“But every once in a while, with a basket in hand, or a peach or a pencil, there is that moment when the mind and spirit open to all the connections, to all the lives and our responsibility to use them well.” — Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer I’m sitting in our newly organized office, a room at the front of our house facing the yard. My husband has a desk, converted from an old oak table with our computer placed on... Read more
In today’s America, we see the face of politicians more than anyone else, because we are in constant conversation about the state of things, and because our President can’t seem to keep from Tweeting in the middle of the night. We rotate in and out of the stories that can garner the most attention–usually negative ones, ones that zap our energy from us and leave relationships broken or give us a pessimistic view of humanity. We all become villians to... Read more
“I want to come home to a home cooked dinner at six every night, one that she fixes and one that I expect one day to have my daughters learn to fix after they become traditional homemakers and family wives.” This recent statement by Missouri Senator Courtland Sykes is a perfect description of the romanticized idea of the homemaker that many Complementarians in the Christian world are working toward in American culture. But the Complementarian model... Read more
A few months ago, I spent a weekend at a retreat in the mountains of New Mexico. While there, I saw someone important to me that I’d not seen in a few years, someone I have loved my entire life but have had a rocky relationship with at times. Saying I was nervous to see him was an understatement. But I’d spent three days at a contemplation and social action retreat with a group of activists and friends, plus people... Read more
I’ve been doing what a lot of Americans do during the Christmas season: watching cheesy Christmas movies on Netflix. Recently I watched one called My Santa, a movie about a single mother who falls in love with Santa’s son. While I wouldn’t recommend you spend an hour and a half watching it like I did, it reminded me of the difficult time so many single parents have at this time of year. I was a child of a single... Read more
I stood in line at the grocery store, the ten things or less aisle, with a bottle of wine and two packages of chocolates to share with my husband when I got home. The man in front of me, probably in his early to mid 50s, was wearing a suit with a gold watch, texting someone on his phone. He’d smile and look at it, then put it back in his pocket. He was buying beer and toilet paper. Normally,... Read more
When I was little, I had a Pocahontas Barbie Doll. I thought she was beautiful. She had olive skin, dark, straight hair, and a beautiful buckskin dress with a teal necklace around her neck. I watched the movie, sang the songs. It was a cherished part of my childhood. But the reality is, much like most of what I was taught in history books, it was a lie. The true story of Pocahontas, or Matoaka, is not what the movie... Read more
It was on this day last year that water protectors and protestors at Standing Rock were doused with water in freezing temperatures and shot at with rubber bullets. I recently tweeted that indigenous people cannot trust institutions, because they are such a key part of our generational trauma, and the events at Standing Rock were a reminder of this for modern times. My father worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Native American police officers hired by the government to... Read more
{DISCLAIMER: These reflections are solely my reflections from my journey as a Potawatomi woman. They do not reflect the journey or stories of every indigenous person, and it should not be assumed that every indigenous person has the same experiences. Thank you for joining me here. May we grow toward unity together.} It’s Native American Heritage Month! If you’d like to read the last two reflections for this month, you can find them on my home page. Someone asked me... Read more
{DISCLAIMER: These reflections are solely my reflections from my journey as a Potawatomi woman. They do not reflect the journey or stories of every indigenous person, and it should not be assumed that every indigenous person has the same experiences. Thank you for joining me here. May we grow toward unity together.} It’s Day Two of Native American Heritage Month! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a prophet, to be one who walks in... Read more
Stories - with Kaitlin B. Curtice
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