Mj Pettengill

They would take you out and beat you senseless if they found you hidin’ in a car. I only got caught once, and that was enough for me.

With this new-found freedom came the challenges of women working for pennies a day while boosting a handful of already influential families

I longed for the time when God shined His candle about my head as in the days of my youth.

We continue to pass along the grief and pain of those before us, and in time, forget their origins. We inherit their losses.

I slid into the role of making the most incredible piccalilli east of the Mississippi River.

I’m married to the land and creatures that share this space, drifting in and out, leaving footprints behind.

When we finally summon the courage to view our past, we may awaken from our troubled dreams.

Follow the ferns into the ancient past, the untold stories of the land.

I reached towards the wreckage of my whole existence.

The practice of auctioning the poor is a form of indentured servitude, a custom in this country that dates back to the first settlers...

You can be a strong force within yourself, family, and community without raising an angry fist.

Buried deep in the bones of the earth, in dusty, misplaced archives, and scribbled in faded, yellowed diaries, their stories exist.

It's all about remembering our instincts and long-forgotten wild ways.

There was light there, in the homeland of old stories, but not enough. I had been there too long.

Where was God when it happened?

Layers of rot and decay became raw—a rich scent of being—an invitation to pause and feel the silken grit all the way through to the bone.

One of the most essential elements of these healing gifts has been stitched into a higher awareness of my sense of belonging.

As we stumble along unfamiliar terrain, we begin to understand that we are not searching for a pot of gold. We are here for the rainbow.

That sacred site is an archetypal and genealogical vault filled with memories intended to be forgotten...

Her dress was nothin’ more than a collection of scraps held together by a thread that was about to let go.