Reading Time: 3 minutes 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 […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes 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 […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes I’m a bit concerned. Maybe it’s not the right word, but so many people seem to think they’re meant to live with trauma for the rest of their lives. Like this person commenting on social media: “thanks to therapy I’ve learned how to live with my trauma.” Live with trauma. This is why my uncle wrote about the “sickness […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes 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 […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute You and me, we are mostly made out of water and energy. With water that runs through our bodies like rivers. Shapes and curves like valleys and mountains. Roots spreading inside of us. Roots moving. The ability to create life. Sustain life. The need for relationships. Tell me how we are different from Nag Mapu, […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s six years ago, during an early morning rush hour of people dropping off their kids at school, going to work, or just going places. The result is the kind of traffic that moves forward an inch per minute. It doesn’t bother me, every day is the same in LA. So instead of testing how […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes As a young child, I didn’t need to watch the news to learn about the weather. My mom was my weather channel. “I feel pressure,” she would say, placing a hand on her head and legs to show where she felt it. That meant a thunderstorm was coming. On Wallmapu, our territory, storms can turn bad […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes What happens to all your energy? And why does it feel like death?   Someone commented this on a video I posted on Tiktok: “Before and during I am fine but after it feels like death.” This person was referring to how they feel after their menstrual cycle, but most people living in survival (aka […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes That look, I had seen it before: a startled deer, trying to decide whether to stay still or run. Body tense and big wide eyes asking; Is this dangerous? Am I safe? I zigzagged my way through rows of students on their backs. Even under the dim lights, I could tell they were all relaxed, all […]