A Peace of My Mind

Heather Ehle

August 3, 2017 by johnnoltner

Heather Ehle is executive director of Project Sanctuary, a program designed to help military families heal. With no military background herself, Heather saw families struggling to readjust to civilian life after deployments. She now coordinates retreats, centered in Colorado, to reconnect families and give them support to thrive. Heather describes herself as politically agnostic, which she defines as “having been to Washington one too many times.” “I believe that everybody innately knows what they need in order to be happy and […]

Categories: Podcast • Tags: Colorado, counselor, family, granby, heal, hope, listening, veteran

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Travel and see

July 28, 2017 by johnnoltner

I’ve always loved my work as a travel photographer. For me, it dovetails perfectly with the work of A Peace of My Mind. When we visit new places…when we get outside of our comfort zone…we learn to see the world in new ways. It’s good to step out of our routine and open our eyes to other possibilities. For the past three weeks, we were fortunate to travel with good friends through Europe. After a busy few years building A […]

Categories: Blog • Tags: drought, europe, italy, peace, photography, refugee, scotland, travel

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Shai Littlejohn

July 27, 2017 by johnnoltner

Shai Littlejohn was trained as a lawyer and worked at a firm in Washington, D.C., until she decided she wanted to be “free of schedules, free of being tied to a clock, of needing to have a hierarchy of titles and income.” Shai went back to school to pursue her love of music and now balances her time between practicing law and working as a country singer and songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee. “I don’t have to regret all those dreams that went unfulfilled.” When […]

Categories: Podcast • Tags: belief, content, freedom, nashville, sacrifice, songwriter, tennessee

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Matt Meyer

June 27, 2017 by johnnoltner

Matt Meyer is a teacher, author, and peace activist born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He is a longtime member of the War Resisters League and was founding chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. Matt views the status quo as unjust and believes that an international movement of radical social change is required to create lasting peace in the world. “Dr. King talked in the last years of his life about the need for a true revolution against militarism, racism, […]

Categories: Podcast • Tags: Brooklyn, change, diversity, justice, movement, New York, revolution, war

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Leroy Sullivan

June 20, 2017 by johnnoltner

Leroy Sullivan has been the mayor of Donaldsonville, Louisiana, since March 2004. Prior to serving as mayor, Leroy worked at a local chemical plant and was burned over 50 percent of his body in an explosion at the plant. He spent 37 days in a burn unit. Donaldsonville has a population of 7,436, but he says its residents experience the same struggles as larger cities: poverty, drug abuse, violence, and murder. “If we just dare to help one another, to love one another, to treat […]

Categories: Podcast • Tags: community, crime, donaldsonville, elders, louisiana, poverty, respect

Father’s Day

June 18, 2017 by johnnoltner

I got up for a long walk along the shore of Lake Erie this morning. I walked past an outdoor chapel service (I know…but I’m going to a later service) and I heard exactly one phrase as I was passing… “When you are a teenager, you laugh because you think your parents are never going to understand…and when you are a parent, you laugh because you think your teenagers are never going to understand…” You could replace the word “laugh” […]

Categories: Blog • Tags: Father's Day, Lake Erie, Lakeside Chautauqua, misunderstanding, peace

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Kathy Webb

June 13, 2017 by johnnoltner

Kathy Webb served six years as a state representative in the Arkansas legislature and now is executive director of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. An activist all her life, Kathy noticed a shift from working with like-minded activists to the process of compromise she encountered as a legislator. “We are all a whole package, with the pluses and the minuses.” I have always believed that you can make a difference. My mom had this little plaque on her bathroom wall and it […]

Categories: Podcast • Tags: activism, arkansas, compromise, diversity, faith, gender, identity, legislator, little rock, politics

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A Guided Tour

June 8, 2017 by johnnoltner

We continue to add new stories to our website, and new resources to help foster meaningful discussion and dialogue. In case you are new to our website, or haven’t visited in a while, I want to walk you through some of what you’ll find. When you go to our home page, you’ll find the latest additions of stories and blog postings, and it will look like the image above. The navigation tools will remain the same (at the top of […]

Categories: Blog • Tags: American Stories, Blog, dialogue, discussion, peace, resources, tour, website

Brandon Sheehan

June 6, 2017 by johnnoltner

Brandon Sheehan was born near Venice Beach, California. He says he grew up with sandy toes and salty lips. He studied fire ecology in college and worked for the forest service fighting wildfires. Brandon grew up Jewish, but eventually studied Tibetan Buddhism and was a resident at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas in Arlee, Montana where he cast statues of the Buddha and helped create a shrine at the base of the Mission Mountains that is visited by people of many […]

Categories: Podcast • Tags: arlee, compassion, grace, happiness, kindness, love, meditation, montana, nature

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I was a Marine

May 11, 2017 by johnnoltner

I was a Marine. For six weeks. As a journalism student, I believed I should try to understand as many different perspectives as possible and I knew nothing about the military. So when I returned to my dorm room one afternoon and found a flier in my mailbox that said, “You could be a Marine,” I called the recruiter. At the time, their officer candidate program allowed you to dis-enroll at any time without a commitment. I read that fine […]

Categories: Uncategorized

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← Older posts

	Julianne on A Guided Tour
	Margo Martinez on Leroy Sullivan
	Toward Love, Healing… on Claudia Horwitz
	John on Chris Brixey
	Cheryl Graeve on Build on it

A Peace of My Mind

Exploring the meaning of peace, one story at a time.

what does peace mean to you?

Heather Ehle

Travel and see

Shai Littlejohn

Matt Meyer

Leroy Sullivan

Father’s Day

Kathy Webb

A Guided Tour

Brandon Sheehan

I was a Marine