Author: Matt Pelletier

Weezie’s Magic Cream with Shea Butter: For Very Dry Skin

Before I started making my own, I had trouble finding body butters that suited me and they seemed to have a million ingredients with very long scientific names that didn’t sound like something my skin would like.

Finding Friendship Under the Freeway

I wonder if I was in such circumstances would I be able to find that much joy. With little resources, no living space, feeling unsafe, would I embrace my femininity and joie de vivre like this woman?

Forty Days and Forty Nights in the Food Desert

As much as we complained about the gentrification, I had to admit where I was a gentrifier myself. And that with it came some healthy food options and access for those who could afford it. And something to move towards for those who couldn’t.

Learning to Be Comfortable Dealing with the Uncomfortable

I also knew that facing the hard stuff of our past is the best way to heal and grow, so I welcomed the experience. Sure enough, after it was over with, I was able to heal even more.

False Allegations Cancel Nonprofit Programs at Mendocino County Jail

We’ve lost a great partnership, and with a heavy heart we’ll keep moving forward. Continuing to create the world we want to live in is lonely but necessary work. Our mission lives on and the next chapter begins.

Know Your Lifeboat: An Interview with Permaculturist Brock Dolman

We are perched on the tipping point of a “watershed moment.” Now is the time to bring our communities together to set in motion plans and processes that ensure our watersheds will remain healthy in perpetuity.

Indian Take on Nachos with Cheddar, Black Beans, and Coriander Chutney

This dish’s flavor is more complex than typical nachos, just a hint of sweetness from the maple syrup and a clean fresh taste from the coriander chutney and lime juice, a nice salty crunch…

Meditation in a County Jail

[M]ostly I drew from my still deeply held conviction that to thrive in the stark and rigid environment of incarceration, one had to have practices to help bring the self to an essential freedom — within.

Tenderloin: Love with No Separation

I realized I had a lot of love in me wanting to get out, but that I didn’t want to do it on my own and that I didn’t need to do it on my own, that is the thing with love — there doesn’t need to be any separation inside of it.

Underneath the Hood of Race Relations

[T]he complexity of who we are actually includes multichromatic lineages: both dominant and marginalized cultures from all over the world, as well as ancestors who have probably been both oppressor and the oppressed.