Mj Pettengill

The wolf became an unexpected ally.

Sometimes we are not planning on returning home, but it is time.

I had a few options. I could grow stronger, or I could break. Being on the other side of the table is very different.

"That was somethin’ about Mamma, she always led people around. She didn’t even try. Folks just happened to follow her. When I asked her...

As a child, I remember being afraid of my grandmother. She was a keen observer who rarely spoke. When she did, her words were crisp; she...

By reaching back to the child within, grasping her hand, and pulling her into a full embrace, I had discovered honest writing at its best.

We must seek with a pure and open heart, correcting and illuminating whenever appropriate and possible.

If those who you called father or grandfather in this life, have departed from the earthly plane, please remember to simply speak their...

I remembered gatherin’ at the train station. The wind blew the last of the brittle, orange leaves from the unbendin’ trees, and the sky...

"My dear one, once you have answered the call and walk with the ancients, there’s no turnin’ back. This responsibility—a gift—is unlike...

Traces of past beauty mingled with her expressions, tangled hair, and lined face. She had lost most of her teeth, but her smile was from...

Do you have a treasured childhood tree that you carry with you? Of course, you may have guessed that in earlier versions of my life, and...

For many years, my work has focused on cultural narrative and traditions, ancestral healing, intergenerational trauma integration, and...

What is Mother’s Day? There are endless possibilities. I will bypass Mother Earth [this time] and focus on the actual holiday itself....

Rain is my constant companion. Although nearing mid-May, I continue to carry wood to keep the fire burning in the kitchen stove. I refuse...

"O Holy Night" is significant to me and my family. It was very important to my father, because he sang it in his youth as a soloist at...

As time marches on, much of this cultural narrative remains ageless.

Away from the battlefields and horrific bloodshed of the Great War of the Rebellion, were other countless casualties, leaving behind many...

I was raised in what most would consider a traditional, rural New England family. When Christmastime rolled around, we would scurry about...