Hanlon, Kevin

A decision is made and a concert is attended.

Noodin Kasabien invited Kevin to go fishing and then invited himself to our home for dinner that night.

Noodin Kasabien was proud of his heritage as a member of an Indigenous tribe but, like many others, was raised in poverty and held in disdain by those who immigrated from across the ocean.

I met Noodin Kasabien a day after Ally and I moved into NAHE. We became friends and then family.

Alexandra speaks about the origins of Pesci-Fest tracintg its beginnings from her surface tradition’s Mabon Sabbat ritual.

Ally’s “Pagan Thanksgiving,” where everything had to be on the table if we wanted to eat it through the following year, seemed an appropriate place for a few fish. Noodin and I made it a point to go out onto the lake the morning of, and after a while, other people decided to go with us. Yes, we co-opted it to the extent that the name changed to reflect the fish we caught and ate.

I was a part of Project SideStep for over ten years. My participation in it changed my life for the better. And I hope it does expand humanity’s horizons in the future..

This story begins when I proceeded off a cliff without caring where it took me. The day when, out of despair, I took a step, and through that simple act, I met Alexandra Hanlon. And my life changed.

I felt an instant affinity for Brandon the first time we met. Threading through the grief emanating from him in strong waves was a resolve, a resolve to come through whatever he was going through, and something more, something that touched me in a way I hadn’t felt before.