Linda Ohlson Graham
It’s difficult to categorize Linda Ohlson Graham. The writer/photographer/environmentalist has been living on Cape Cod for more than two decades and is an active member of the Provincetown arts community, giving workshops and holding writing groups at the library, reading her poetry and philosophical writings at the Mews Restaurant Coffeehouse series, and participating in beach cleanups and other positive activities that promote both inner and world peace, harmony, and mindfulness in so many ways. It is impossible to describe all that Graham has done, but we sat down with the Poet Laureate of the Colorado Dept. of Peace to get a better sense of her way of life.
Provincetown Magazine: How did you find yourself
here in Provincetown and where are you from originally?
Linda Ohlson Graham: Worcester, Mass., born and raised. My dad passed on Feb. 1967 when I was 19. I had plans to visit a friend who lived in northwest Minnesota mid-February, and my mom encouraged me to go. After I returned, a Worcester friend invited me to visit Provincetown with her.
We arrived on April 1st. The town was just waking up from winter, as it has been these past few weeks. My heart pounded in my chest when I first saw Provincetown. And I fell in love with the natural beauty presence here. I stayed April and May, though couldn’t believe the way the town changed when Memorial Day Weekend came. I left for several months and returned the next winter. Spent three winters without spending summers in the late ‘60s. As a result of becoming best friends with a fisherman’s wife, during the years the Provincetown Fisherman’s Co-op was forming, plus waitressing at the Mayflower Cafe, I had the opportunity to meet many in the Portuguese community. It
was sheer joy to be friends with many artists also.
PM: Briefly, what is your “formula for world peace”
all about, and how is your philosophy influenced by the
concept of the noosphere?
LOG: In mid-1993 I learned of the French philosopher Teilhard de Chardin, who created the word ‘noosphere’ to describe the layer of thought that hovers above nature and acts as a universal consciousness, a ‘thinking envelope’ that our thoughts go up to and then are reflected back. My philosophy immediately was born that if enough of humanity, consciously, with intention, either individually or collectively, could actualize a few moments of intentionally silencing thought, and when thought does arise, to either silence it or intentionally compose ‘positive thought’ statements, prayers, what would be reflected back would be more peaceful, more calm, more loving. Yes, incrementally, I believe this is a ‘Formula for Global PEACE,’
a way (perhaps THE WAY) to calm our Earth’s weather patterns, end terrorist attacks, and give ‘us’ potential for insights that could cure/eradicate the pandemic.
PM: It’s very easy to become discouraged about the many problems in the world today. What keeps you positive and motivated?
LOG: Walking away from three near-death experiences has truly caused my outlook to feel more joy than I could have ever anticipated. Sailing thousands of miles, then later co-directing a museum for 12 years that was chosen ‘One of the 99 Finest Museums in America,’ studying many world religions (and practicing a few), living in Boulder, Colorado, for seven years, where near every major world religion has a center…Each and all emanate joy (and have offered healing when needed) within my lines that came through me after a surgery I had have nurtured my ‘Life perspective’ also.
Linda Ohlson Graham is currently offering a weekly in-person/virtual book club and read along/read aloud, focused on The World is My Home by James Michener, every Tuesday at 11a.m. at the Provincetown Public Library, 336 Commercial St. or via Zoom. For information about this program call 508.487.7094 to check out a copy and join Linda for the discussion in the Bowsprit Room or email [email protected] for a Zoom link. For selections of Linda’s writings, photographs, and other information, visit
