November 1, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Life

A response to attacks on women in the park
Nature lover up a creek — Wissahickon Creek, that is
by LOUISE E. WRIGHT

Dancer Shavon Norris lets nature wash over her at a waterfall in Wissahickon Valley Park. (Photo by Pepon Osorio)

What better way to engage an audience than to combine the beauty of Wissahickon Valley Park with the graceful movement of the human body? On a warm Sunday morning in early October, Merián Soto and five other dancers did just that.

Paperia’s owners cite years of service

Ellen Gayda, a “body psychotherapist,” therapeutic masseuse and healer, consultant and holistic health educator, is forming a women’s circle that will meet twice a month in Chestnut Hill. For more information, call 610-644-2595  or visit www.bodyword.com

“Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until they’re in hot water.”——Eleanor Roosevelt

*****

In a 2004 book, Rocked in the Hand of God (now reprinted as My Three Years as a Tree), the local author, Victoria Pendragon, who is now 60-ish, recounts her horrendous experience with scleroderma, a disease of the skin characterized by thickening and hardening of the subcutaneous tissues. It results in a rigid, painful, at times even life-threatening condition that is very difficult to reverse.

Pendragon, who also had experienced extreme psychological trauma in her personal life, eventually went to a Chestnut Hill therapist, Ellen Gayda, who had founded “BodyWord®,” a holistic therapeutic approach to individuals that addresses physical pain and tension as well as emotional stress held in the body.

“Through BodyWord®,” said Pendragon, “I began to see how I was unconsciously undermining my own life and body, and I started on the road to recovery. My body, which had turned rock-hard, gained back energy and flexibility. Today, without any trace of disease left in my body, I am more alive than ever before.” (Pendragon also pays tribute to Gayda in her book.)

Renoir landscapes a clone of Chestnut Hill area park beauty
by BARBARA L. SHERF

As I wandered around the “Renoir Landscapes1865-1883” exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I kept envisioning landscapes I have seen over the years in the Wissahickon Valley. While my camera cannot capture the streams of light that Renoir could with his brush, I felt that I had been similarly intoxicated by the beauty in Fairmount Park and Chestnut Hill.   

Cemeteries alive for inquisitive Erdenheim author
by RICHARD S.
& MARY PRICE LEE

The first thing Erdenheim resident Tom Keels said to us during our recent interview was, “Guess where I was last night? The Gravediggers’ Ball at Wanamakers’ Crystal Tea Room. Larry [Arrigale, his partner] and I went as part of the Addams Family. All I had to do was wear shorts to be Pugsley, and Larry was dressed as Wednesday. We went with two friends who were Morticia and Gomez. The Wanamaker Organ was playing as we left; that was spooky.”