One of the first things my American friends and family ask me when they learn I used to be married to an Indian man is: was it an arranged marriage? I understand the intrigue, the bewilderment and even horror that… Read More ›
Family
A Mother’s Gifts by Dawn Morais Webster
Parvati is a gentle mother goddess. But as Kali, she also wields enormous power. The daughter of Himavan, the king of the Himalayas, consort of Lord Shiva, and mother of Ganesha, the Elephant-Headed Lord, Parvati is the embodiment of all… Read More ›
It’s About More Than Just The Ariana Grande Concert by Karen Leslie Hernandez
Manchester. It’s not just about this one act of violence. It is horrific, there is no doubt, and I am in no way belittling this act of terror, but, I am always perplexed when these things happen, and how it… Read More ›
Remembering My Saints by Katie M. Deaver
My mother and I have always been very interested in our personal connection to the spirit realm. This connection, for us, is an important one. We pay attention to the signs and messages that remind us of our continued connection… Read More ›
Call Me the Devil, If You’d Like by Natalie Weaver
Call me the devil, if you’d like. I have just completed the three-hour retreat at the church to prepare my son for his first communion. It was a long morning, to be sure, but during that time I decide I… Read More ›
Writing Through the Body: Betty Smith’s A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN by Joyce Zonana
In her 1975 manifesto, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” French feminist Hélène Cixous urges women to write: “Writing is for you, you are for you; your body is yours, take it. . . . Women must write through their bodies,… Read More ›
A Letter to Those I’ve Lost by John Erickson
Out of all of these things, the one thing that has kept coming to my mind is G-d. What is he (or she) thinking? I feel like I’m back in one of my Old Testament classes discussing the harsh and cruel G-d that thrust so many horrible things onto their believers. Maybe, the worst part about the election isn’t Donald Trump, but it is the realization that G-d may be dead after all.
Down on the Farm by Carol P. Christ
In the past week I visited Cherry Ridge, Honesdale, Wayne, Pennsylvania in the Pokonos, where I was welcomed by my third cousin Marcia Perry Gager whose family never left the place where our ancestors settled. Marcia and I have been… Read More ›
Black Sheep by Carol P. Christ
At Thanksgiving and the solstice holidays many of us are reminded that we are the “black sheep” of our families. In my case this means that I am too “assertive,” too “aggressive,” too “demanding,” too “political,” too “willing to upset… Read More ›
Turning One by Sara Frykenberg
This month I turn one as a mother. My daughter, consequently, is also turning one—a first birthday I am excitedly planning. Specifically, I want to make Hazel a rainbow cake with lots of colored layers and white frosting. I’m not… Read More ›
Rituals for Our Sons, by Molly Remer
“…There, he found a piece of glass and began to tell a story. He was telling one of his tribe’s men’s stories. It was a story for boys to become men, and it was not shared with women. The women… Read More ›
The End is Nigh by John Erickson
How will the world end? No, it isn’t Lucifer himself coming from hell to bring in the end times, it is someone far worse, and his name is Donald Trump.
The Collateral Damage of Addiction by Cynthia Garrity-Bond
I am the mother of three adult children. I am also the mother of an addict living the nightmare of denial and the consequence of said addiction. Like many, my family of origin is riddled with alcoholics and addicts. I… Read More ›
Dandelion Warriors, Incest Survival and An Artist Statement on That Christmas Morning Feeling by Marie Cartier
I have blogged excerpts from my novel That Christmas Morning Feeling in progress previously—the first excerpt here and additional ones here and here. This blog serves as an “artist statement” regarding the novel in progress. I want to discuss in… Read More ›
Priestess as Shamanic Path – Part 2 by Molly Remer
This is a continuation of Molly’s piece from Wednesday, 10 August 2016. You can read Part 1 here. After explaining that the homebirth of her second son was her, “first initiation into the Goddess…even though at that time I didn’t… Read More ›
Priestess as Shamanic Path – Part 1 by Molly Remer
It is late autumn, 2009. I am 30 years old and pregnant with my third baby. He dies during the early part of my second trimester and I give birth to him in my bathroom, on my own with only… Read More ›
Cohousing as Modern Matriarchy? by Kate Brunner
I attended the 2016 Matriarchal Studies Day that preceded the biannual Association for the Study of Women and Mythology conference only two weeks before my family and I arrived at our new home in an established cohousing community. It was… Read More ›
Remember by John Erickson
Remember the loss, because we’re going to need it for the tomorrows to come and for those that need our protection the most: the next generation. Remember, we are Orlando; now, tomorrow, and always.
