Mikala Jones flows as a river. Born and raised in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, she has made home near Lake Erie, the Irish Sea and now the Mississippi. Live oak trees and slow sticky summers and majestic herons and fervent festive winters have embraced her since the fall of 2023. Mikala curiously creates her path that goes back and gets it. The gifts she offers the pressing environmental, cultural and spiritual issues of our time are through deep listening, working with her hands (in true artisan fashion), dreaming and returning to the breath. Beyond the titles she assigns herself, Mikala strives to embody Thay’s poetry: “A river does flow, yes. But she does not need to rush.”