The Journey
Welcome to The Journey, a space where Mary McKSchmidt shares her transition from business executive to advocate, photographer, poet, and storyteller. Here, she invites you to walk alongside her as she explores life in the Great Lakes region, its beauty and fragility, and the bonds that connect us all.
How Many Environmental Disasters Does It Take?
It was the courageous testimony of Marie Yovanovitch, former ambassador to Ukraine with thirty-three years experience in the Foreign Service Department, who got me thinking about the people behind the scenes, government employees working to keep us safe,...
Slowing Down a Grim Prediction
Everything I love about living in West Michigan is affected by climate change. More rain events exceeding 6 inches. More damaging winds. More crop failures. More volatility in lake levels. More ticks and Lyme disease. While most of us can point to examples of...
Will You Be Part of the Story?
Her favorite memory of Lake Michigan is walking to Pier Cove Beach with her little sister in the chilly air of a September sunset. They splashed in the icy waters of a nearby spring, a favorite spot for watching turtles. Shivering, they dove into Lake Michigan to...
We Can’t Put Our Heads in the Sand
Did you know that the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written just after World War II, did not mention water? And that when the General Assembly voted to add the right to water and sanitation in 2010, the United States abstained from...
If It’s Not Okay, Then What?
Thank you for your support as I try to live my creative life following the wisdom of the late Toni Morrison: This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We...
What Might We Learn from the Irish?
I subscribe to The New York Times, my friends to The Wall Street Journal. Both newspapers are targeted to the intellectual reader. So, why is it so difficult to discuss matters of importance? The daughter of an Irish Catholic mother and a father...
Welcome Her with Yellow Roses
I do not want to “send her back”, but welcome her, instead, with yellow roses. On August 18, 1920, thousands of yellow rose petals floated wildly through the air above Tennessee’s legislative chamber as a 24-year-old first-term Republican cast his “Aye” vote...
Floods, Crop Shortages, Ticks
Our climate is changing now. Extremely rapidly.Expect wetter winters and springs with heavy rain, snow events. Intensity and frequency of tornadoes, large hail, damaging thunderstorm winds.Rain events exceeding 6 inches now occur...
Hope
Check out this story in today's Detroit Free Press to see why Laura O'Brien and so many others give me hope someday the only colors we will see in the skies above our Great Lakes will be those gloriously painted by God! "18,000 pieces of balloon waste were found in...
U of M Student Launches Study to Eliminate Balloon Litter
My name is Lara O'Brien and I am a master's student at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. I am currently researching the environmental impact of balloon releases in the Great Lakes, Here's a link to a...
860 pieces of plastic, 528 straws, and too many steps to count!
Forty-two volunteers picked up 43 balloon remnants and ribbons along the shores of Saugatuck Dunes State Park on Saturday, April 20th. They also collected 860 pieces of plastic, 528 straws, 393 plastic bottle caps, and 326 cigarette butts and cigar tips. Our...
Inside the Copper Pail, a Sacred Gift
In researching Mandamin’s journey, I learned that women, as life givers, must understand the meaning of water, and how it gives life, just as women give life. The copper pail is a reminder that it is women’s responsibility to care for the earth and her water. And...