Clare Consultation, LLCPosted on March 28, 2013 by Mary Clare
Montana’s Red Lodge
Yep. On the road again. This time listening to the wide stretch of country called Montana. Right now I’m sitting with the morning sun where it falls across this tooled leather couch and onto pine floors reclaimed from beneath years of inhabitants, each leaving behind their layers of linoleum, carpet and, in the bedroom where I’m sleeping — astroturf. It took plenty of my friends Joe and Roxanna’s work to call these wooden boards… Read More
Posted on March 11, 2013 by Mary Clare
Ready to Learn
Today I was a peripheral part of a discussion on schools – specifically that now familiar notion applied to preschool and kindergarten aged children, “readiness to learn.” Hmmm. Ever since G.W. Bush announced the launch of “No Child Left Behind,” with its guarantee of advancing the fiscal security of the standardized test industry nationwide – ever since he said as part of that initiative that “every child will come to school ready… Read More
Posted on March 3, 2013 by Mary Clare
Unlikely Connection – Natural Kindness
On Wednesday of last week I heard a story. It was a story of a little boy, a four-year-old skipping and playing and laughing because he had completed two chemo-therapy treatments and for the first time in almost as long as he could remember, he didn’t feel icky. He felt great! Despite his cancer, and almost as if he’d forgotten he had it, he wanted to jump and run and swing with… Read More
Posted on February 3, 2013 by Mary Clare
Listening to Rivers
Last week I had the chance to catch up with a friend, Antone Minthorn (Cayuse), former Chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). He told me a story of the Umatilla River. The focus of the story was Salmon – the fact that Salmon were not able to make it up the Columbia as far as the Umatilla River for more than 70 years while the combination of… Read More
Posted on December 31, 2012 by Mary Clare
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
Posted on November 12, 2012 by Mary Clare
Listen to Each Other
Today is Veteran’s Day. I know that among the reasons I am here typing these words onto this screen with lunch cooking on the stove is the presence and courage of the men and women who over time have been warriors in this country and on this planet. I’m not a big fan of armed conflict — not a big fan of war — and still I know that for the largest… Read More
Posted on November 5, 2012 by Mary Clare
Presidential Politics and the #6 Bus
The podcast series continues – in fact, the entire world continues – even here in the days just preceding and just following the 2012 U.S. Presidential election. This past Friday, Alex Ward, the producer of the podcast series, uploaded Chapter 3 – Voices from the Southwest. The radio recounting of my miles on the post-inauguration highways of early 2009 continues. The most important feature of these podcasts for me is the chance… Read More
Posted on October 28, 2012 by Mary Clare
Matters of Spirit before the Election — and a second podcast —
Last night there were fireworks in the rain for the last game of the season for the Portland Timbers — our professional soccer team. The season ended with a tie between the Timbers and the San Jose Earthquakes. I wasn’t at the game. And, true confession, I didn’t know about it. But the sound was enormous for 20 minutes or more. My imagination ran the gammut, but I remembered my friend Dia… Read More
Posted on October 14, 2012 by Mary Clare
Writing as a Woman in a Body — to T Akin et al
I think it’s time to say ENOUGH! I want to say that on two levels. FIRST –> I and we (women and men) have had enough of you who persist in the archaic notion that you have dominion over women simply because of the differences in our genitals. Really? I know and understand from experience how difficult it is to have unearned privilege questioned. It feels like you’re losing something –… Read More
Posted on September 30, 2012 by Mary Clare
Plane Delays and Collaboration across Cultures
It is Sunday afternoon. I’m sitting in the Alumni Center of Austin College in Sherman, TX. I’m here for a few days to support a conversation and the development of a relationship between this small independent liberal arts school and Native American Tribes and communities. My job is to keep the listening and speaking going – and to join in the identification of steps to be taken toward building friendship and collaboration… Read More