Portal of Imagination and Memory

A woman from the Navajo Nation and member of the Bitter Water clan stands before a portal in the rock formation called “The Ear of the Wind.” I learned when visiting the Navajo Nation in 2022 her name is Effie. She spoke of her grandmother’s dramatic strength after twice being kidnapped. In her stories, Effie’s connection to her ancestors was an ongoing song of survival, strength and courage. It’s tune seemed to me to pass through all barriers of time, geography, or memory.

The rock formation represented, therefore, a portal or window.

Which turns my mind in 2024 to the windows of the airplanes I will be traveling on during several weeks documenting modern day slavery. On those flights, I disconnect from tethers such as phones and work and often read, watch a movie, or simply gaze out a window at the marvelous sky. I love the moment when, immersed in soupy clouds, we rise into sunlight. The sky is a brilliant blue, the clouds below billowing white and gray pillows, the weight of the world and its worries vanish. I am fully alive in the life of the mind.

In that moment, I am one with Effie. We listen together to the voices of generations and the echoes of unseen places. We are finding the taproot of our beings and allowing ourselves to be encouraged, hopeful, grateful. I am fortunate to have traveled with Effie, who holds the most precious gift in the land and her people’s history. Not everyone has such blessings. Even so, my greatest hope is that you also have a window, literal or metaphoric, through which your imagination finds liberation.