Our Michigan Herd

A food and wine extravaganza in Northern Michigan becomes so much more when every friend matters, and everyone's story counts.

Learn more in this short episode inspired by Jackie Stevenson's book, "Someday We'll Live Like Horses: Authentic Presence in Leadership and Life."  

The accompanying photo by Zane DeLong shows two members of the Pebble Ledge Ranch Herd, which Jackie writes about in her book. Many thanks to Jackie for giving us a tour of the ranch where she lives with her husband, Herb, along with six horses and four dogs.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

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Transcript

Hello and welcome to a short episode of The Gale Hill Radio Hour. 

I’m your host Kate Jones, here with a quick story from a recent road trip. 

For the past several years, my husband and I have traveled from Northeast Ohio to Northern Michigan for what I like to call our annual “Food and Wine Extravaganza.” 

That's an accurate description as far as it goes, although what we really experience during those two or three days up north has to do with much more than food and wine. 

It’s really about fellowship to the highest degree, shared among a few couples who are directly or indirectly connected to some long-ago cooking classes. And, yes, I understand that there was wine involved back then too. 

These reunion-like gatherings are filled with warmth, kindness and conviviality, and even though my husband and I generally don’t see these people more than once a year, we’re very fond of them. 

This year I had a realization about that, prompted by a book I brought along on this trip. It’s titled “Someday We’ll Live Like Horses,” by Jackie Stevenson, and here’s a pertinent line from it:

“Herds are inclusive, everyone belongs, everyone is essential, everyone matters.” 

There is that sense of inclusiveness in our gatherings, that acknowledgment that everyone is important. When one, or two, or three members of our herd are missing, we feel their absence acutely. 

That’s remarkable, I think, and I want to thank our fellow herd members for that. You know who you are. 

This is Kate Jones, with The Gale Hill Radio Hour. Thank you for listening. Please share this episode with members of your herd.