In a world that craves validation, Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey “enjoys being doubted.” He would rather hear boos at an away game than hear fans cheer his name. If there was ever something to doubt, building a haven for the mind would be it. But that’s exactly what Humphrey did for himself and his family.

There are certain gifts in life that are worth their weight in gold. Peering out across the plains, on horseback, just before the 
sun rises behind the Western mountains, observing nature hard at work as gold light pours over the horizon and mercilessly dominates every crevice, can feel like heaven on Earth. But there are other gifts, given to us again and again throughout our lifetime, that are masked in darkness.

Some people were born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple. MLB starting pitcher Chris Paddack is not one of those people.

It’s all the rage this week. Last Saturday, Ariana Grande locked lips with her back-up dancer boyfriend, licked a tray of doughnuts, and professed she hates America in a Lake Elsinore, California doughnut store, Wolfee Donuts.

Across the Chimacum Creek, a salmon bearing stream in the Chimacum Valley, you will find the newly acquired Woodbridge Farm, owned and operated by Peter Mustin—a man who fought tirelessly to take possession of his late father’s land, evict the squatters living on the property illegally, and to revitalize the neglected fields. But overcoming challenges is something Peter has become accustomed to.

If you were to survey the general public and ask them to describe what they think a rancher looks like, the first word they would likely utter is the pronoun “he.”

Ivan McClellan, photojournalist, designer, and creator of passion project Eight Seconds, grew up in what he describes as a “weird place” in Kansas City, Kansas where it was an equal mix of urban and country. It was everything you would expect in a city, including gang violence, combined with a lifestyle that was characteristically country western.

To put it bluntly, the COVID-19 pandemic has created extreme challenges for ranchers and farmers across the nation. The closure of schools, restaurants, sporting events, theme parks, and hotels forced farmers to collectively discard millions of pounds of fresh goods intended for these businesses that they could no longer sell to.

Let’s be honest, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) sucks — especially for working mothers. And I’m considered one of the lucky ones. I live in a state that gives me an extra six weeks of maternity leave, making my little baby vacation paid for a whopping 12 weeks.

Initially, my son and I had a love-hate relationship with nursing. The bleeding, the scabs, the excruciating pain, the weighted feedings, the incessant screaming at my breast when the milk wouldn’t come fast enough, the projectile vomit when it came out much too fast, the nipple shields, the agonizing over every last drop that slowly—so slowly—pumped into the bottle, the slow-flow bottle-nipple, the paced bottle feeding, the lactation smoothies…the biting.