<500 words to honor our Elder, Nelson Mandela

This week I had the distinctly privileged new millennium opportunity to sit in a microbrewery with a web design specialist.  “Websites are, at best, for linking good minds in support of human community and the planet we humans share.”  I knew I liked her.  Somewhere in the mix I asked about blog length (you who follow EX:Change know mine can be lloonngg).  She said, “Max 500 words.”  I was impressed.  I’m giving… Read More

On Break in Lisbon …

–Will return next week with the second guest blog from Gary Ferguson. Until then ~~  mc

Notes from Mayo – “My water’s talking to your water.”

Harold Gattensby lives at the headwaters of southern lakes in Yukon Territory, Canada.  He is one of the tribal leaders attending the summit here in Mayo, Yukon. The leaders are from the 72 member tribes composing an alliance that was established a few days before Christmas 1997 in Galena, Alaska — at 40 below freezing.  The alliance brings into collaboration Alaska Tribes and Canada First Nations in the Yukon River Basin for… Read More

Montana Reprise — the Renewal of Uncertainty Easter and Beyond

It is Easter morning.  A black cat walks across a bright green stretch of lawn each step a caress as silken and clear as the the early morning air that holds it all. I’ve driven 1800 miles in the past week.  Even though that’s a thing I’m known to do, the particular kind of presence demanded by the road continues to offer surprises that, upon my return, make the miracles like cat… Read More

Thirteen Ways We’re Not Helpless – Notes from the Edge of the Cliff

There are a lot of things that could be said about right now, today, December 31, 2012. For starters, we in the Northern Hemisphere are in the darkest time of year.  In Portland, Oregon the days are short, and most often gray and wet.  Nonetheless, we, like all of us, are in a great series of collectively signified moments that invite suspension of despair and the joyful tending of possibility. On December… Read More