Clare Consultation, LLCFat and Dignity
Inspired by a graduate student who had elected gastric bypass surgery as a weight reduction strategy, I took the lead on an article she co-authored with another student – a very tall, thin woman athlete. It is always great to publish in scholarly journals with students. Part of the satisfaction comes from supporting new scholars, but another part comes from delving into whole new areas of understanding based on following the… Read More
Calm Vigilance
There’s something to be said for scanning the environment – for reading the room – for casing the joint. I’ve just spent four days in the Northern Rockies with my husband. Attending literary events, sitting in restaurants and coffee shops, walking spring green trails, and hiking to a high mountain lake – one laid down tens of thousands of years ago by an already slow-moving glacier. On the hike, we carried bear… Read More
Portland Boil Alert – Noticing what Works
I just got a phone call from a woman I don’t know. It was my second time to hear her voice. The first time was yesterday afternoon when she called everyone in Portland, Oregon to tell us we needed to boil our drinking water. E Coli had been found in the drinking supply. We needed to be careful and via ‘reverse 911’ the officials of our city were letting us know. So,… Read More
Billy Frank — This is what Enduring Looks Like
A great man has left this life – the one we know together here on the bold curve of our planet. Billy Frank, a Nisqually Indian man who was born and lived his whole life long – all 83 years – among the people of the Nisqually Tribe, among the tribal people of the Columbia River, of the Pacific Northwest, of North America, of the globe. He accepted no slight to Native… Read More
Zaher Wahab – Educational Leader Extraordinaire
NOTE: I’ve just received a note from my mentor, friend and colleague, Dr. Zaher Wahab. A few years ago, Zaher retired his position as a professor. We were faculty colleagues for 24 years. Throughout his 40 years in the professoriate, he returned regularly to his homeland in Afghanistan. Here is what he wrote today: Dear Colleagues and Friends, Greetings from Kabul. Yes, I know I have not written to you since last… Read More
Leading with Age
I’m pretty sure I’m on a soap box. Have been for a few years, now. My subject from this modest elevation: The Reclamation of Elderhood ™ . Like most of us, I remember my grandparents. I remember a few great uncles and aunts. I even remember some of their friends. My maternal grandmother, for example, was born in 1896. I know too little of her life. I know she was raised in… Read More
Zero Tolerance 2.0
I recently heard a story from a student finishing her sophomore year at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. A story set in a quiet college neighborhood, its characters all part of the college’s community. Here’s how it went – A group of friends were hanging out in a dorm room. All were men, all members of the football team and all, incidentally, considered strong students by respected faculty members. … Read More
Launching Clare Consultation: Right into the Big Middle of Change
Maybe it’s being 14 years into a brand new millennium. Maybe it’s living on this side of 2012, the year so long identified by the Mayan People for its pivot point – for signifying radical shifts in human awareness, in behavior and community. Maybe it’s what I’ve heard a few very wise ones refer to as the quickening. Whatever the case, here we are. Like it or not, aware or not,… Read More
February 1 – Re-imagining Underway
February. The love month. The month my skin has historically hit its most green (being of “olive” complexion – or so I’ve been told). The shrimpy month perhaps made so out of some vague attempt compensate the rutheless grind mid-winter in the northern hemisphere can present whether rainy in Portland, sub-zero in eastern Montana or, this year, astonishingly dry in California and wildly cold where my Mama lives in Georgia. It was February, 2009… Read More
On the Cusp of 2014 – Change and What Endures
Soon the calendar will shift for another roll through dates, through seasons and all the moments we have no way of knowing from here. Each of us lives in our own contagion of this following that. The unavoidable change that is living itself can sometimes feel unnerving — or at least the anticipation of it, the impossibility I already mentioned of knowing completely any change before it happens. I’ve been writing this… Read More