The Esprit Networking Community Practice is engaged at this time in exploring personal stories, reflecting on their meanings, and supporting unknowns for understanding new directions. This process is fostering a sense of moral spirit that is strong enough to bring about personal and collective ethical actions that support renewed growth of community both locally and globally.

Annie's short life haunts me and I feel driven to write about the agonizing drama of her death. She died a long time ago, in an uncultivated farm field, supported by an old snake fence that was lined with patches of wild rose bushes.

Summers at my grandmother, Nanny Dewar's Prince Edward Island farm were time-outs, a kind of breathing space from the commotion and disturbances of our family life. I am remembering 1960, as it was the only time I had seen great-uncle Georgie. He lived his life as a hermit, "money under the mattress and so on", in the rundown farmhouse that was a field away from the home of his brother Frank, who was Nanny's husband and my grandfather.