Hunter was a safe and welcoming “home” for me, from my first day coming into the city on the #7 train with Nancy Thompson. I felt supported there, surrounded by the joys and warmth of friendship. (I was always puzzled by those who hated high school and suspect it had something to do with their schools being coed.)

Writing had been an integral part of who I am and how I express myself since I learned to write, and I was thrilled to have my first poem published in Argus and later one was selected to appear in Marianne. This year I finally had four chapbooks printed with my poetry (largely from the nineties), Empty Again, Millennium of Loving, Transformations in the Deep and A Rhythm That Persists.

The Integrated Arts program became the template for my free-lance career as editor, reviewer, astrological consultant and teacher – writing poetry and hosting poetry readings in Brooklyn, studying prose writing (memoir), and writing astrology articles (my first free-lance writing gig) and, later, reviewing New Age books. Luck and happenstance played roles in my becoming a lingerie designer’s “fit” model (no photos), which helped enormously with the bills while being a single mother. My favorite for-money gigs were my New Age book review column in Spirit of Change magazine, and editorship of the NY section of The Whole Life Times – as well as being mother to Josh (and now blessed with a grandson, too: Benson).

A publishing job in the college department at Holt, Rinehart and Winston morphed into an active involvement in the women’s movement at CBS where I represented Holt on an Advisory Council to top management during their efforts to block the lawsuits of women in Broadcast by hearing about “the needs of women.” Through that network, I learned about, applied for and got the dream job (if short lived) of astrology magazine editor at CBS magazines. When support for astrology magazines was dropped, I quit to pursue a more serious study and practice of astrology – and begin a lifelong free-lance writing career. Along the way, I learned the Yang style T'ai Chi form, completed the Helix program of healing (run by Julie Winters of NYC), studied yoga at the Solar Yoga and Arts in Brooklyn, and learned and taught Chi Gong for eight years. I also read and studied the complete works of Paul Brunton after being energetically enticed to read one of his posthumously published "Notebooks" in a bookstore on 6th Avenue in the 1970s called The Mad Monk (anyone remember it?) later supplanted by Murray’s Bagels.

Five years ago, Tom (three’s the charm!) and I moved (from Brooklyn) to rent a home on the east end of Long Island. In Noyac, we walk along the rocky bay, pick vegetables at Quail Hill farm, attend the weekly Jazz Jam at Bay Burger, half a mile from our home in the woods, and take photographs everywhere. Out here, “the teacher appeared,” and I brushed up on the Yang form I’d learned 40 years earlier, and found it inside myself again; I practice T’ai Chi now daily. I also paint (watercolor), work in charcoal and pastels (when there’s enough snow to inspire me), and make collages (since the Election) when I’m not driven to write.

Since trying (and failing) to save Montauk beach in November 2015 from Army Corps desecration, our water-protector instincts directed us to become prayer and keyboard warriors for Standing Rock. It changed us. I felt like I was coming home full circle recently when we took a ride to Stony Brook (my alma mater!) for an Earth Day celebration there, the Roadshow of Resistance: Saving the Planet, Indigenous Rights and Standing Rock. We continue working to spread that spark awakening the world to a loving awareness of Mother Earth and all her children, and advocating for our local Indigenous neighbors, the Shinnecock tribe.
Heidi Rain (a.k.a. Oleszczuk)