This essay isn't a tutorial for floating your body in the water. It's about embracing the season of deepening reflection and connection. Welcoming the cold and darkness. Adjusting our senses, returning to trusting stillness, and being more fully present than we are in the warmer, lighter
This weekend I re-heard poet Rebecca Dupas say, in her gorgeous poem "How to Slay a Dragon," that: until you let their opinions go you are the only dragon that needs slaying Wow do I love these words. This poet. This four-part essay contains a spoiler about her
I'm taking part in a 10-minute skill share gathering tonight at the Koneski Co-Creative Gallery in Clinton (5:30 to 6:30 pm if you care to join us). This is the content of the handouts I'm taking. I'm also planning to host classes
Because the U.S. federal government has been shredded from within this year and now shut down for months, starting November 1st the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that almost 42 million Americans lean on to pay for some of the food they and/or their children eat, is being
Every so often, we find ourselves feeling slightly off or way off our path in life or completely lost from who we are and what we deeply want to be and do next. I'm at a life-transition point myself right now. I swing from lost and sad to
I'm writing a piece about re-finding your path for the times when we feel like we've gotten way off track on who we are and what we're here to do in this life. I plan to publish that soon. As part of writing that,
Writing at the local coffee shop is always fun. Cora and I run into people we know, they ask questions, I ask questions, Cora wiggles her butt and smiles. If we're open to it, we then proceed to solve each other's problems in 2 to 15
Most days here in these bodies are good. Pretty damn good. The seasons shift, the air here is clean, we can still play and afford to eat and help others now and then, though dental insurance is beyond our reach now. And, nobody at all is dropping U.S.-funded
One of my all-time favorite poems is by storyteller, poet, playwright, screenwriter, author, performer, teacher, musician, and live-your-whole-being inspiration and muse, Lenelle Moise. This poem. cuz i dream a home for you in a safe & spacious country where your very own laughter can sprout from joy homeboy from joy
Hello friends. I learned this week that I need to offer a transition explanation for those of you who first met me as an herbalist some time across the past 7 years and who know me primarily as an herbalist and listener with/to land and forests and plants. A
Hi friends, I've been writing and polishing essay after essay here in July, but I've been unable to press Publish for the past three weeks. There's something fully mysterious and magic about being a writer when I let there be. I've decided
I found these words while following a deer path through tall grass in the shade of some Douglas fir trees just outside of town. Over time, I've learned that I'm a gatherer of words. A forager of wildness and wilderness. I never know everything that the
It was a beautiful day June 30, 2025 1. The day they took Medicaid away from millions it was a beautiful day The day they took the taxes we paid said a clear "Fuck you" to working folks and "Sure, here's 45 billion more!"
I was 37 and just finishing my doctoral dissertation research when I woke up one day and realized that I'd spent my adult life reading primarily the work of men. Almost all books, articles, essays, research papers, and even poetry: men, men, men, men, men. Back in 2008,
First, a thank you. Happy Pride month friends. Thank you, LGBTQ+ family and community and ancestors, from the bottom of our hearts, for everything you so generously give the world with your presence and perspectives, just by being yourselves. I personally need to thank you as individuals, and as community,
I wrote a long introduction laying out my impeccable street cred and demonstrating why I can claim the word "elder" as my own, and why I might deserve to be listened to on this subject, here, just weeks ahead of my 55th birthday. Then I thought about what
We're handing over our beloved Ritual Mischief to her new family in just 8 days. Only eight days left running my own herbalist practice/organization/business. Only eight days left to get all our recipes documented for the new family, all our digital files and paperwork in order,
Last week, I told my small-but-deeply-loved writer's group– out loud– that I will be doubling down on joy, fun, and wonder in my writing this year. And, because they're connected– doubling down on joy, fun, wonder, and rest in my life and my family's
As a writer who is also an herbalist, in addition to writing I currently run a small, local-plant-infused herbal products practice called Ritual Mischief. Stay tuned for big news on that front next week! Big wonder and joy coming your way there if you follow Ritual Mischief! In the meantime,
Humanity is being told by a small group of always-angry wealthy men that we have to give up a lot this year. That we must give up even more now, including people and work and rights and institutions and protections and land and trees we all love, both together and
In one of my large online groups this week, an anonymous and brilliant person from somewhere in the U.S. asked us this: "There is a sign in my city that says “maybe you are wrong” and I think about it all the time. I am getting tired of
Our shared foundation of love is obvious, and everywhere, when we remember to look for it. Sometimes the trick is remembering it's still there or remember to even look. And, sometimes the trick is looking with a heart full of mostly love or gratitude or curiosity, instead of
I'm unlearning so much right now. Almost everyone I know is too. How about you? Here we're currently calling this era The Great Unlearning and letting go that really doesn't feel great very often at the moment. Or TGU, for short. ;-) This piece
I hear this almost every day here in March of 2025– every day that I'm connected to the human world and fully listening, that is: How can I make a difference? How can I help stop these destructive, wildly overreaching, apparently all-powerful, cruel, and violence-centered men intent on