Clare Consultation, LLCNotes 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
Day after Memorial Day in Montana
The past few days have, for me, been filled again with Montana. Specifically the valleys just northeast of the Beartooth/Absaroka range of the Rockies. Yesterday our country gave an entire day to a remembrance many of us make far more often during the year in honor of the people who have given their lives in service to this country. On that day I stood in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone, the country’s… 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
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
900 miles later
Moonrise over Montana – gibbous pearl thumbtack secured like the answer to a question phrased in clear blue. Hills role golden here. Like a pod of humpback whales they ease untroubled beneath blushing snowcaps.
Things that Fall from the Sky
“If you have time to stop for a minute, I’ve got something to show you back at the bus,” my new friend Peter says. “Something that fell from the sky.” “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” I ask. His blue eyes spark as his usually stone-still face lifts with the hint of a smile. “Yep,” he says, “bigger than a breadbox.” We are sitting across from one another in a red vinyl… Read More
On Mothers’ Day
My youngest sister just posted this on facebook. Every single person in the picture is a mother now – a fact both astonishing and not. In this photo the mom is my mom, our mom. Here, somewhere in a field in south central Texas, she sits forever 33 with her four little girls, lined up by age. I’m the oldest, the one in all yellow. Also in that forever way, I know… Read More