Syringa vulgaris, Gerard, & Me by Kate Brunner
A vast array of massive issues are affecting the Land today. Rampant pesticide use, trademarked GMO seed, fracking, mining, illegal dumping, indigenous sovereignty, water rights, accelerating extinction rates, municipal waste management, clear cutting, increasingly extreme weather patterns, and on and… Read More ›
Parenting with the ‘Same Words’ by Sara Frykenberg
Teaching and talking with my daughter, I find myself revisiting the subtle and not so subtle kyriarchial language in my own upbringing in ways that I do not when speaking to other adults with my very intentional and well-trained adult language. Parenting sometimes feels like a trip back in time where I remember and more readily feel my joy of singing particular songs or reading particular stories, simultaneously feeling my inner feminist and adult self cringe at the messages in too many of these stories.
Women Keepers of Ritual and the Caloian by Lori Tiron-Pandit
As a child, I learned all about my religion from my grandmother, in her small and remote Romanian village. She told me many Bible stories from our Christian Orthodox tradition, often disguised as bedtime fairytales, but it was not doctrine… Read More ›
Two Lives, a Marriage and a Plate of Samosas by Vibha Shetiya
Recently, a commercial made by the clothing line, BIBA, hit the Indian market. Its significance lay in its “Change the Convention, Change is Beautiful” tag. The message was straightforward – we need to change Indian attitudes regarding gender roles. At… Read More ›
Moving Away from Normative Maternal Roles in the Catholic Church by Michele Stopera Freyhauf
Earlier this week, social media was all abuzz about the Pope’s investigation into restoring women to the diaconate. In the complete transcript of the Pope’s comments, the traditional notion of women’s maternal role in the church is mentioned in relation… Read More ›
I am a Suicide Attempt Survivor by Karen Leslie Hernandez
In the past year, I have several friends that have lost loved ones to suicide. The statistics are real, raw and all too sobering. In the United States, an average of 117 people choose to end their lives every day…. Read More ›
Finding Bavarian Ancestors by Carol P. Christ
In the past month I have been on a spiritual journey seeking my German ancestors. Six of my 2x great-grandparents were born in Germany, which means I am 37 ½ percent German. Growing up, I was subjected to a form… Read More ›
Birth Matters by Karen Leslie Hernandez
I don’t talk much about giving birth, but when I do talk about the birth of my daughter and I give details, I am met almost assuredly with looks of disbelief and outright contempt for my birthing experience. In that,… Read More ›
I Am a High School Drop-Out by Karen Leslie Hernandez
In 1985, four months before I was supposed to graduate from high school, I awoke one morning, made a hasty decision to escape my harsh reality, and by the end of the day, I was a high school drop-out. Even… Read More ›
The Palm of My Hand by Molly Remer
“If there is one chant in the universe it is to create.” –Chris Griscolm quoted in Nicole Christine, p. 25 If you ever eavesdrop on a conversation between my husband and me around the clamor of our four children’s voices,… Read More ›
Breastfeeding and the Abject? by Sara Frykenberg
The trappings of motherhood are all too powerful reminders that, as Catherine Keller reminds us in her book From a Broken Web, mother goddesses have to be continually slain for patriarchal heroes to be born. Indeed, she suggests that conceptions of Western selfhood are based upon this symbolic matricide—so it is no wonder that breast milk might be considered abject…
Remembering to Be Thankful by John Erickson
Remembering to be thankful may just be a privileged illusion that individuals in positions of power get to write about in the December of each year to self-congratulate themselves about being actually able to be able to be thankful. It may just seem like people who write about being thankful are complaining or pontificating that being thankful is in itself a chore.
