Feb 13, 2023
Show Notes:
Sarah’s passion is creative writing and teaching it in ways that inspire and delight others. Today she works as a writing professor at a community college and offers creative writing workshops in hospitals, libraries, alternative education programs and more. Yet Sarah considers her real work to be caring for her three children and their rural homestead through the various challenges and opportunities that come their way.
Sarah Silbert, a member of the Harvard and Radcliffe class of 1992, speaks about her journey since graduating from Harvard. She explained that she had been passionate about two areas while at Harvard - social service and community service, and creative writing. She went on to explain that Harvard ran its own homeless shelter, just two blocks from Adam's House, and that this had been the start of her journey and passion for social service. Since then, she has gone on to work around the country to help those needing shelter and support with a focus on teenage runaways. In the late 90’s, she became a professor at a community college where she continues to teach about the importance of civic engagement, community service, and self-awareness where she is able to use her knowledge and experience to help students make a difference in the world.
Inspired by Stories of Runaways
Inspired by an anthology of creative writing collected by a reporter tracking teenage runaways, Sarah started teaching creative writing workshops in libraries, hospitals, treatment centers, and other places for troubled youth. The teens in these workshops often wrote about the idea of home, and always linked it with a yearning for belonging. Sarah’s work with them over led her to reflect on her own desire for a home and to ask herself what “belonging” might mean to her.” Eventually, she realized that she wanted to live in a countryside setting and decided to pursue that goal.
Building a Cabin in Vermont
She applied for a series of creative writing fellowships which allowed her to stay in cabins in various locations. During her stay in the MacDowell cabin, which was once occupied by James Baldwin, she was inspired to find her own land and build a cabin. She took a house building course in Maine and looked for land in Wyoming and Eastern Washington. She wanted to create a space for young people who didn't have access to artist colonies. She was living out her teenage dream of building a cabin in Vermont. She had been given the land at a rock bottom price, but it had no water, power or road. Then, the electrical company offered her a large sum of money to put a power line across her property, which gave her the power she needed.
Coping with Illness and Grief
Unfortunately, her boyfriend was diagnosed with leukemia, and they were in and out of hospitals for seven years. She was 25 or 26 at the time and had to give up her dreams of family and children to take care of him. Sarah felt a spiritual calling to be in this situation, spending many days in the hospital sleeping in a cot by his bed. Despite the hardship, it was an experience that she believes brought her closer to Jeff and taught her to appreciate life. To cope with the grief of Jeff passing, Sarah decided to jump into a new idea of life and family. She took a year off from college to work for Mother Teresa, which she believes helped her get through the tough time.
Building a Village
A few years later she was hired as a teacher at a community college, and started taking in tenants to help with the house and kids. Eventually, her tenants became her fairy godmothers, helping with the house and kids, and her neighbors and godparent also came in to help. Now, six years later, Sarah and her kids are living for their dreams.
Sarah Silbert has traveled the world and seen many different kinds of families. She has found a way to raise her three children without a spouse, but still loves having another adult around to help her with her children. To her, family means having both mom, dad and kids, but she also has a tribe of people who love and support her and her children. She is proud of her physical strength and her mental strength, which she is developing further in a leadership program. The program’s motto is “how to be an island of calm in a storm”, which she applies to her own life and the lives of those around her.
Harvard courses and professors who influenced Sarah include Susan Dodd, creative writing instructor, and Ed Cohen, founder of The Echoing Green Fellowship.
Timestamps:
12:20: The hardships of living off grid
17:41 Caring for a Loved One with Leukemia
22:42 The Meaning of Family and Personal Accomplishments
26:13: The dynamic tribe
32:30 Combining Physical Endurance with Mental Clarity and Stewarding Kids in Unforeseen Craziness
34:48 Taking a Year Off to Work with Mother Teresa
41:17 Exploring Adventure and Opportunity
Links:
“The River We Call Ourselves” in the Sun
“Fighting in the Zendo”in the Sun
CONTACT INFO:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-silbert-97909111/