I live and write on Lingít Aaní, and gratefully acknowledge the past, present and future caretakers of this beautiful place, the Jilkaat Kwaan and Jilkoot Kwaan.

I meant to resume my Sunday Thought’s feature this week, but two of my granddaughters spent the night, and we became way too involved in playing outside in the spring snow and sunshine, and with our typewriters inside, and Betty’s cat took more time to take to the vet than we anticipated the day before, and so we had to make up for it, but what I would have shared, had I done so, is this verse from Marge Piercy’s poem, “What Are Big Girls Made Of?” (That I confess I stole from the bottom of a poet friend’s email– but I figured if it makes your day better, as it does mine, and all the big girls with good tools that we both know, then that’s okay.)

Attention is love, what we must give

children, mothers, fathers, pets, 

our friends, the news, the woes of others.

What we want to change we curse and then

pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can

with eyes and hands and tongue. If you

can’t bless it, get ready to make it new.