The Root and The Bloom

Posted 8/21/12

My daughter Callison leaves tomorrow, after a month-long visit from her new home in Butte, MT. She has been sleeping in her old bedroom and she expressed surprise at how little it had been changed in …

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The Root and The Bloom

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My daughter Callison leaves tomorrow, after a month-long visit from her new home in Butte, MT. She has been sleeping in her old bedroom and she expressed surprise at how little it had been changed in her nearly two-year absence. It could serve as my office, she noted, the lack of which I like to complain about. If the thought occurred to me at all, I dismissed it. There is too much “her” here. Her books and an old guitar, dozens of scarves and shoes and framed photos of lifelong friends. It is a waste of good real estate, I suppose, to use it only as a guest room.

Callison nests easily, wherever she is. She makes her mark in many ways. In Montana she has made a home with her man, Conrad, and their Golden Doodle, Kirby, a giant fluff of blond curls as lovable and goofy as they come. She shops well—by that I mean, thriftily—at the local Goodwill or occasionally, Target. She gardens now too, growing tomatoes and squash in their small yard.

When she decided to move out West to join Conrad, she had finished a Master’s program at Trinity College, Dublin in Public History. It’s the kind of degree that can get you an internship at a New York City museum or historical society, but not a job that pays enough to rent a room, let alone an apartment.

In Montana, she found an internship she loved. It was 160 miles from her home in Butte. She was grateful for her hand-me-down Prius. On her free days she worked at a café nearer to home, baking or waiting on tables. She was living frugally but well and able to continue to write songs and play music at local venues. She has a beautiful voice and a way with lyrics and is a vision of grace and power onstage, with her head-full of springy red curls.

Eventually her talents in music and her interest in history found their merge-point. While becoming a part of the music scene in Butte, she met Carson Becker, a playwright and educator who recently bought a house in Montana. When a local city-owned historic property, The Chateau, opened a request for proposals to the public, Carson won the bid to run the building as an arts and cultural institution. She tapped Callison to be the manager and program director. They formed an organization, The Root and The Bloom Collective, and began running programs last summer. Now they are in the process of obtaining formal non-profit status and building a board of directors.

The skills she is gaining, in administration and training and building community are invaluable. On her visit home she spent hours writing emails and planning the opening of a gift-shop in The Chateau. A few days ago, she got a phone call from the director of the city program that administers The Chateau, ensuring her employment would continue through 2016. Callison glowed with joy at the news. (I thought they’d be crazy to let such a woman get away.) She has put down her roots and now they are blooming.

If you would like to contribute to The Root and The Bloom Collective, follow this link: https://www.gofund me.com/rootandbloom.

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