February 2025

A Letter from Kim Manley Ort

Niagara Glen in the Fall

Well, how did you survive this first month of 2025? What is going on in many places in the world is disturbing, to say the least. What is going on in the United States has already affected two of my children in detrimental ways. I won’t say more about that right now but I am following the threads of my attention and looking for meaningful ways to stand up for humans and the more-than-human world. I will continue to practice seeing as clearly as possible and focusing on those who are making a positive difference in the world. 

Courtney Martin writes that when things in the world feel like too much, focus on the local. In her post You’re More Powerful than you Think, she created a great list of things that you can do where you live.

Krista Tippet wrote a wonderful piece on navigating these times, called The News that is Breaking is Never Seeing Things Whole. That’s something I need to remember. She described a ceremony she had attended honouring Dr. Vivek Murphy, who is leaving his post as the U.S. Surgeon General. He is known for having a wise, calm, and grounded presence and she writes,

“Deep truth: this is a gentle human capacity. And: there is scarcely a calling that could be more powerful to bring to our world of fear and pain. We need settled, grounded bodies and spirits in order to meet what is hard and hurting and rise to what is beautiful and life-giving.”

Of course, we’re also called to act in the face of harm, without knowing the long-term results of our actions. She says that we have to keep in mind “deep time,” the time of the geologist, hard for us to fathom.

“Deep time doesn’t recognize the delineations we make in terms of years. It will see what is being seeded, what we tend across generations. What grows.”

Along that same vein, Austin Kleon shared a story on Instagram from his book, Keep Going, about Leonard and Virginia Woolf planting a garden during the war. It helped them to know that the irises they planted would live on. On that note, I have an exciting announcement about something I’ve been nurturing that comes to fruition this month.

Correspondences, a group photography exhibit in Ottawa

I haven’t printed or exhibited my photographic work in quite some time, even though I still photograph pretty much every day. So, it was a challenge and a joy to be a part of an incredibly creative group of ten photographers, Canadian members of the Kinship Photography Collective, who met regularly last fall, exploring the theme, Between Bodies.

Susan Patrice of Kinship expertly facilitated our group, along with our Ottawa lead, Jon Stuart. They helped us find the connections between our very different, yet similar, work, which has resulted in this curated exhibit, called Correspondences, to be shown at the Shenkman Art Centre from February 22nd - April 18, 2025. The diverse work considers the land and water and creatures surrounding us as our correspondents who communicate with and respond to us.

The image above is one of four that I will be showing. I chose as my subject area the Niagara Glen, one section of a gorge running along the Niagara River. I was interested in how the river has shaped the gorge and particularly the ancient rock and Carolinian forest which inhabit this place. Talk about deep time! I became fascinated by the way the trees and rock adapt to erosion and wrap around each other, like an intimate correspondence over thousands of years.

Note: There will be a public reception with the artists on Wednesday, March 5th from 6 - 8 p.m. Admission is free. If you’re in the Ottawa area, I would love to see you there. If you know someone who might be interested, please let them know. Here is a link with all of the details.

What Else Got Me Through January

I loved Timothy Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, Edward Norton, and Elle Fanning in the movie, A Complete Unknown, about Bob Dylan. Watch this performance (start at 8:36) by Dylan and Baez from 1976. They are two of many people who have stood up for civil rights their entire lives.

Chloe Salmon is a wonderful writer on climate. Her latest article, Why Climate Action Doesn’t Work, is thought provoking. The title is deceiving.

I just finished reading an excellent book by one of my favourite historians, Timothy Snyder. On Freedom, a “brilliant exploration of freedom—what it is, how it’s been misunderstood, and why it’s our only chance for survival.” I plan to write about Snyder’s five facets of freedom in the coming months, in the context of seeing clearly.

I also enjoyed the novel, The Island of Missing Trees, by Elif Shafak, which taught me a lot about the history of Cyprus. My deep reading (10 pages per day) for the next few months is The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. Wish me luck.

I’m always grateful when I receive responses to my posts. I’m curious about what you’re doing to be a positive force this year. Tell us in the comments.

On-Demand Workshops. As a reminder, all of my previous photography workshops are now available on-demand as downloadable PDF’s through Gumroad. You can peruse them here.

** Note: Books mentioned have Amazon or Bookshop affiliate links, meaning I make a few cents if you purchase through my link. I only recommend books that I’ve read.