Letter to the Descendants of Tisquantum
I am borne Elizabeth, a daughter of a long line of settlers. I recognize innumerable harm done to peoples living along the Quinibequin (long winding river) and Chesapeake (shellfish bay) watersheds. Some of my family settled in the Tidewater of Maryland in the 1600s...
Taming the Tiger
Who will grab the tiger Raytheon and its military production by the tail? It’s unbelievable that Cambridge, saturated with higher education, we have the second largest weapon manufacturer in the USA, and the largest generator of guided missiles. Raytheon designs these...
Wild Rice on Water
Part III Honoring Anishinaabe Treaties In the tangle of human failures of fear, greed, and forgetfulness, the sun gives clarity.… the sun is a relative, and illuminates our path.Our earth is shifting. We can all see it.I hear from my Yupik relatives up north that...
Reweaving the Dawn
Part II of the Anishinaabe SojournSunrise Sunrise, as you enter the houses of everyone here, find us.We struggled with a monster and lost.Our bodies were tossed in the pile of kill.We were ashamed and we told ourselves for a thousand years,We didn’t deserve anything...
Sparks Fly — Part one, the Anishinaabe pilgrimage
I AM A VISITOR ON A JOURNEY. My work is to learn from the Earth and the people living close to the Earth. I’m a visitor who arrived for the Peoples Treaty Gathering in northern MN. I listened to Jasper* welcome 30 of us on Saturday morning at the Manewog Camp. I was...
Returning Home
THIS MAY I LOOKED FORWARD TO A SPECTACULAR MIGRATION in the midst of Boston, Cambridge, Watertown, and Medford (MA). With species in rapid extinction, I had given up on this migration, much as the grey whales disappeared from migrating the 2,000 miles up the Atlantic...
Rivers in a Viral Desert
As summer’s soft breath greets wisteria and peach trees, stores are closed and schools have barricaded doors. In Massachusetts, the plague still hovers close. COVID asks humans to shut bodies inside, not to shut off attention. Fear is on steroids but hiding helps...
Quakers, Loving in Crisis
Well you see, my work is more than my job. I get paid as a psychotherapist reducing aggression, and building compassion. My work is the practice of peace. Quakers can be passive peace-lovers. I wrinkle my nose because many Quakers remain quiet around violence,...
COVID-19 as Teacher within Tapestry
Pestilence and fear reverberate around us like a scary Hitchcock movie. There is evil in 2020 and compounded by a whopper worldwide virus. But that’s not the main event. Not at all. For thousands of generations, over hundreds of centuries, a great tapestry is being...
Fighting Fakefuel with Finesse
Acting in Love during Times of Fire My stomach dropped down to my knees. Holy cow! I shivered on the tracks as the train curled around the bend. It was 9 pm, Dec 16th, dark and cold. I was in the presence of something awesome like the shepherds on Christmas night who...