Lessons from the classroom: reflecting on 27 years of teaching
Every moment and every being we encounter can be our teacher if we are educable. Yet not all teachers offer the same quality of instruction. I love asking folks if you could go back and…
Articles by Leaf
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A Lifetime
On this fiftieth anniversary of Harold’s death, I offer two poems, one from 1992 and the other from 2022. Revisiting the fields of promise, listening to Harold If I could write to you what would…
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On Reckoning
I teach a college course called “Until We Reckon,” inspired by the title of Danielle Sered’s fine book of the same name that contains the best chapter on accountability I’ve read. In her book, Until…
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Holy Ground
The letter above arrived first in my email inbox as a series of scanned pages sent by a gracious intermediary who asked if I would like the hard copy as well. I had no idea…
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A daughter of the trees reflects on the danger of property: an elegy, an homage, a prayer.
When European colonizers came to this continent many centuries ago, the indigenous people here did not construe ground, trees, sky, water, animals as property—something objectified and quantifiable for the purpose of possession. They understood belonging…
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On Redemption
As humans, we inevitably experience harm: we feel hurt, we get hurt, and we hurt others. We free ourselves from this experience not by imagining we can escape harm but knowing we can heal it—…
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My Grandmother’s Journal
I began this piece over twenty years ago and returned to it in 2014. I re-read it recently before sending it to a cousin, the namesake of my grandmother who is curious about the woman…
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Listening to the body of the Earth, Passover 2020
Drizzle punctuates the dun sky, appearing far less vernal than April 9th might wish. A cerulean ribbon aloft tender shoots of daffodils might yield more cheer but for Maundy Thursday and Passover combined, the weather…
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Listening to the tree of my own knowing
I have never been a fan of the annual physical. Back in 1993, my partner at the time urged me to see her gynecologist. “You are long overdue an exam,” she scolded, so reluctantly I…