July 6, 2015 / Praxis
A college intern interviews torture survivors for the United Nations in a refugee camp and finds herself struggling with secondary trauma.
In this issue of The Other Journal, we seek to further explore and understand this deeply woven connection between our locations and our lives, between our land and our souls. The essays, artwork, and poetry in this issue consider this primitive and intimate connection. From snuffling bears in the Northwest backcountry to the magic of twinkling lights on California palms, from the cathedrals of Wales to the hardwood forests of Shenandoah and the trash-covered banks of Corpus Christi Bay, from contemporary bioregional praxis and the practice of reinhabitation to Saint Justin Martyr and the kingdom of God, we investigate the many and multifaceted ways that geography gives shape and content to our lives. And we especially hope to illuminate the broken places, for as Andrew Arndt says, “wherever there is pain, wherever there is struggle, wherever there is brokenness and hurt, wherever there is conflict, wherever there is paradox, wherever there is contradiction and chaos, wherever the human struggle for integration and wholeness is present, those are the places God is present and calling us.”
A college intern interviews torture survivors for the United Nations in a refugee camp and finds herself struggling with secondary trauma.
A sideways memory leads the speaker back to a time of rich experience and unexplored possibilities.
Alissa Herbaly Coons makes a new home with her young family in Australia.
The lake breathes and you feel at home in its lungs.
One woman’s adventure to camp across the United States with a tent and a sleeping bag and a purpose to be wide open.
A man climbs buttes in western North Dakota, wondering if he’s a force of good or evil.
As I learned while traveling across England and Wales, pilgrimage, by its very nature, takes time and place. Pilgrimage honors the fact that our bodies participate in our redemption.