25 Comments
Apr 16, 2023Liked by Kathleen Sullivan

Someone said “Joy is a form of Resistance” and I for one cannot act against climate chaos (or any of the other ills our privilege has created) without making room for a measure of Joy. Bravo to you for clearing a space in which Joy can flow. ❤️

Expand full comment
Apr 16, 2023Liked by Kathleen Sullivan

Code Red has been a wonderful part of my Sunday mornings! Thank you for all you’ve given of yourself! May your garden wanderings be as nourishing to you as your writing has been to your readers.

Expand full comment
Apr 16, 2023Liked by Kathleen Sullivan

"The owl of Minerva flies only at dusk". Thank you for allowing your readers to join you in thinking through what we have wrought. It is "at the end of the day/one's life/an era" that we come to comprehend the processes we've been involved in and partially shaped. May that hard won wisdom (one hopes) enable us to engage in some course corrections. Cletis

Expand full comment
Apr 16, 2023Liked by Kathleen Sullivan

That friend speaks my mind. What we have wrought... I don' think we humans have long on this planet, but, as a non-theist Jungian Medicine Wheel SoulCollage Quaker, I invest in my neighbors as if loving them were my own personal commandment. I'm a retired art therapist living in a small nursing home. My neighbors include a nuclear physicist, members of Christian sects that alone will get to heaven, a silent Koran war bride, a tatooed convict of 30 years incarceration; a huge man who was shot through the head by an arrow in a fight over a woman; a janitor who supported himself 30 years in a work-program for the mentally limiated; a machinist who shot cats with a 22 when he learned he was alergic to them, and an old woman who cared for her dying parents and is over-filling her rooms with all new furniture. I am a retired art therapist who completed a five year post-doctoral Masters at age 66 and practiced until age 84. My "garden" is my computer for writing poems and connecting with friends. Thank you for your well-written, amazingly insightful column that has enlivened my Sunday morning..

Expand full comment
Apr 16, 2023Liked by Kathleen Sullivan

Applauding you for taking a hiatus (so you can be outdoors)--but I will miss these missives!

Expand full comment
Apr 17, 2023Liked by Kathleen Sullivan

We shall all surely miss you and your fierce strong love, your eloquent voice, moral leadership and clarity. You are like a lighthouse on a wind-swept stormy headland, a shading tree in a parched desert, a clear spring in a wasteland. The day and evening star of our conscience. A reliable guide, a Compass Rose. From across the continent I will shade my eyes to look for you from afar.

Expand full comment
Apr 16, 2023Liked by Kathleen Sullivan

See you in the Fall, dear Kitty!

Expand full comment
Apr 16, 2023Liked by Kathleen Sullivan

I will miss these Sunday morning reads, Kathleen! You’re a great preacher! As always, very powerful. While it wasn’t news to me, your citing the 1960s theft of children from Indian homes hit me like a ton of bricks. I was nine in 1960. One of the privileged. Your words are so convicting!

Expand full comment

You are the garden, Kathleen, and we're all grateful for your blossoming. I'll miss your essays, but know you're doing good work and paying attention to the world as it was, as it is, and as it should be. Enjoy forming new relationships with all those native plants, keep your hands in the dirt, and we'll look for your voice in the fall.

Expand full comment

Kathleen, dear, I am a recent admirer of your work, and so delighted that you’re in the Substack universe… I hope you are dancing and delighting amongst your blooms and flying and crawling friends… But no plate breaking!

Expand full comment

Kathleen, thank you so much for this important work you are doing. Your question about "Will it matter," and "Will it be enough," reminded me of a recent interview with Daniel Ellsberg. He is dying of pancreatic cancer, but he is encouraging his friends to work for peace and care for the planet. He states, "My work of the past 40 years to avert the prospects of nuclear war has little to show for it. But I wanted to say that I could think of no better way to use my time and that as I face the end of my life, I feel joy and gratitude." I loved that he could feel a sense of accomplishment about doing the right thing, even though the results haven't always been obvious.

Though I have not been an active responder to your posts, I read them every week, and every week I become more deeply aware of the many ways we delude ourselves about the harm we cause - from cut flowers at the grocery store to the jet fuel spent flying us around the globe. Thank you for your literary and indomitable efforts. You are a role model for us all. Look forward to rejoining you in the fall.

Expand full comment

Are you a "retiree" too? I'd love to hear mor from a potential kindred soul!

Expand full comment

I will miss your Sunday morning rethinks, Kathleen, and look forward to their return in the fall. In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the summer. I'll be in touch to see if the stars align and we can meet on my return to New Hampshire from Monhegan.

Expand full comment