My friend Jason Anderson told this story during one of his sessions at The Montana Summer Institute in Big Sky last week. I want to make sure he gets the credit, and because I’m going to paraphrase it the best I can, there’s a chance I won’t do the story justice the way he did. I do remember that Jason got a little emotional as … Continue reading This is who we’ve become…
It was an abrupt interruption of a sound sleep when my alarm went off at 5:30 am today. I had worked hard at the farm for the weekend and my 56-year-old achy body wanted to stay in bed. But that wasn’t the deal I had made with myself. This is the ninth day of a 40-day journey. Waking up before dawn and walking for an … Continue reading Day 9
When we sold our house and went nomadic in the fall of 2020, we agreed, “We’ll give it a year and see how it feels.” But after the first few months, we realized a year was going to go by quickly, so we renegotiated and agreed again…”We’ll know when it’s time to be done.” And now we know. As luck would have it, we both … Continue reading Roots
It takes a long time, this pursuit of justice. Sometimes it feels like things move slowly. Sometimes it feels like nothing changes at all. When I interviewed Rev. DeMett Jenkins in Charleston last year, she spoke about her grandfather, Esau Jenkins and the civil rights work he did back in the day. DeMett said, “We’re dealing with the exact same type of stuff that my … Continue reading Faith and Justice
Jackie Davis is 12 years old and lives in McKenzie Bridge, Oregon. She likes to catch snakes and salamanders in her yard. She’d like to work in claymation when she grows up. In late summer of 2020, the Holiday Farm wildfire swept through the valley where she lives and they had to evacuate. Her house wasn’t damaged by the fire, but more than 500 other … Continue reading Jackie Juniper Davis
We’ve witnessed some remarkable terrain in this year on the road. If there’s such a thing as a spiritual home, I’ve been at the center of mine for the past two months in the Pacific Northwest. Their combination of mountain and sea, wrapped in a lush green blanket is my idea of paradise. But, as they say, there is trouble in paradise. The Northwest suffered … Continue reading Watching the earth
Last weekend a friend texted me a photo of three statues on the back of a flatbed truck in Columbus, Mississippi. It was the start of relocating a 32-foot tall Confederate statue from in front of the Lowndes County Courthouse to a new site across town in Friendship Cemetery, where more than 2,000 Confederate soldiers are buried beside 100 or so Union soldiers. It’s interesting … Continue reading Mississippi update
Lydia Koltai is a mother, an herbalist and a civil rights activist in Oxford Mississippi. She is active in a local movement to remove a Confederate statue from the lawn of the local courthouse. “I’m a pretty loving person. I really want to love everybody and understand where people are coming from. What is upsetting is when it feels like people can’t give that back … Continue reading Lydia Koltai
Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane? That’s the question people ask you when you announce that you are going skydiving. And in a sense, it’s what we are doing now. Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. We love our community. I can walk across the street and help myself to a beer out of Dan’s fridge whether he’s home or … Continue reading Leaving Little Road
We’ve set some big wheels in motion. And now it’s our job to run fast enough to keep up with them. We expect to have the house on the market by the end of the month. Lord help us. Like a lot of people, we’ve been using COVID time to make some home improvements and catch up on overdue upgrades. But now we are ramping … Continue reading Letting go
