Punctually at 3:47pm each afternoon, a family of Titi tamarins arrived at my rooftop doorway to ask for bananas.
Still-Life of Environmental Paradox in Hidalgo, Mexico
The disconnect between what I knew and what I saw left me stumbling for how to feel.
Wired for Hope: Youth, Migration, & Bridging the Tech Gap in Rural Mexico
I’d regularly see “Missing” posters for teenagers and wonder if they were amongst those who’ve been disappeared by narcos, or if they’d joined a caravan to the Land of Dreams.
The Flickering: the wild still sings in the dark
A screech owl whinnies in the distance and somewhere in the back of my mind arises the knowledge that tomorrow will be longer and harder for this nocturnal venture, but life will seem easier.
The moon above ‘Aliomanu says ‘stay’
and the whole ride back to the top of the hill in the bed of a pick-up truck, I yearn to call this feeling what others must feel upon returning Home.
Plastic Tides in Our Sacred Ocean: A Call for Kuleana
In Hawaiian culture, there are deeply rooted concepts for which I wish we had English equivalents:
The Housing Crisis is a Plea for Culture Shift
Recently, I was introduced to someone who—upon learning that I work as a Housing Advocate—responded with a question I hadn’t expected.
Dear Climate Activist Apologetically Taking a Break
All that ‘self-care’ blabber isn’t just about keeping yourself from getting burnt out; it’s also about making yourself strong. And soft. Go soften. Stare off without thoughts. Watch a slug move across the forest floor. Or contemplate all those thoughts in your head at once—while staring at the Milky Way.
Wild Grace: Saving Species Is More Possible Than We Think
As we watched each other with a mix of curiosity and trepidation, I wondered if the ancient stories of half-human creatures first came from reports of long-lost beings that once went extinct—or from the desperate hopes of mankind as we first began to want to become anything but human.
Revenge-Travel Blues: Movement in a Post-Pandemic World
It occurs to me not for the first time that the era that allowed me to travel and even root myself in so many homes has now cost me the ability to ever return to them in the true sense of the word. Every year between visits increases the odds that the landscape I knew will be changed— whether by fires, floods, and droughts, or by noise, gentrification, and increasing swarms of humans seeking a piece of the “off the beaten path” before it’s gone.
The Terror Within: Can We Please Really Talk About the Whys Behind School Shootings?
I can’t stop thinking about Salvador’s one pair of jeans.
Hungry for This (a forest story)
Eloi is no scientist, but he’s a farmer and he can understand that the planet breathes. He’s seen the dead butterflies. He can understand that the trees around him cool the planet in far-off places where he’s heard there exist mountains made of pure ice.
What Remains: Reflections on Climate, Home & Hope
Despite the improbability of any of us ever meeting anywhere back in the “real world,” we all float together now amidst the rice stalks - bonded by a fierce, desperate love for the world we’ve been watching wilt our entire lives, and contemplating what these wetlands could look like in the years to come if we lose this next battle.
The Vanishing
No, there is no sleeping in this epoch between wildness and encapsulation.
Sojourner (a migration story)
They say home is where the heart is, in which case you’re not home. That home is gone. The parents are gone. The house is gone. Most everyone you knew is gone.
Red Tape & Cat Tails: The Complicated Journey to Voting Rights
Once upon a time in Mexico, all my important documents were destroyed by a cat and a bottle of peroxide.
Sawdust & Smoke: Finding Life in the Remnants
As much as my heart bleeds daily, I don’t want to spend the rest of my finite time with Mother Earth in mourning.
What Does Restorative Justice Look Like? A Lesson from Oaxaca
Years ago I was living in a rural village in Oaxaca, Mexico, population 400, when it was discovered that their mayor had embezzled about $20,000 of the community budget—a massive amount of money in a poverty-stricken community.
Outside
Eye contact becomes language as lips disappear, leaving only eyebrows over pools of so-much-to-say welling up on the inside. Outside, the Earth breathes. Outside, the hen still clucks in the garden and today, the way the sunlight bounced off the green watering can, her tiny fingers and gaptoothed smile as… OutsideRead more
Naked & Unashamed: Embracing Vulnerability Amid Chaos
I’d just returned to the mainland from a visit back to Kauai when Lockdown began, and the opportunity to remember the lessons from my time living there has helped me through this year-long month. I’ve often joked that on the island everyone might as well be “naked” because it doesn’t… Naked & Unashamed: Embracing Vulnerability Amid ChaosRead more
Mending
Grandma used to snack on sweet onions she kept in her purse,alongside society’s disposables—napkins, bread-bag ties,safety pins she turned into jewelry, or magazine picturesshe framed with bits of lace that I’d hang on my wall,next to the rock-band posters, back in the days when I thought success was measured in… MendingRead more