So, here I am in the midst of writing stories about a world aflame, and what should happen in real life but the state I’m in is literally on fire. There are some 100 wildfires in the region right now. It looks from the map that 23 of them are currently considered “large fires”. Driving from my mother’s house in Eastern Washington to my brother’s house 25ish miles away in Northern Idaho, the rolling wheat and lentil fields seemed to... Read more
Once upon a time, a long time ago, in another dimension where whole worlds can be built in a singular city, there was one such world on a magnificent volcanic mountain. The mountain was home to a vast number of humans of diverse skin colors, languages and cultures. The top of the mountain was covered in an ancient glacier that sparkled in the sunlight and was truly amazing to behold in all its glorious colors at dawn and dusk. Just... Read more
You may have seen a comic by Chainsaw Suit called All Things Considered. It’s three panels. The first one shows a guy saying, “Well, I think that ALL lives matter.” The second shows a man holding a firehose and saying, “We should care exactly equally at all times about everything.” The third panel shows the man with the fire hose dousing his own, not burning house with water while the house next to it burns to the ground. The caption... Read more
When we try to live according to our values, we cannot just do so in the private sphere. Our values-driven actions spill into the public space, whether we intend for them to do so or not. One might even argue that all of our actions are values-driven. Although some of our actions seem to be against our values, we tend to have reasons for taking those actions that speak of competing values that live alongside of, or interfere with our stated core. As we interact with other people in our families and communities, those values bump into friction points. That's where personal values often turn into political ones. Read more
Before the plane left Dar Es Salaam, a voice came over the P.A. to tell us that the chemicals they were about to spray posed no risk to our health. Then the flight attendants walked up the isles between the seats spraying something from small canisters up into the air to ensure that no dangerous African bugs would hitch a ride with us to Europe. Read more
I am a conscious being who lives and has experiences which affect me and shape my identity and personality. This does not seem strange in any way, even though modern science tells me that most of my body is not actually made up of parts with my DNA. There are bacteria and virii as well as chemicals which course through me which, if taken separately, are not “me”, but taken together are all part of me and all influence me, my thoughts and my activities. Read more
These woods where I live have a spirit to them, a kind of consciousness, and my own spirit is bettered when I deepen my relationship with these woods. This is my Paganism. Read more
It's kind of amazing to think about the fact that we are standing on the surface of a ball that's hurtling through space. We can get into an airplane and fly over the surface of that ball, and when we get out, we're standing on another part. It's the same ball, but things are so different. People speak a different language. Many of the plants are different. The food is different. And yet, so much is the same. It is the same big ball, after all. Read more
It's the day before hopping on a plane I am wound up tight as can be. I can't think straight. My breath is shallow. I feel fragile and cracked. As I drive the tiny rental car between the place where I've been staying and the storage locker, a thought hits me right between my eyes. Read more
My heart bleeds for the religious traditions that have been lost to the onslaught of evangelical religions. Christianity isn't the only one. Islam has wiped out many Pagan cultures, and so has Buddhism. But not all religious changes have come through force or evangelism. How should we Pagans act when we meet indigenous people who have left their traditional religions for these evangelical religions. Read more
A Sense of Place
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