A Peace of My Mind

Watching the earth

October 23, 2021 by johnnoltner

We’ve witnessed some remarkable terrain in this year on the road. If there’s such a thing as a spiritual home, I’ve been at the center of mine for the past two months in the Pacific Northwest. Their combination of mountain and sea, wrapped in a lush green blanket is my idea of paradise. But, as they say, there is trouble in paradise. The Northwest suffered a historic heatwave this summer. Parts of western Washington went a record 56 days without […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: California, change, climate, drought, environment, lake shasta, policy, storytelling, water

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Paul Kaye

October 19, 2021 by johnnoltner

Paul Kaye is the President of Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens and the President of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness in Los Angeles, California. “If you want to feel strong, then be against something. You’ll feel immediately strong. You’ll get righteous, right? Or you’ll judge something. The thing is, it’s power, but it’s false power.” The Peace Awareness Labyrinth “We were fortunate to find a person who could make a hand cut labyrinth. And it’s a beautiful, beautiful piece. It’s a meditative tool. A […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: a peace of my mind, California, garden, labyrinth, listening, los angeles, MSIA, peace, soul, spirituality, storytelling

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Bits and Peaces

October 15, 2021 by johnnoltner

It has been a busy fall! Here’s a little mid-month recap on what’s going on in our world and what comes next. Supply Chain We have spent the last two weeks north of Seattle waiting on some repair parts for our trailer. Everything is functional but the last two parts are delayed by some covid supply chain issues, so we have hunkered down at an RV park between the sea and the mountains to catch up on some editing and […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: a peace of my mind, culture, documentary, justice, learning, lifestyle, listening, rv, society, storytelling, travel, update

Noemi Aidee Tungui Aguilar

October 11, 2021 by johnnoltner

Noemi Aidee Tungui Aguilar comes from the Purépecha people of Michoacán, Mexico. She is an activist and an educator, on a journey to celebrate her culture that was nearly wiped out through colonialism. I met Noemi at a Water Protectors camp near Palisade, Minnesota where she went by the camp name Luna. She traveled there from her home in California to protest the construction of the Line 3 pipeline and to continue her advocacy for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women. We talked […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: colonialism, culture, environment, heritage, indigenous, patriarchy, water protectors

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Zachary Pierce

October 9, 2021 by johnnoltner

Zachary Pierce is a member of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. At three weeks old, he was adopted by an English and German mother and an Irish father. Zachary spent more than a decade on the streets of Corvallis but viewed COVID as an opportunity to reset. He used it as a filter that allowed him to keep what he wanted and discard the things that no longer helped him. He is now housed and ready to accomplish things that he […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: a peace of my mind, adoption, corvallis, covid, homelessness, housing, indigenous, oregon, peace, reset, society, storytelling

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One year in

October 6, 2021 by johnnoltner

It’s raining tonight. It’s a sound that I love, the drops falling on the camper roof, a thin veil between inside and out. The skies have been filled with heavy, autumn clouds all day, and now as daylight edges toward dusk, they are releasing the frequent rains that keep the pacific northwest so green. It’s warm and cozy in the trailer. The fireplace is on. This afternoon I climbed onto the roof to caulk seams. I’ve never done that before […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: a peace of my mind, America, culture, discovery, explorations, journalism, listening, social issues, society, storytelling, travel, usa

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Support

October 3, 2021 by johnnoltner

Last month we spent time at JRG Middle School in Kimberly, Wisconsin. It was one of the first large in-person programs we have done since the pandemic started and it was good to be with them. A Peace of My Mind is rooted in story gathering, but also in storytelling. So being in community and using these stories to build connections is a key part of the process, and I’ve missed that. So, a full week with 800 seventh and […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: a peace of my mind, middle school, photography, stories, storytelling, student engagement, support

Book illustrations

September 23, 2021 by johnnoltner

The gallery below is meant to supplement the story you will find in Portraits of Peace: Searching for Hope in a Divided America. The book is available now, anywhere you love to buy books. Enjoy.

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: book, broadleaf, culture, faith, healing, justice, memoir, peace, Portraits of Peace, race, self-help, social justice, society, travel

Kristen Sandstrom

September 19, 2021 by johnnoltner

Kristen Sandstrom is a self-professed word geek. She is an avid reader, writer and seller of books. I interviewed her in Bayfield, Wisconsin. We talked about her love for Lake Superior, her understanding of community and the ways she has moved toward healing after surviving trauma in her teens. “I don’t use the word victim, I always use the word survivor. That’s very important for me.” “I am a storyteller at heart. I’m a survivor on many different levels. I […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: a peace of my mind, bayfield, lake superior, listenfirst, storytelling, survivor

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Seasons

September 5, 2021 by johnnoltner

I can feel the seasons changing. For the past 11 months, we have been running pretty hard, meeting new people and exploring new terrain. We’ve encountered new ideas and gathered new stories along the way. We’ve covered 45,000 miles across 32 states. It’s what we could do to move A Peace of My Mind forward in the midst of a pandemic. The public programming we had built up was hard to do when the public couldn’t gather. So we traveled […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: art, hope, inspiration, keynote speaker, listen first, motivation, public programming, seasons, storytelling

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A Peace of My Mind

Building community and bridging divides through portraits and personal stories.

what does peace mean to you?

Watching the earth

Paul Kaye

Bits and Peaces

Noemi Aidee Tungui Aguilar

Zachary Pierce

Support

Kristen Sandstrom

Seasons