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Grieving for a Sacred Grove

On October 20, 2015 / My Land and Home, Nature / 15 Comments

“Let’s walk the Ravine Trail,” my son Anthony said. This Finger Lakes National Forest trail isn’t far from my property, but I hadn’t been there this season. A killer threatens this small grove of hemlocks: Hemlock wooly adelgid, a native

Mythology, Nature and Healing: Daphne meets the Green Man

On October 6, 2015 / Bereavement and End of Life, Creativity, Psychology and Mythology / 23 Comments

Eight days after my husband’s death, I dreamed of the Green Man, a pre-Christian northern European god of death and rebirth. Consciously, I knew him as a face on a garden gate, but the dream made me feel

Descending into Darkness with Persephone

On September 29, 2015 / Nature, Psychology and Mythology, Spirituality / 41 Comments

I watch star-shaped autumn clematis blossoms tremble in the breeze. Honey bees stuff their pollen sacks with nectar. One Monarch floats on the wind, a silent traveler moving south. It’s the quiet season on my land. An

The Memory Game: Sharing Our Secrets and Wounds

On September 22, 2015 / Bereavement and End of Life, Psychology and Mythology / 22 Comments

“Tell me the first thing you remember,” I asked my boyfriend Vic. I wanted to know everything. His jaw tightened. He hesitated. I saw I’d hit a raw place, but it was too late. We were sitting upright in bed, leaning against

The Sacred Water of Life: Prayer Walk for Seneca Lake

On September 15, 2015 / Nature, Spirituality / 17 Comments

Women walkers carried the water vessel in a ritual circumambulation of Seneca Lake to bless the water and create a circle of protection for the lake. The vessel moved without stopping, handed from one walker to

Persona: How Promoting a Book Created a New Social Self

On September 8, 2015 / Psychology and Mythology, Writing and Social Media / 15 Comments

Last week, I went to REP Studio in Ithaca to record passages from my book for National Public Radio’s Author’s Corner. I needed two takes of two readings, each 80-83 seconds. Peter Johnson of Author’s Corner gave me

Bees, Butterflies, and Blessings: Cycles of Nature and Grief

On September 1, 2015 / Creativity, My Land and Home / 23 Comments

If you’ve read my blog or visited my Facebook page, you know photography helped with my grieving process. In 2008 when my husband Vic died, I rarely took photos. Vic was the family photographer. The evening after Vic’s memorial service,

My Lover’s Hands

On August 25, 2015 / Bereavement and End of Life, Family and Friends / 21 Comments

We stood with three other couples, anchoring our side of the square. They were much older, at least in their forties. The sun-baked men strutted in shiny cowboy boots and red bandanas. The women twirled layered white

Do You Trust Your Creative Self?

On August 18, 2015 / Creativity, Psychology and Mythology, Writing and Social Media / 19 Comments

I walk along a country road with a woman writer, a seven-year-old girl, and a boy who is three. The children run ahead, down a steep dip in the road, out of sight. A huge truck comes from

Ritual at the Crossroads

On August 11, 2015 / Nature, Spirituality / 21 Comments

“A ritual would help,” I said to my friend Pat. “I’d love that,” she said. “I’ll think about it. I want to be near water.” I’d just arrived at Pat’s home. She and I met in 1970