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

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

A Tough Guy’s Good Things List

This morning I had a conversation with a man named Gordon.  Gordon is in his 70’s.  He’s a big burly man who spent working life among the towering conifers of the Pacific Northwest.  To this day he still wears plaids, jeans, suspenders and heavy work boots.  His face and hands are sculpted by decades outdoors and his eyes are gray – brown like chips of smoky quartz. We sat at a sidewalk… Read More