Crying as Medicine: Lessons From Indigenous Wisdom. The other night I hit my breaking point. T had been gone for a few hours, burying a poor mama bear who’d been hit by a driver speeding through the small mountain roads when she had tried to cross the street with her three cubs. Coming home, the […]

I want to take you back to a time before 1978. At this time, my mom was still living in Kechurewe (Five Sacred Places) and had never seen or met people who were not Indigenous. Back then, my family lived like all generations before us: off the land and guided by knowledge passed down since […]

Hello, hello! As I type this, I’m sitting in our camper wearing what is now the favorite thing I own…. compression socks! We’ve left my partner’s reservation, one of the Six Nations (Haudenosaunee) territories, and are now surrounded by woods, dragonflies, and fern-covered grounds in the Catskill Mountains. It’s magical. The other day when I […]

I wanted to cry. Between two rows of corn, I stood like a starfish with a stalk in each hand, pressing my feet down into the ground. I didn’t know what else to do. T was away on a trip, and I felt alone, defeated, and overwhelmed. After standing like that for a few minutes […]

Most of us never plan what we would bring if we only had a few minutes to leave our home. Or where to go if it wasn’t safe to stay in the same town or city. But when the detective asked me over the phone if I could leave the city, “until he calms down,” I knew […]

Last week, my partner and I were on the train that runs along the Hudson River (its real name, Mahicantuck “the river that flows two ways”) to Grand Central terminal. It’s a ride that takes 1.53 hrs, and we held hands the whole time. Except for when I stole his book and he took it […]

Whenever my sister or I started a new cycle, our grandmother would wrap us in blankets, make us tea with medicines she’d picked, and tell our youngest uncles –– who always enjoyed teasing and messing with us –– to leave us alone. “Don’t bother her,” she would say. Or them if we were going through […]

I’m a bit concerned that so many people think they’re meant to live with trauma for the rest of their lives. Although… concerned might not be the right word. What do you think? Troubling? Terrifying? Normal? Like this person commenting on social media: “thanks to therapy I’ve learned how to live with my trauma.” Live with […]

If you’ve ever been sick, you know the feeling. The exhaustion that sweeps in when your body is trying to fight something. For a few days, maybe even a week, you wake up feeling like you’ve been up all night. And no matter how much you sleep, you want more. More sleep, you can feel […]