Wonders Never Cease (Page 2)

White daisies with yellow centers are in focus while many other plants and flowers, and the blue sky, are lightly blurred out in the background.

It was a beautiful day

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!"

A straw hat holding orange calendula flowers on top and deep pink/purple rose petals around the brim. Drying them.

Being reimagined with lived experience, reverence, intuition, and wonder

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,

A photo of me--a fierce middle-aged white woman with glasses and gray hair--holding an even fiercer black cat starring straight at the camera

Befriending Silly, Deep, Barney, Bernie, and Nuance

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,

Photo of a bright green Motherwort plant with a white-flowering horseradish plant behind her

7 tips for becoming a trusted community elder in an upside-down world

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

Photo with abundant wild roses in the foreground, trees in the middle ground, and blue-ish sky in the background.

In the heart of this transition, I welcome feeling everything

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,

A photo of an black and white Australian shepherd dog with a rainbow-colored "Ritual Mischief" sign beside her and an arrow pointing to her.

Nine things that support letting go joyfully this year

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

A thank you note from a customer that made my day

The wonder, kindness, magic, connection, & grief of just one Sunday

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,

A black, white, and brown Australian shepherd dog smiles in a green field with blue sky and trees behind her.

Three questions to ask to live more courageously

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

Photo of a cardboard sign with handwritten words that say, "You are what love looks like."

How do you know that you're on the right side?

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

Two elders with gray hair-- a woman in a pink shirt and a man in a blue coat and hat--hold hands and look lovingly at each other.

Trusting our shared foundation of love

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

An emerging gray-green and purple-veined plant, likely kale, in our garden. Plus, my toes.

The Great Unlearning

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

A white, black, and brown Australian Shepherd dog with a red stuffed toy that looks like a cocktail.

How can I make a difference?

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

Picture of my notebooks, planters, and a mug covered with colorful flowers, leaves, butterflies. Gifts from friends.

The Power of Empathy

Hey friends, welcome. You may have read this week that a currently influential and remarkably nervous billionaire said, and demonstrated, these things about empathy across the past week or two. He said: "The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit. They're, it's,

A photo of a gray-green floret of white sage from our garden.

A politics of wonder

I've been feeling regularly outraged and abused by a politics of cruelty lately. How about you? Enough already, friends. It's time to take our beloved world back. This 30-minute walk-and-talk is my way back, winding my way through humanity's remarkable sisterhood, resilience, medicine, ceremony,

Photo of three smiling people dressed in green, celebrating St Patrick's day

One word, plus a routine change, can change everything

One word, plus a routine change, really can change everything. Care to join me? What's the one word that sits at your core right now? Think of one word right now. It can be anything, don't overthink it here. Got it? I'll ask you

A photo of my Australian Shepherd dog, Cora. She has warm brown eyes, a kind face, and black, white, and brown markings.

Making sense within chaos

At some point this week, did you imagine that you're bad at making sense within chaos right now? Did you imagine that you don't belong here? Or imagine that you don't know exactly who to trust or who you are? Or if you'

Noticing deep & lasting beauty while your world is crumbling

We have it in us to notice deep and lasting beauty everywhere, every day, even as our whole world crumbles. And to create deep and lasting beauty, too. Here are three examples from our life here, followed by a brief conclusion during which I spend 30 seconds getting decidedly uppity

What do you do when your world is upside down?

Back when I was just starting my doc program in Educational Leadership, our faculty members took us down to the university gym for some whole-body learning. Experiential learning? I forget what it was called now–that was 20 years ago. What we learned that day has stuck with me longer

Embrace your inner dictoddler

I spent last week writing essays about how to respond to brutal, intentionally cruel regimes. I did this for friends and family who've been full of dread, or panicking, or facing real horrors of loss and displacement and violence already, and also for me. Writing therapy is real

What grief, friendship, community, and leadership—together—feel like. The reminder I needed.

I snapped at a sweet friend this week. Publicly, on his social media page. [Deep breath out, deep breath in. Continue.] I snapped at a lovely human who took his baby to the beach in another country for a few days of much-needed rest during this very painful week for

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