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
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
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
by johnnoltner
As I watch the tragic events unfold in Afghanistan, and listen to the debate about who needs to get out of the country, and how and when, I am reminded of an interview I did in Dallas several years ago with Humam Taha. Humam graduated from the University of Mosul, where he studied to be a translator. After the United States invaded Iraq, Humam joined the coalition forces as a translator to help resolve cultural differences and misunderstandings. In 2007 he […]
Categories: Uncategorized
by johnnoltner
Jeff Rennicke is a writer, a photographer and a storyteller in Bayfield, Wisconsin. He is the Executive Director at Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. “Pay attention. Things get really interesting below the surface. Wherever you are, there’s more going on than a superficial glance will reveal to you.” “I was a freelance writer for 20 some years and traveled to six different continents, wrote nine books and hundreds of magazine articles and was traveling all the time. Just […]
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: apostle islands, bayfield, environment, Friends of the Apostle Islands, great lakes, Jeff Rennicke, lake superior, photography, wilderness, wisconsin, writing
by johnnoltner
We all carry wisdom on this journey. I’ve heard some of the most profound stories from people who have said, “Oh, you don’t want to talk to me…I don’t have anything special to say.” We gather little bits of knowledge as we bump along the road of life. In some weird twist of fate, sometimes the rougher the path, the more we learn. And since no two routes are exactly the same, you’ve likely encountered some things that would surprise […]
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: family, healing, listen first, listening, military, project sanctuary, storytelling, trauma, veterans
by johnnoltner
Lori Schneider has climbed the tallest mountain on all seven continents, a feat she accomplished while being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. We talked about finding strength in the face of skeptics, the meditation of climbing, and her choice to be happy. You can learn more at her websites, http://lorischneider.net/ or http://www.empowermentthroughadventure.com/. “When that official diagnosis came, I was just afraid. I ran away from my whole life. But it was the running away that helped me find myself, finally. Yes, it defined me. […]
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: a peace of my mind, adventure, adversity, climbing, goals, mountaineering, mountains, MS, seven summits, storytelling
by johnnoltner
Things are going to get complicated. It’s all good, but it’s going to be an adjustment. For the past 18 months, programming has been non-existent. We have done some virtual engagements. We have led some distanced learning, but for the most part, on March 16 and 17 of 2020, everything on our plate cancelled and the world came to a screeching halt. After scratching our heads for a bit we sold our house, bought the RV and hit the road. […]
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: explorin g, listenfirst, rv, storytelling, travel, uncertainly
by johnnoltner
Bazile Panek is majoring in Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University. He is an enrolled tribal member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Red Cliff, Wisconsin. “There’s all sorts of barriers to existing as a native person. Ever since colonization in 1492, things have been hard for native people. It’s hard just to even exist sometimes. So the power and the resiliency is especially tangible in native people today and you can see that within […]
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: culture, decolonize, heritage, identity, indigenous, lake superior, ojibwe, storytelling, tradition, wisconsin
by johnnoltner
Tania Aubid is an Anishinaabe woman involved in the Water Protector movement resisting the Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota. “You know, they wanted their pristine lands, and then they pushed us all into the swamps. And now that the swamps have resources for them to exploit, they want to push us out over here too. Through the logging companies, through the pipelines, through the mining. Any which way that they can be able to exploit any type of resources […]
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: a peace of my mind, Anishinaabe, ceremony, environment, indigenous, Minnesota, Mississippi River, pipeline, protest, resources, Tania Aubid, water, water protectors
