“I write because I have not yet found how to say what I long to say. Words can’t contain the fullness of what I see and feel and know. There is a spruce tree outside my window; that the spruce tree exhales what I breath in, and inhales what I breathe out. Our necessary exchange is a silken thread in the invisible, infinite web of breath, nutrients, ideas, feelings, and love that continually pours into and out of all beings. How can I say this so someone else can feel it? That’s why I write.”
~Therese DesCamp
Still Points are deep dives into the nature of the human and more-than-human world.
Wide Spots are the 500-word monthly columns which I write for the Valley Voice newspaper.
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Wide Spot: Moral Ambition
I’ve been recently reading Moral Ambition, by Rutger Bregman. Bregman writes about history, economics, philosophy, and goodness in public life. He’s so passionate about the last that he has formed a foundation to train and support those who wish to have social impact. Bregman highlights one surprising research finding about altruistic behavior: empathy does not cause …
Wide Spot: No Go
Sometimes we have conversations with friends and family who live in bigger places. They tout the benefits of having a hospital close by, or a gaggle of specialty clinics, or good restaurants, or public transit, or easy access to airports. One of these conversations happened recently when we were traveling. We were meeting friends for …
Wide Spot: Getting Personal
I was so shocked when I read the Tyee article, I spit out my coffee. A geologist in B.C. is arguing that minerals should be declared legal persons, and mineral deposits “should be recognized for their right to be mined and processed to provide sustenance to mankind.” This is twisted, folks. Granted, legal personhood has not …
Wide Spot: Women in Black
There were twenty-odd women and one man, dressed in black, standing by the side of the highway in silence. In our hands or around our necks were signs detailing the numbers dead in Gaza, in Israel, in the Ukraine, Syria, Sudan. Signs about starvation. Signs about war in general. Signs about what religions say about …
Wide Spot: Belonging
When I was younger, I hated going to parties. I never felt comfortable: I didn’t do small talk well, and I felt awkward just standing there. My most common feeling was that I didn’t belong. Ask any teenage girl if you want to know how painful it is not to belong. Book clubs, FB groups, …
Wide Spot: Tick Talk
The green fecundity of spring brings an equal explosion of bugs. The air around the waking maple tree vibrates with the hum of bees; the sugar ants march endlessly across the bathroom counter; the first wasps of the season make their hot and hurtful presence known; and then there are the ticks. First notice came …
Wide Spot: Witness
Every night at 8 p.m., after the war began, Pope Francis called Holy Family Church in Gaza. Every night until he drew his last breath, Francis faithfully picked up the phone and checked in. I haven’t been able to get this picture out of my head. Actually, what I haven’t been able to get out …
Wide Spot: All Shall Be Well
Many of my friends put some pithy quotation across the bottom of their emails. The extracts vary from “I have a photographic memory; unfortunately it was never fully developed” to a definition of liminal space. But one quote occurs repeatedly. Originating with medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, it reads, “All shall be well, and all …
Wide Spot: Despair
For me, it starts in the gut: it registers that I’m feeling anxious or even nauseous since reading that news article. For someone else, it starts in the head: noticing there is an endless loop of some distressing event playing in their mind. For yet another, it is felt in the heart: a weight on …
Wide Spot: Anchored
In the book Unshakeable by trauma therapist Jo Ann Rosen, there’s a discussion of anchors, those simple practices that return us to awareness. Rosen speaks about anchors because trauma responses bypass all our good skills. We forget what we know and react instinctively. Instinctive reaction may be the perfect response when a rattlesnake is rattling, but it’s …