Remember to teach the children

Wars are fought in distant lands
hard to find on a map
and even harder to understand
without experiencing

Children hear the talk
they may or may not know someone
who serves or died serving
but again - it is a story
hard to understand.

Take the time to teach
to explain
to answer the questions
look up the answers you don't know.

Remember to teach the children to remember
to appreciate
to care.

Freedom is ours because of lives lost
Let's remember this weekend.

Why would she stay?

Kathryn L.

May 2010

Lake Bemidji Waterfront

Stone Steps

Strong is how I would describe Kathryn Lavelle. Brought here by an abusive man, ripped from the environment she knew and left here to survive on her own- a single mother escaping the clutches of yet another abusive relationship. In search for a ticket out of here Kathryn found instead a town that embraced her and helped her heal. She found a place that her life’s pain could be used to help others, she found a home. I will let her explain why Bemidji is her town

Meet Kathryn:

I was born on September 5^th, 1967 from strong-New York born-half Irish-half Italian-church going-Catholic parents at St. Claire’s Hospital in a small New Jersey town called Denville. I lived in NJ until I was 9 years old and then my family moved to Maryland. I grew up in Maryland…Fallston to be exact…until I entered adulthood.

I attended Fallston High School, where the majority of my time was mostly spent skulking through enemy territory. Fallston was a lily white, somewhat affluent, mostly conservative community that seemed hell bent on showing me to my place and forcing me to stay in it. Let’s face it, at the time I was not pretty…I was not popular…I was not a cheerleader…I was never what you would call successful in school. I always felt out of place…as if I was supposed to be living somewhere else…some magical town or city where I could just be myself, breathe deep and be appreciated for my strengths and talents. I later attended Harford Community College only to eventually find myself great with child as they sometimes say, and I had to drop out after only half a year. I had become a statistic,

To read more go HERE

Summer, I can smell it coming

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time. ~John Lubbock

Summer is coming
I can smell it in the charcoal

in the fresh tilled soil

and in the wood smoke

I am getting my to-do list done
early this year
(sand and seal outbuildings)

So that we can enjoy this summer.
I can smell it coming

Am I Insane?

Am I insane? What would I be committing myself too?
Every week, every other?
Just one month of the summer? Or longer - play it by ear?

So much to consider.... but I want something - I need people, I need fun!
This summer I need more.

I am thinking of hosting yard games this summer. Corn toss, croquet, washers, badminton
Friends, food, fun, fire.......

Sounds fun.
Could it work?
Am I just asking for more work and more trouble?

Just a Swingin' .........

You can not imagine 50 below, until you live it

Photography by Julie Saari

Ashley H.

Filming “Common Ground”

North East of Bemidji

April 2010

Ashley was the one to contact me. She asked me if I would take part in her LPTV show Common Ground. I was so new into my project this prospect made me nervous. We met and discussed the possibility at a downtown coffee shop. When we left I was going to take part in Ashley’s show and she was going to participate in my project. She would be filming me taking pics of someone and I in turn would take pics of her filming someone,a very snake eating it’s own tail tale. What I learned is Ashley is learning to live in the Greater North. Brought here temporarily for a job, she is staying for reasons not listed in the travel brochure.

This is Ashley:

I was offered a job, I was moving to a new city! Life, as I knew it, was great! I received a packet in the mail from the Bemidji Chamber of Commerce, including ALL the information I needed to know about the city of Bemidji. Sure, the temperature looked colder…. and my friend’s eye’s nearly bugged out their heads when they saw 50 below in all of that information…but, it never really impacted me?

I guess, a naïve Ohio girl had never felt 50 below, so it was no big shake. I was ready!

Read more about Ashley HERE

Permanent and I am not talking about Sharpies

I got a tattoo today. Actually I got 5 tattoos today. 5 birds.













Birds can go anywhere. They are able to fly anywhere in the world- yet they tend to stay near the place they were born.











Birds leave the nest, they fly off. Some go as far as other continents, yet they always remember where home is.














Birds are beautiful


1 bird for each of my children on my shoulder
1 on my wrist for my little girlie who did not stay here on Earth... she has already taken flight.