Post 43/2023. Between obligations and appointments at home we sallied forth for a few days around our favorite destination on Lake Michigan, South Haven. We took back roads that revealed fading fall colors, many corn and a few bean fields yet to be harvested, and surprises in Paw Paw on the way home.

Let photos tell the story.

Cranes Pie Pantry, near Fennville

South Haven

Comforts of home at the Old Harbor Inn, South Haven

Discoveries in Paw Paw

Back home again in Indiana

A fine read

Looks Like Daylight by Deborah Ellis (Groundwood Books / Hose of Anansi Press, 2013) recounts the author’s interviews with Native American and First Nations young people across the continent. The accounts are moving, honest, insightful, realistic, hope filled, inspiring.

Flyleaf: “For two years writer and activist Deborah Ellis traveled across the United States and Canada, interviewing indigenous young people. The result is a collection of frank and often surprising interviews with kids aged nine to eighteen, as they talk about their daily lives, about the things that interest them, and about how being Native has affected who they are and how they see the world.”

Here are a few samples of how the young people concluded their three-to-five-page stories:

Tingo, age 14: “I’ve learned from all this that it’s going to be okay. Try not to worry too much. Try to do your best to look for things that are bigger than you. And if you meet people who treat you badly, don’t give them too much power. They might change and they might not, but you don’t have to hang around them and wait to see how it’s going to turn out. It’s your life. / Find people who will help you live it.”

Wusto, 15: The bottom line is that Native people are really amazing and strong and beautiful and can do a lot of things when they have something to believe in.”

Danielle, 18: “I struggle not to be a downer. I don’t want to think negative thoughts. The Creator has given us a wonderful world, full of beautiful things. When we have a positive outlook, we honor what the Creator has done.”

McCayla, 12: “My hair is short right now but it used to be really long. I donated it this past spring to make wigs for kids who have cancer or who have lost their hair for some other reason. It’s the second time I’ve done it. It takes eighteen ponytails of the same shade to make just one wig! I figure, I have hair, so others should have hair too. I don’t care if my hair goes to a Native kid or a white kid. It really doesn’t matter. After all, we’re all human beings.”

Kids voices count.

-John