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Persistent Memories and Psychological Descent

On March 5, 2019 / Psychology and Mythology / 29 Comments

Anxious memories broke into consciousness when I was almost three. They stuck like glue. The article “Memories of Trauma Are Unique because of How Brains and Bodies Respond to Threat” by Jack Debieck explains how the body’s

The Wisdom of Descent in a World Addicted to Ascent

On February 19, 2019 / Psychology and Mythology / 32 Comments

429 We imagine heroes as willful and disciplined. The hero wins with a smart positive attitude. We accept the top part of this diagram, the “known” part, where we’re consciously working a problem and following our plan.

A Healing Ritual in a Sweetgrass Bowl: Self-Care for Surgery

On February 5, 2019 / Family and Friends, Health / 48 Comments

287 My support system is in place, but no one can protect me from vulnerability. When you read this, cochlear implant surgery will be over and I’ll be home recovering. As I write a few days before

How Grief Connected a British Metal Band and a Gray-Haired American Writer

On January 22, 2019 / Bereavement and End of Life, Creativity / 21 Comments

Last winter, I received an email from Mike Goncalves. Mike wrote that he manages a British band called “Our Hollow, Our Home.” Their songwriter and vocalist Tobias Young had been moved by my TEDx talk after

Feeling the Sound: Listening with the Whole Body

On January 8, 2019 / Creativity, Health / 20 Comments

139 I heard Evelyn Glennie’s TED talk “How to Truly Listen” when I did a google search for deafness. In 2013, five years after my husband’s death, my already impaired hearing took a nose dive. A new

12 Monarch Miracles of 2018

On December 25, 2018 / Nature, Spirituality / 23 Comments

Monarch butterflies arrived in the Finger Lakes in mid June to sip thistle and milkweed nectar, mate, and lay eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. As I searched

Hearing Our Inner Fears

On December 11, 2018 / Health, Psychology and Mythology / 45 Comments

My cochlear implant surgery is scheduled for February 5. Not the scariest of surgeries, but I haven’t had general anesthesia since I was a girl. I know my doctor well and trust him. My son Anthony will

Making Masks: Revealing Our Hidden Selves

On November 27, 2018 / Creativity, Psychology and Mythology / 17 Comments

70 In 1994, our women’s mythology group created and presented a play using masks. We had explored the story of “Eros and Psyche” for a few years, so knew every detail. I played the Goddess Aphrodite who,

The Dance of Love: 1966-2008

On November 13, 2018 / Bereavement and End of Life, Creativity / 29 Comments

I loved his body in tight black motorcycle leathers. I loved his keen mind and tender heart. He smelled like All-Spice deodorant mixed with an acrid trace of two-cycle motorcycle oil. He broiled steak and baked potatoes,

Butterfly Dreams: Saved by Synchronicity and Soul

On October 30, 2018 / Nature, Psychology and Mythology / 24 Comments

98 My body droops into a familiar sinkhole. Hatred fueled killings and threats. Jailed migrant children. Climate catastrophe. Political nastiness and injustice grow worse as politicians rule by fear and rage. It’s all too much to bear.