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Birthday thoughts

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July 3, 2023

One of the greatest values I’ve learned from Native folks is the belief that on special occasions in life you give gifts rather than receive them. So, for my birthday, I’d like to offer you the gift of some of the life lessons I’ve learned on my 77 trips around

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Father’s Day reflection, 2023

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June 17, 2023

“You want a dog, Mister?”

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February 24, 2023

Books

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"The best storytellers

“The best storytellers make you feel that they are speaking directly to you, and the best-told stories resonate in the heart and soul forever. The Wolf at Twilight will be permanently etched in your consciousness.”

Dan Agent, former editor of the Cherokee Phoenix and screenwriter for Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School

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“Twist and turn the imagination

“His characters twist and turn the imagination as they reveal, slowly, the wonders of the natural world and our relationships within it.

Kent's work has been my companion and will always remain so.”

Robert Plant, Musician

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“An unlikely friendship

“An unlikely friendship brings into light a dark period in American history and bridges understanding between two worlds. The story of this unique and captivating journey…is a remarkable gift that we are honored to receive and obligated to pass on.”

Steven R. Heape, Cherokee Nation citizen and producer of the award-winning documentary The Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy

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"This is storytelling

“This is storytelling with a greatness of heart.”
Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce

Louise Erdrich, Novelist

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“A poignant portrait

“The author’s ironic self-awareness as he serves as a foil to the various native people he encounters…deepens the very Indian humor that permeates a story that another, lesser writer might have seen as either tragic or inconsequential. It is also a poignant portrait of what it means to be a Native elder and a survivor of the often bitter experience of the Indian boarding schools of the 20th century.”

Joseph Bruchac, Abenaki, award-winning poet and author of Code Talker and Skeleton Man

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“Elegant, yet powerful

“Elegant, yet powerful. The emotional truth that resides in the rich storytelling of The Wolf at Twilight is a testament to the strength and endurance of Lakota culture, and provides insight into the remarkable, painful nature of the story as it removes barriers to understanding our common humanity.”

Winona LaDuke, founder and executive director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project

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“Speaks to the heart

“Kent Nerburn's gift is not just to build bridges between the Native and non- Native world, but to transcend those differences with a narrative that speaks to the heart of the human experience>

Anton Treuer, Ojibwe Author and teacher

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“With a poet’s grace

“With a poet’s grace and a craftsman’s precision, Kent Nerburn has written a powerful and deeply moving meditation on what it means to live the life of an artist – and, ultimately, what it means to be human. Dancing with the Gods might be the most inspiring book you’ll read all year.

Daniel Pink, Author and producer

Shop

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The Spiritual Journey

This three book set includes: Simple Truths, Small Graces and Make Me an Instrument of your Peace, which includes “The Cab Ride I’ll Never Forget”

The Trilogy Deluxe

This four book set includes: Neither Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf at Twilight, and The Girl who Sang to the Buffalo, and the book that started it all, To Walk the Red Road.

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The Cab Ride I'll Never Forget

excerpted from Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace: Living in the Spirit of the Prayer of St. Francis by Kent Nerburn

There was a time in my life twenty years ago when I was driving a cab for a living. It was a cowboy’s life, a gambler’s life, a life for someone who wanted no boss, constant movement and the thrill of a dice roll every time a new passenger got into the cab.

What I didn’t count on when I took the job was that it was also a ministry. Because I drove the night shift, my cab became a rolling confessional. Passengers would climb in, sit behind me in total anonymity and tell me of their lives. [READ MORE]

Facebook Posts

Kent Nerburn

2 hours ago

Oh dear. Cats and dogs. Not since I last mentioned Trump (who I hope never to have to mention again) have I received such a barrage of knee-jerk responses to an issue. Let it be known for this and all future generations that I love cats. Unlike dogs, where I believe the best dogs are good dogs, I think the best cats are bad cats -- cats that insist upon sitting on the laps of visitors who hate cats, cats that purposely lie on on your black clothing, cats that spread themselves across computer keyboards while you are trying to type -- well, you can add your own examples. Feline inventiveness in this regard knows no limits. Just to try to let bygones be bygones, I'm posting a photo of me with Henry, the late, now sadly flattened, bookstore cat from Orca Books in Olympia. Henry was a fine cat, as are most orange cats. In fact, for years (my wife will attest to this) I insisted that "He liked Orange Cats" be engraved on my tombstone. (I've since updated that to "He was the last to know," but that's another story.) Just for the record, my old buddy Sid, of whom I have no readily available photos, was one of the most obnoxious cats in the world, and he will forever hold a hallowed place in my heart. He was incontinent, his breath could have killed a camel, he spent his days being pulled around by the head by Lucie, our yellow lab, and he had bristles where most cats are expected to have fur. A princely fellow, by any measure. Let no one say I do not love cats. I just have substantially different expectations of cats than I do of dogs. As one of my mentors, Hayes, the shoeshine man at the Minneapolis Golf Club said, "When you ain't expecting nothing, you're happy to get that much." Keep that in mind, and cats are among God's greatest creations. ... See MoreSee Less

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Kent Nerburn

15 hours ago

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Kent Nerburn

2 days ago

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