Senior Program Manager Megan Telligman talks about what she’s been reading lately

Since we’ve all been ‘staying put’ these few months to slow the spread of the coronavirus, I’ve recently spent time with Scott Russell Sanders’ Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World. Sander’s collection of essays, published in 1993, speaks to the value of staying in a particularly place, forming deep connections and knowing, in a more profound way, our environments.  

In Sanders’ case, staying put is often a choice (though the places we choose may not last), and Sanders’ insightful reflections read differently to me now than when I first encountered this book many years ago. (“Seal tight your roof and walls and they will shelter you from weather, but they will not shield you from fear.”)  

While we’re sheltering in place, the choice may not be our own, but Sanders’ words remind me that there is value in staying put. We have time to look, and look again, at our surroundings. “As we walk our own ground, on foot or in mind, we need to be able to recite stories and hills and trees and animals, stories that root us in this place and that keep it alive.”