Summer Solstice and Juneteenth

Last Sunday, we shuttled our kayaks to the banks of the Sopchoppy River in the Apalachicola National Forest. Our intended launch site is remote and beautiful, abutting the Bradwell Bay Wilderness Area. My husband Jeff spotted a black bear running across the dirt road in broad daylight. But we were much more startled and a bit frightened to find the familiar put-in site occupied by people who had organized their tents and fire ring around a Confederate flag. Even though … Continue

The Burning Question That Drives Most Of My Days

“What is the single best thing a person can do for tomorrow’s world?” –Richard Powers That’s the burning question that drives most of my days. How can I best serve the Earth and her beings? Climate change continues to rage, and racial injustice is calling for us to rise. But our days also demand that we tend to the people in our lives–including ourselves. One of my jobs is to shepherd this new book of mine out into the crazy … Continue

A Different Kind of Memorial Day

Susan with her Dad

I’m thinking so much about my father this weekend. He died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease in 2012. Although he couldn’t win that battle, until the end of his life, an abiding point of pride was the time he spent as a very young man in the Army during World War II. Whenever he encountered another veteran, he’d say, “I met another old soldier today.” Before dementia had a name and a power over him, a gathering power, an ominous … Continue

A New Year, a New Book, a New Earth Dweller

In this new year, I’m excited about the upcoming publication of I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird, my latest book, and about my work as the incoming President of the Friends of St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge.  More on this soon! But for opening my heart, I’m counting on Asa. Two weeks ago, Jeff and I traveled to Los Angeles to meet our 3-day-old grandson.  The sleep habits of a newborn generally don’t align with those of his parents, … Continue

Stand Up for Red Rock!

I’d never heard of southeastern Utah’s Bears Ears until President Obama declared that enormous landscape a National Monument last December.             As Jeff and I planned our spring break trip, the thought of this just-protected place intrigued me. For the last four years, we’d been getting to know the marvelous red rock country protected in the Beehive State.  Those wildlands are so different from our pine forests and emerald Gulf waters, and I find that … Continue

Inaugural Bawl Address

On January 13, I offered these brief thoughts to the attendees of the Mickee Faust Inaugural Bawl. in Tallahassee  I hope you will find them of use. Imagine yourself on a gorgeous, wild island, maybe the most beautiful in all the world:  St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge. Imagine that from dawn until sunset, you have tramped the beaches and the forest and the marshes, searching out every kind of bird you could identify and count, from the largest eagle to the … Continue

From Protest to Protect: Learning to Shift at Standing Rock (Part 1)

Dear Friends:  On Sunday, December 18, 2016, this report on my brief visit to Standing Rock will be featured in the Tallahassee Democrat.  I’ll be sharing Part 2 of what I learned at Standing Rock after the holidays.        During the first week of December, I traveled with my niece Erin Canter to a snowy, stinging cold North Dakota prairie south of Bismarck, where encampments at Standing Rock have evolved into the longest running protest in modern history. In … Continue

Help for Standing Rock

Dear Friends:  I write to share with you my request for personal protection during my trip to Standing Rock, tomorrow through Sunday, Dec. 5.   Perhaps that is the only way to have the people protecting the River, be protected themselves. Why doesn’t our President Obama answer the cries of the people being so violated in North Dakota. This is what I’ve written to Senator Bill Nelson, and Congresswoman Gwen Graham, both of whom I know and respect.  I hope you … Continue

Taking a Stand

Dear Friends and Family: To support native rights, and on behalf of the rivers, I am going to Standing Rock, South Dakota for a week, with Erin Josephine Canter. We will join with Deena Metzger and others. Deena writes: “in the past, when a people were gravely threatened, Chiefs, Medicine People, Healers, Shamans, and Elders, called Councils. …People gathered in times of crises; we are gathering now.” We go because what is happening on the banks of the Missouri River … Continue

Mother of Exiles, Weeping

Today, every one of us is trying to figure out how to live with, or through, the results of last night’s election. I am grateful for the wisdom and support of my family and my community in this dark time, as we grieve and regroup. My parents raised me up with the greatest respect for our United States of America.  Above all I was taught that our land was a place of refuge for all in need of safety, mercy and … Continue