THIS WEEK’S READ:
It’s Easier When You Just Let Go
Here’s my secret:
There was no master plan.
I didn’t visualize herb shops in two states, a couple of books, and a vibrant online community (online??! says ten-years-ago me, that’s crazy-pants!).
The year destiny wrapped me ‘round her little finger and tugged my life into a new shape, I was happily renovating my 1870’s Sears and Roebuck kit house, spending evenings rocking on the wrap-around porch, and making gluten-free mulberry-peach pies with berries fresh from the trees in the back yard. I loved my house somethin’ fierce and swore they’d carry me out in a coffin.
I was 33. Thirty-three is three 11’s, the number of visionaries and dreamers, ideologues and spiritual seekers. Think about your own thirty-third year (and if you’re not yet there, pay attention when it comes!).
I hit my thirty-third birthday and life got officially weird.
Recent Posts
You Belong to the Wild and Wondrous
You're hard-wired for wonder... ... for pausing to study sunsets and the afterglow of lightning flashing through the summer sky. It's really that simple. And yet, the same hard-wiring which allows for so much joy can lead you on a merry chase for meaning, for logic,...
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This is How I Call Myself Home
I call myself to myself. I call myself home. For me this is the starting point for any sacred act— whether it's ritual or writing or teaching or even making a fabulous feast for my friends. I call myself to myself. I call myself home. I gather the fragments of...
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Tattoos, the Cosmic Cha-Cha, and Why You Need a Rite of Passage
Her hands were delicate and her fingertips ink-stained. Over the course of weeks (months?) we looked at images: That line weight is too heavy, she'd say or I love this! But it's way too detailed: it will look like a blob by the time you're fifty. I got my first tattoo...
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An Anthem for Empaths: How to Control Empathy
All right Empaths, I need you to repeat after me: It is not my job to absorb the energies of the world. Say it out loud, even if you don't believe it: It is not my job to absorb the energies of the world. Why is this so very important? Because when you are taking on...
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Talking to Stones and Healing Ancestral Wounds
This past week autumn has begun to beckon. Her call is still faint: a crisp edge to the breeze, a few yellowing leaves waving amidst the lush green of summer. My thoughts have begun to drift toward my autumn rituals, the luscious time of harvest and, ultimately, rest....
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The Lost Language: an Unpublished Excerpt from The Illustrated Herbiary!
A Cherokee story was told to me by a medicine man. Native tales hold power and need to be shared in a specific way. Since this story is not mine to tell, I’ll paraphrase it for you and maybe, if you’re lucky, someday a person of Cherokee decent will tell you the tale...
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Popular Posts
Stories as Soul Maps to Heal What is Broken
What if stories are soul maps to heal what is broken? Remember the movie Erin Brockovich? In case you never saw it, here’s the 20-second recap: Erin Brockovich (played by Julia Roberts) is a down-on-her-luck single mom desperately searching for a job. Unfortunately...
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You’re Gonna Get Pushback (and That’s Okay) and Other Shareables As I Begin My 49th Turn Round the Sun
We gain a year, a “birthday," at the end of the cycle. So you're born, you make it through a year, and you get the tally mark for that year (your first birthday) when it’s complete and you’re beginning your second year. I’ve made it through 48 years and I'm embarking...
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If You Think “It Can’t Hurt Me, It’s Natural,” It’s Time to Wake Up and Smell the Tea Tree
Ever Wondered "Can Natural Products Hurt Me?" I got a call a few weeks back from a local restaurateur asking me if I had any idea how to help one of her waiters detox from Kratom. Kratom is an Asian herb which has become popular in the past few years for pain. Her...
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Failure, Rejection, and Keeping the (Self) Faith
The rejection was written in less than 144 characters: Not Interested (STOP). Like a tweet or a modern-day telegram. I stare at the words, my mind spooling backward to earlier in the day: Asheville crowded with summer tourists, a confused woman in a blue Camry in the...
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Astrology for Agnostics
I'm a tough sell when it comes to spirituality organized by someone else. I used to put astrology in the same box as religion; the only way I made it through the Jewish part of my upbringing by tucking a novel into my prayer book and forcing my mom to grab my elbow...
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Communion, Devotion and Keeping the Faith: Why I Blog
Blogging is an act of faith. Three years ago, when this blog graduated from random occurrence to weekly newsletter, I didn't realize I was making a commitment to noticing the curious and the intriguing, the magic in the ordinary, the way the light reflects off a...
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