Please reach out to her at
413-801-3420 or
[email protected]
Program Committee Update:
The program committee met recently to review
and discuss “innings and outings” for the summer
months. A new Van Tip Request Form was created
for residents to use who may have ideas for special
resident trips (i.e. Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival,
lunch at specific restaurants, shopping, etc). The
forms are available at the Meeting House and Front
Desk of the Inn. In addition, there are also forms to
use when requesting use of common rooms (Mt.
Tom Room, Gathering Room, etc.) for special activities. Please use these for any program ideas you
may have. If you have any questions, please see
Sarah or Marilyn.
Last week 25% of the Northampton Campus attended a Healthy Bones
and Balance Exercise Class
6