Det Vokser a Tre i Mostamägg by Britt Karin Larsen Translated by Ranae Lenor Hanson All rights reserved A wanted child comes into the world, born under the tree of love. Another child comes into the world, born under the tree of solitude, for it was not wanted. It should never have been born, and […]
A Kind and Moving Place Can Ground You
March 4, 2025
My St. Paul friend and colleague, Tracy Kugler, has developed an online guide for a practice that I nudge you to explore. In chaotic times, we need places that calm us, that return our feet to the earth and our breathing to the wind. Your local park can be such a place. Tracy’s guide, Start with […]
Plants can do WHAT???
October 6, 2024
I’ve learned a great deal about plants from Zoë Schlanger. We were in conversation with a roomful of others at Milkweed Bookstore in June. And now I’m making a pitch for you to read her book – The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. […]
On Saunas and Silences
April 22, 2024
My great-grandparents may never have said they were Swedish. Perhaps they said nothing more than that they came from Värmland County in Sweden and, standing back in silence, let others assume. The others were the ones who told me my grandma was a Swede from Värmland. None of them mentioned that Värmland was the forest […]
“At Least He Wasn’t a Finn”: The Forest Finn Coverup
September 23, 2023
Pictured here the immigrant Anderson Family: Bottom row – Lars, Mabel, and Lisa; Top row – Mathew, Levi, and Alma The Mystery Even as children, my siblings and I knew we were mostly Norwegian. (We must have known we were legally Americans, but we never called ourselves that.) Our mother’s father (morfar in Norwegian) came […]
Showing up for Grendel
April 5, 2024
Grace Harnois – by lucky fate my daughter-in-law – hosts a super-cool podcast. Last month she invited me to talk with her about John Gardner’s Grendel because we have both had soft spots for Grendel and his tormented mother more than we have for that hard-hearted hero Mr. Beowulf. Grendel and his mom were likely […]
Blog
Some of you may remember from Watershed that one of my brothers was developing a method of using native Minnesota bacteria from swamps and Minnesota iron to remove sulfate from water that has been impacted by closed taconite mines. This process is of greater importance to me now since the lake I wrote about, Birch Lake, […]
Blog
Letting Go of 161
August 4, 2022
Offer of Food to the Wild Ones
August 16, 2021
I asked a class of Minneapolis College students to find and watch a wild animal (or at least to remember watching one who was wild) and then to write about that being. Many returned with writings about squirrels – not red squirrels, not ground squirrels, not flying squirrels. No. Grey squirrels. City squirrels. I hope […]
Blog
Losing Ground – A New Movie from Angelo Loy
May 14, 2024
Angelo Loy, who previously offered us the powerful film, Tropic of Chaos, has now offered people who visit this website to watch Losing Ground, his new film about climate migrants in Bangladesh. Join with me in celebrating these people and in finding ways to support them. Above is the trailer. To watch the film itself, go […]