In the summer of 1976, a nine-year-old recalls a family road trip to the Canadian Rockies, sparked by a sense of exploration and warmth. This experience inspired a lifelong passion for finding beauty in unexpected places. As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, the author emphasizes the importance of community, storytelling, and healing through shared experiences. Continue reading Happy Birthday
Kristian Bailey is a farmer, and he also considers himself a land steward and teacher. At Orais Hand Farm, located across the road from the Mississippi River, he is trying to move away from the idea of human dominion over nature. Instead, he is working in cooperation with it.
Kristian talks about farming with “tenderness”: recognizing that Southern land carries wounds (his own farm is on a former plantation site) and that part of his job is to help heal those wounds. Continue reading Kristian Bailey
250 years ago James Stuart planted 150 beech trees along the entry road to his estate near Ballycastle, Ireland. He wanted to impress his guests and visitors. Today, the rural lane is impressive indeed, with tour buses and Instagram posters making regular stops. The site has been used as a movie set and as a backdrop for ads. I visited the Dark Hedges last summer … Continue reading Planting trees
There’s a thought that’s been rolling through my mind since returning from Northern Ireland and trying to understand the division and conflict that continues to ripple through that land. “We are not so different.” The sense is the same if I stand on our soil and look at our many challenges, or stand on their soil and look at their Troubles. In fact, it’s the … Continue reading We are not so different
Last night, Karen and I went to see Till, the movie of the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till. It is a powerful retelling of a difficult and important story in our nation’s history. I’ve been twice to the site where Emmett Till’s body was found , and I wrote about it in Portraits of Peace, Searching for Hope in a Divided America. The passage below … Continue reading Till
Sandy Gokee is Anishinaabe—Bear Clan—and lives in Ashland, Wisconsin. For the interview, we sat outside at a park overlooking Lake Superior as a storm skirted around us, so you might hear a little wind and maybe even thunder in the recording. Sandy introduces herself in her native language, Ojibwemowin. Her Ojibwe name, Wenipashtaabe, means “She Carries a Light Load. She shares her concerns about the … Continue reading Wenipashtaabe – Sandy Gokee
Saturday was a beautiful fall day, much like that other one, a little more than 21 years ago. We had an open schedule and had wrapped up our programming at WVU, so we drove from our campground in West Virginia, through a corner of Maryland and into the hills near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to the site of the Flight 93 Memorial. 7 crew members, 33 passengers … Continue reading Flight 93
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
Nora McDowell is a member of the Fort Mojave Tribe in Mojave Valley, Arizona and was the chairperson of the tribe for more than 25 years. She’s a part of the leadership team for the Water and Tribes Initiative and is passionate about protecting all natural and cultural resources along the Colorado River. “The water, especially…We have to care for it. We have to speak … Continue reading Nora McDowell
Derek Thompson is an activist in Portland, Oregon and the founder and Executive Director of Voices4Justice, an organization dedicated to bringing together concerned community members…clergy, law enforcement and elected officials…to engage in meaningful conversation that can change the relationship dynamic between opposing parties and factions. “Even if we don’t get along, if I saw you fall in the street, should I laugh at you? Or … Continue reading Derek Thompson
