Douglas Robbins's Blog

Thanksgiving is often seen as America’s story of gratitude. Families gather to share food, watch parades, and reflect on what they have. But Black Cloud Rises Thanksgiving invites us to look deeper. It asks what happens when celebration meets remembrance and when gratitude expands to include truth.

For many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is not just a celebration. It is a day of mourning, a time to remember ancestors, survival, and the deep losses that still echo through generations. Blac...

Every generation inherits a dream and a responsibility. America’s story has always been one of contradictions. Vision and violence. Freedom and fear. Unity and division. The question is not only who we were, but who we are willing to become.

We like to think of the American dream as a promise of opportunity, but at its core, it has always been something deeper. It is a shared belief that we can build something better together. That the next chapter of our story can be one of renewal, not ...

Every Thanksgiving, America gathers around the table to celebrate gratitude, family, and history. We give thanks for what we have, share stories, and carry on traditions that feel as old as the country itself. But for many Native Americans, the day carries a very different weight. It is not only a celebration, but a remembrance. A day of mourning, memory, and resilience.

While much of the country watches parades or prepares the meal, some Native families gather in quiet reflection. Others...

We all live inside stories. The ones we inherit, the ones we repeat, and the ones we are brave enough to change. Every belief, every limitation, every act of courage begins with a story we have accepted as truth. The stories we tell ourselves shape who we become and how we move through the world.

But what if that story is too small?

Maybe the one you have been living was not written by you. Maybe it was shaped by fear, by someone else’s expectations, or by a moment that left its mark. ...

Patriotism is more than waving a flag or using the right words. It is about action, service, and protecting the ideals that hold a nation together.

In recent years, we have seen what happens when leadership drifts away from those ideals. When personal ambition replaces public service. When power becomes performance instead of purpose. When truth becomes negotiable.

That is the quiet erosion that challenges every nation — not from outside, but from within.

We have all been there. The hard season. The grief that lingers. The heartbreak that makes the world feel smaller. Sometimes it is a loss. Sometimes it is the weight of change. Sometimes it is the slow burn of uncertainty. When life feels heavy, we often reach for a story because that is how stories help us heal.

They remind us that even when everything feels broken, something inside us is still reaching for connection, still searching for meaning.

We have all been there. The hard season. The grief that lingers. The heartbreak that makes the world feel smaller. Sometimes it is a loss. Sometimes it is the weight of change. Sometimes it is the slow burn of uncertainty. When life feels heavy, we often reach for a story. A novel, a poem, a podcast, even an old movie we have seen a hundred times.

Why? Because stories help us heal.

Pain can feel isolating. It convinces us that ...

Every Thanksgiving morning, we tune in to the Macy’s Parade. Balloons float high above the city, bands march in perfect rhythm, and the tradition feels bigger than any one of us. But traditions are not neutral. They tell us who we are and who we leave out.

That reflection sits at the heart of Black Cloud Rises Thanksgiving, a moment to look beyond the floats and think about what our celebrations really mean. Thanksgiving, like the parade, is a story America tells itself. Gratitude, unity,...

Laughter is the last honest language. When was the last time you laughed until your stomach hurt? Not the polite chuckle at work. Not the smile you force to smooth things over. I mean the real kind, the laugh that breaks through your defenses and leaves you gasping for breath.

That kind of laughter is pure honesty. You can fake confidence, fake politeness, even fake happiness. But you cannot fake a belly laugh. It is truth slipping out when you least expect it.

We love to act surprised by the future. Melting ice, burning forests, political dysfunction. We treat them like breaking news even though the warnings have been with us for decades.

My novel Narican: The Cloaked Deception grew out of that denial. It is not really about tomorrow. It is about the truths we refuse to face today, the future we pretend not to see.

Denial often feels easier than honesty. We scroll past headlines, shake our heads, and tell ourselv...