At some point, my life became a story. Gods showed up, magic became the everyday, and I had a journey to make across the ocean, a pilgrimage to holy wells and druid mountains, walled cities and cobbled alleys, all to learn the meaning of the stories that were becoming my life. And it’s still happening. Read more
I frequently do a meditation where I visualize an image where my heart is, and expand it outward to the size of my body, the room, the state, the continent, the planet, and finally the solar system. I decided to see what would happen if I contracted it. First to the size of a red blood cell, then to an organelle, then to a molecule, an atom, a subatomic particle... Let me tell you, that was weird. Read more
Lincoln Park was our Holt, like the original home of the forest elves in Elfquest. Whitewolf's mother was a witch, and my first introduction to the living practice of neo-Paganism was in my interactions with these teenage "elven" friends of mine. It was a blend of fantasy and reality, where we earnestly looked for the places where the world of stories seeped into our plane of reality. Read more
On the Amazon Creek in Eugene, Oregon: "I don't understand this creek, actually. Mostly, I just feed the crows. They seem to search me, to see if I'll ever learn the creek's name." Read more
I’d love to be camping right now, somewhere nice and inaccessible, but the fact is I must be on a computer, earning my paycheck. I am fortunate however in that I can work from the comfort of a screened-in back porch with a lake view. It also has a view of my bird feeder. I am a big fan of finding the sacred wherever you are, and I was on a futon with a laptop, grading. If I must sit... Read more
Last week I started to write a post, and then I abandoned it. It didn’t feel right. I couldn’t say what I wanted to say about my ambivalent relationship with technology, especially where it intersects with issues of Spirit. I dropped the post, half written and never completed it, thinking that I was only stuck because of the topic that I’d decided to write about. Today, after hours of hemming and hawing about what to write today, I realize that... Read more
Those of you reading this who also write may understand, perhaps agree or disagree, but it seems to me there exists an often difficult and fascinating conflict between the voice of narration and the body of experience. Read more
It's going to be Beltane any minute now, and while my friends in more northern climes are grumping about when is spring going to get here, anyway? the birds, bees, frogs and other denizens of Pine Lake have definitely gotten the memo. Read more
Beltane is not, here, a time of courting your lover in the woods all night and bringing back boughs of May blossom. The hawthorn - the May - will not show its flowers here until June. (And besides, it's usually too cold for naked, outdoor, nighttime romping.) No, the blossoming thorn here, at this season, is the blackthorn. Read more
When we go to festivals and spiritual retreats in nature, what are we retreating from? And from whom? Read more
A Sense of Place
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