The Journey

The joy in rain can be seen splashed across the skies as a rainbow. And yet, at first, all I see is the rain-swollen, mud-colored river winding it’s way to Lake Macatawa after spring’s many downpours. Colored with nutrients, excess sediment, and algae, Lake Macatawa...

 I find writing to be both a skill and an art, forcing me to dig deep inside myself and marry the voice of my mind with that of my heart. It is scary stuff, difficult, but also rewarding. And while my college backpack was stuffed with books on finance, economics,...

I am a very late adapter to the smart phone, reluctantly purchasing one last fall after double-booking two critical appointments for the same afternoon. I am now the phone’s biggest fan for all the obvious reasons like taking photographs, texting, managing my...

When the first chill of winter settles like a mist upon my shoulders, I cannot remain indoors for fear of missing their creation. Born the children of a hushed wind and a slow-rocking lake, they are shaped by the ice in the shallows, the silent swirl of heaven’s...

Okay. So it’s me versus the Waukesha mayor in a state-wide op-ed showdown on MLIVE. Check it out by clicking on "Wisconsin's city bid for Great Lakes water falls short of convincing." 

Residents of the eight Great Lakes states and the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec have until March 14th to weigh in on the single most important issue facing the Great Lakes at this time. Should Lake Michigan water be piped to the city of Waukesha, WI? ​The question...

Please join me in signing a petition to block the building of a truck stop at the intersection of I-96 and Adams Street in Ottawa County. My rational follows, although there are plenty of other reasons to have this permit denied—as you will see from the petition site....

I planned to start the year with a blog about gratitude, welcoming the bipartisan decision by the U.S. House and Senate in December of 2015 to fund another $300 million for the clean up of the Great Lakes. But while vacationing in Florida this month, gratitude slid...

I am drawn to the snippets of color on the beach like a hummingbird flitting about a summer’s garden. Balloon ribbons. Straws. Shot gun wads. Bottles. Pieces of plastic. In my quest to return the shore to its natural state, I zigzag across the sand, stuffing each...

It is Lee Botts, a woman in her mid-eighties with eyes that sparkle when she speaks of the coast of northern Indiana, who reminds me passion and collaboration are two sides of the same coin. I had not met Lee when I took my first step on a path winding through a marsh...

 Transforming the former golf course back to its natural state was one of the 2,500 projects conducted under the first phase of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Natural wetlands and floodplains once lining the Macatawa River were restored. Turf grass was...

A gust of wind, invisible save its shadow, sweeps across Lake Michigan, darkening a surface already heaving from the storm. Glancing to my side, I see the next wave bearing down on us, towering over our forty-foot sailboat. In seconds, it rolls underneath the hull,...