I offered up morning prayers at dawn this July morning to the song of cardinals, rose breasted grosbeaks, and just barely rippling waters. The air was sweetened by water. Peace filtered through the green – seedlings, lichens, mosses, grasses, ferns,… Read More ›
It’s time to submit another post to FAR, the only blog site I follow, and a place where I have found genuine support and even a sense of community, which for me is a great gift. Mostly, I experience myself… Read More ›
You can’t have the ocean without blue. I walk at night, that’s the time of year the grunion run, a silver school teaching us that it’s work to populate –the small shimmer of a female screwing herself into the sand…. Read More ›
This morning I met her by the barn sitting on a cedar fence regarding me with one shimmering marbled eye, a little spiked crown on her head. A moment later two tiny balls of feathers exploded out of a tangled… Read More ›
Summer is a time when we are surrounded by the power of Nature, the impulse to life, balance, and well being. Even small actions to align ourselves with it can create momentous changes and healing within ourselves and towards a… Read More ›
Women and plants have been in relationship since the dawn of humankind. Women were the Seed keepers. Women created agriculture. Women learned what herbs to use for healing. Women noticed wildflowers, loved them, grew them and painted them, created poems… Read More ›
She was more than a sapling, so robust. One summer she bowedher tear shaped body,offeringa hundred sweet pearsto any creaturethat sought her gifts.Did the deer remember? Fruit that fermented becamefertilizer for hungry plants. When theygirded her slender trunkthat winter I felt betrayedby the herd of graceful… Read More ›
As a 76 year old feminist who lives alone (except for animals) I have been struck by some recent experiences I have had with kind men, men that I would call “Mothers’ sons”. Overall, throughout my life I have had… Read More ›
Last night I was reading Forest Scientist Susanne Simard’s new book “Finding the Mother Tree”. She was writing about how uncanny it was that her personal life has paralleled that of trees, the forests, the plants, the fungi, the mycorrhiza… Read More ›
One day last week it almost drizzled. When I stepped outside that morning I was engulfed by fragrant mist. Rarely does light fog give the thirst- driven forest a temporary reprieve, greening needles, and encouraging tiny leaves to unfurl. With… Read More ›
As an eco feminist I am deeply concerned with the loss of the animals I love. One of these is the Black bear whose visits are becoming more and more scarce as the forest around me disappears. The bear in… Read More ›
Susan Simard received her PhD in Forest Science and is a research scientist who works primarily in the field. Part of her dissertation was published in the prestigious journal Nature. Currently she is a professor in the department of Forest… Read More ›
Dead CedarWeek after weekheat, wind, sun,shrinks vernal pools. Ditches are dry.Denizensof wet forest,masked gold leaves,seek shallow depressions fed by Spring. One night theheat wave breaksI smell rain,hear hoarse croaks.I stand thereswallowing soundinhaling fragrant airLamenting absence –so many voices stolenby drought.
I found a bird’s nest the other day. A perfect, round little nest, with five pale blue speckled eggs. I’ve been working for several years to figure out how to support the birds who share our yard, with bird feeders,… Read More ›
I awakened under cloudsfeeling respite from fierceheat in April that forced maple, birch, beech, and poplar to bud and burst. First we planted Balsam seedlings; He climbed birch to saw off dying trunks, some broken beyond recognition, wreckage from the… Read More ›
May you witnessa growing trustin the guidance around you.May you allow magic to find youwhere you are. Seven years ago, I did a drum-guided meditation in which I journeyed deep into the forest. On my head as I walked, antlers… Read More ›
Preface: I am submitting this story for publication because it occurred during the Christian Holy Week and because it involves me, a woman who follows her dreams… That I did so in this instance was important in ways that I… Read More ›
I dreamed her name not long before light – Pages fell out of a story written in blood. Every spring the words repeat as mist rises over the river. Harsh white light burns violet blue. She changes everything she touches… Read More ›
The night before last I had a dream that has stayed with me. My dreams rise out of my body to teach and to comfort me so I pay close attention. I had recently written tributes for two men, Lynn… Read More ›
I longed to re-visit the desert – my first journey left me with a longing for wide open spaces, a blue sky dome, a bowl of stars at night, so to return 25 years later was to complete an unfinished… Read More ›
Early in January I discovered a chickadee with a broken wing floundering in the snow. I rescued him, providing him with a safe haven in the house, hoping he might recover use of his wing. For the first couple of… Read More ›
The end of winter is near in the northern hemisphere. Though the cold persists the days slowly grow longer. If you’re lucky you might soon see a skein of geese flying overheard on their way to their northern nesting grounds… Read More ›
Shame is the shadow of being unloved, unwanted, rejected, strung out on need. Shame paralyzes; slamming into reverse actions that would create new intentions including hope of love. Shame blots out Personhood, snapping the thread of interdependency. Plant Consciousness restores… Read More ›
An overturned bowl of starflakes, lays down a new pearl white blanket. Earthbound I shovel – Silvery showers obscure – and some paths are slippery in the dark. Grooming a circle round and round I attend to listening. When… Read More ›
Winter light pauses so briefly. Now Chickadees are chirping and wild doves are pairing up. Birds are starting to sing love songs to the earth as she turns towards the light. By early February light is streaming into the house… Read More ›
The potshard in the center seems to have a “face”… although I bring some of these artifacts home for closer inspection it is part of my spiritual practice to return them to the land. Avanyu, spirit of the waters The… Read More ›
In 2014, I sat on a low wooden bench nursing my 6 week old baby boy while wet plaster strips were laid across my face to create a mask. The final activity of the Rise Up and Call Her Name… Read More ›
As we strive to create a better future, we can look to our rich heritage of global goddess and heroine tales for insight into peaceful, creative, and effective means to achieve our goals. Let me introduce you to the delightful… Read More ›
She climbed steep hills and rubble to reach the meadow. The flat – topped mountain peered down at the woman gathering stones as if they were diamonds. Amber, moss, pearl white, rose red and orange, gray and ebony – a… Read More ›
All things being relative, rememberthat collective and individual historiesare cyclical but open-ended, and discernthe kind of moment you are in and part of. Remember how to make it betterby holding on to all that is dear in life,and becoming more… Read More ›
