Thanks so much to Mary Sharratt, author of Illuminations about Hildegard of Bingen, among other wonderful books, for posting a piece I wrote about the Solstice on her website. To read it, click here.
Category: Everyday Life
Reality Is Just a Tango with Time
This appeared in Moondance last fall. I’m reposting it here in case anyone would like to read it. In the fall, as the landscape withdraws into stark lines and the coming cold breathes brittle into my bones, I always mourn time’s inevitable creep forward into darkness. Yet, in very ancient eras — and to many… Continue reading Reality Is Just a Tango with Time
Emptying the Nest and Loving the Universe
This is the time of the year when the nest of many mothers empties as children who are no longer children head off to college. I suppose that the experience is different for everyone, but I am feeling at once a sense of loss of my old life and sadness from missing someone I deeply… Continue reading Emptying the Nest and Loving the Universe
Write a Poem and Rethink a New World into Being
It is said that the first poem ever written was a hymn to Inanna by one of her priestesses, an auspicious beginning to the art of poetry indeed. Yet, I find that when I go to write poems using traditional forms and rules I learned in school, something is missing, or maybe something feels wrong.… Continue reading Write a Poem and Rethink a New World into Being
Sister Circles Round and Round the Universe
To me, women’s circles are an essential part of our spirituality. We not only support one another in circle, but what happens in circles – whether formal planned circles for hundreds or quiet conversations between two or three over tea – is so often how spiritual transformations happen. It may be a chance word or… Continue reading Sister Circles Round and Round the Universe
Find Yourself By Getting Lost
Exactly two years ago today I was given a great gift by a nun looking for the highway. It was the end of the day and the only people in the community center where I work were myself and two other staff people. We were discussing how December 18 is a difficult anniversary for each… Continue reading Find Yourself By Getting Lost
Reveling in the Solstice
From mid- to late December, people from many times and places — from the ancient Hopi to classical Rome to medieval Europe– raucously reveled in a world turned upside down. For a few short days each year, everyone would sing and dance, mock the powerful and holy, and escape their cultural roles and responsibilities with… Continue reading Reveling in the Solstice
Chaos-to-Go: Life as a Holy Speck in an Infinite Messiness
First published in Moondance, March 21, 2011 When spring arrives in New England, every acre burgeons into chaos as millions of spores and microscopic one-celled wonders, plants, fungi, animals, and birds emerge from an icy sleep into manic activity. Every year I marvel at this emergence of boundless life for a week or two until… Continue reading Chaos-to-Go: Life as a Holy Speck in an Infinite Messiness
Inviting Goddess to Your Tea Party
We all know how heavenly tea is, but even from ancient times it has had a mist of sacredness about it. And in all the years the teapot has symbolized the sacred in women’s everyday lives on this blog, I have never written about the close connection between goddesses and tea. So, as the… Continue reading Inviting Goddess to Your Tea Party
Beauty’s Revolution in a Rose
This first appeared in Moondance in Summer, 2010. A shoot rises from the wet, fertile-scented earth, crisply green and strong. Soon exuberant pink, in the shape of the sun, bursts from the stalk. The bloom does not live to be admired; it is simply perfect, as are all the flowers, grasses, and ivies that gloriously… Continue reading Beauty’s Revolution in a Rose
Goddess in a Teapot 