These past months have brought unexpected deaths to my family. Two cousins of mine, both named Joseph, departed suddenly, one from my mother’s side of the family and one from my father’s side. Both died young by modern standards. Both departed from large and closely-knit families that still reel from their gaping absence—an absence that does not seem repairable or …
Crowing Pains
These days, I am often met by crows when I walk from the house to the barn and back again. I find crow feathers flowering the yard and the walkway. I bring them in and stick them into the holes of the deer vertebra that graces my altar. Crows cluster outside the windows of the barn as I work and …
I’m Going In!
Whenever I find myself in the dark and difficult place of self-doubt, I need to be reminded once more of how imperative it is to be constantly fed and filled by spirit. Whenever I feel dispirited, it’s because I quite literally am. I’m not sure why I have to be reminded of this from time to time. I find myself …
Dreaming the World into Being
I have heard it said that the dream world is the real world and our waking world is but a dream. That’s a strange notion, isn’t it? Dreamtime was what the Aboriginal tribes called non-ordinary reality—or the journey world. There is some sense that the ancients saw journeying as another form of dreaming, and they weren’t wrong. Certainly, there are …
All That Is About to Be Born
I feel like I am coming into being. The barn, where I will create a new workspace, is almost finished. Spring has finally taken hold and the flowers are popping—bluebells, lilies of the valley, wisteria, and lilac—all my favorites. The warm breezy afternoons are a glorious backdrop for gardening and walking in the woods. A long time of hibernation is …
What’s Your Story?
Recently, I was talking to a psychologist friend of mine about the burden he felt from carrying the sad stories of the people who came to him for help. “People do such terrible things to one another,” he said. “Yes, that’s true,” I said. “But what I think about most when someone leaves my office is the stunning dignity with …
A More Flattering Light
I have a new daily practice. This one is about acknowledging the right of others to make the choices they do. Each night as I “lay me down to sleep,” I ask my guides: whose free will have I made conditional? The face of someone I know will float up into my consciousness, and I will take a moment or …
Wise Choices
I find that I have entered a period in my life when a lot of choices and opportunities are being presented to me. The challenge has been to not leap forward at each new thing but to stand back and choose with discernment, weighing carefully whether the choice seems to reflect who I am becoming or who I have been. …
Flying Far
My oldest son has left home to study abroad for the next year and a half. It was time for him to go, to leave the nest, and he was well prepared to do so. I have not been without my fears for this boy over the years—I am a mother after all. But the good news is, he has …