document.write("
Hi. I’m Sandy Compton, and though I’ve grown up a bit since this picture was taken, some would argue that it hasn’t been a lot. This portrait was made at least a few years ago by Doris Miller, an outrageous friend of my mother’s who dyed her hair, drove a convertible and had the courage to be an independent and single woman in the very married world of ... well, let’s just say it wasn’t this decade.
Doris’ studio for this shoot was our front room. The backdrop is a bed sheet fresh off the clothes line, and I’m sitting on the plaid wool blanket off my bed. It couldn’t be much more home-made than that.
"); document.write("The feather with the orange shaft is from a flicker, a beautiful bird that makes a living digging bugs out of trees. In some Native traditions, Flicker is the keeper of Rhythm. If you hear Flicker’s staccato call or his beak-driven, drum-roll tattoo beaten on a tamarack snag or a metal chimney, you’ll understand why. But the rhythms Flicker represents extend beyond sound; to seasons, the circles of the planets and deeper cycles of living we all enjoin.
"); document.write("As a story teller, I claim Flicker as a totem, for my joy is to explore these seasons and tell the tales I dig up. Like Doris’ portraits of me and the rest of my family, these essays and stories are homemade. They contain not much glitz or glitter, for they are hand-made from ordinary ingredients, but they are well-stitched and pieced together with love.
"); document.write("Be sure to check the Sandpoint General Store to see copies of my book, Jason's Passage, for sale online.