Clare Consultation, LLCMentor of the Highest Order – A Precious Elder has Passed
An hour ago, this text message from my dear friend, Charles Hudson: Roy has passed. In immediate loving memory, I am reposting this blog from October 10, 2014. Before you read this, though, I want you to know this man is one of the very few about whom no one can exaggerate upon his death. Roy Sampsel is truly a Great Tribal Leader. Daily, he touched the world and its people… Read More
#NoDAPL – A Closer View from a Young Anishinaabe Woman
More helpful words from another clear thinker. This time, a young woman. Kayla DeVault is an Anishinaabe, enrolled Shawnee. She lives on the Navajo nation where she is studying Diné studies at Diné College and working as a civil engineer for the Navajo Nation Division of Transportation. She is also a youth ambassador for Generation Indigenous who has attended meetings at the White House. Several weeks ago, she spoke before the leadership… Read More
ONWARD
Whether an economic concoction or general energetic weirdness – or both – or neither – life has a way of throwing curve balls that, at their most random and intense, can knock any of us way off our game. So what’s up? Some of the more esoteric among us are in remarkable agreement that might be summarized: The energy is super intense these past months, and really weird. My prescient mentor,… Read More
Heeding Lessons from a Small Business
Last week I sat with the staff and management of a mountain town cafe – a group I’ve had the chance to work with as they have moved into the big center of transition. Without knowing it, this small organization and the people who sustain it are inspiring models of what showing up to change looks like. For 14 years, the Cafe Regis has served the community of Red Lodge, Montana as… Read More
Slow Down. Learn. Wake Up and Do What ONLY YOU Can Do to Save the World.
Brussels is in lockdown following explosions that killed dozens last night. ISIS is claiming responsibility. This morning, The Dallas Morning News reported on a Frisco, TX football coach who resigned in January after threatening black and Latino athletes: “You see that rope over there, you see that tree back there? I’m going to hang you in that tree. I’m going to hang you by your toes.” And throughout the day, the most hostile presidential race in my… Read More
Speaking Earth Day
Yesterday, Gary and I spent the day with a small group of people investigating grief. It was a rich, intelligent, and healing time. We call the workshop The Nature of Grief. And, in it, we weave together Gary’s storytelling and literary acumen with my knowledge of psychology and education applied to emotional, mental and spiritual health. It’s good work. We can tell by the responses of the people who join us –… Read More
A Great Indigenous Leader Honored with a Public Award
Late yesterday, the longstanding and visionary environmental organization, Ecotrust, announced this year’s awardees for the Indigenous Leadership Award. Among the five leaders named is Roy Hunter Sampsel, my dear friend and mentor. What well-deserved recognition. This man is a giant of leadership! I had a nagging sense of incongruence when my first move to announce how thrilled I am with this news was to put it on facebook – but such is… Read More
Fresh Water Matters
I’m sitting in a room with large windows. Outside fresh water tumbles by, higher on the banks of Rock Creek than usual for August. There’s been way more snow and rain this year than is ever expected for this arid region of Montana. Regardless of the reason and in spite of some of the local folks’ complaints, the water doesn’t miss a beat. Constancy is its nature. Today, Matt Damon did the… 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
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