Spirituality

Now Our Minds Are One: An Iroquois Prayer of Gratitude

On November 26, 2019 / My Land and Home, Spirituality / 15 Comments

262 This ancient prayer of Thanksgiving comes from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people. The prayer is used to give thanks, bless gatherings, and greet the day. I plan to read it at a Thanksgiving gathering this year and

Let Everything Happen to You

On July 9, 2019 / Psychology and Mythology, Spirituality / 24 Comments

780 Let everything happen to you Beauty and terror Just keep going No feeling is final ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, “Go to the Limits of Your Longing,” The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, 1905 (trans.

12 Monarch Miracles of 2018

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

127 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

Ease Suffering for Everyone, Including Ourselves

On June 26, 2018 / Bereavement and End of Life, Nature, Spirituality / 40 Comments

109 My phone buzzes. The screen reads “restricted number.” Probably an advertiser, but it could be my mother-in-law’s Hospicare nurse, so I pick up. “Hi Elaine, it’s Ray.” Ah, the Hospicare nurse. “Virginia has an infection on

How to Create a Sacred Grief Ritual Many Years after a Loss

On May 29, 2018 / Bereavement and End of Life, Spirituality / 27 Comments

192 “For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.” ~ Rainer

The Black Madonna Wore Pink: Marion Woodman, 1988

On July 11, 2017 / Psychology and Mythology, Spirituality / 20 Comments

748 I felt compelled to go. I wasn’t sure why. A friend had invited me to a weekend workshop on the Black Madonna led by Jungian analyst and writer Marion Woodman. In 1988, I had a few

When the Bluebirds Fledged

On June 27, 2017 / My Land and Home, Nature, Spirituality / 24 Comments

Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom. How do they learn it? They fall, and falling, they’re given wings. ―Rumi. In April, the female claimed the nesting box closest to my house, just down the driveway where

Reclaiming Inner Peace in an Agitated World

On April 4, 2017 / Spirituality / 29 Comments

186 “Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled

Baby David’s Hippie Baptism: A Ritual to Bless New Life

On March 7, 2017 / Family and Friends, Spirituality / 32 Comments

119 Soon after our son David was born in 1970, my husband’s mom gave me a small battered box. Inside, wrapped in crumpled tissue paper, I found a yellowed christening dress with the lace still in good shape. “You’ll

Interdependence

On January 31, 2017 / Bereavement and End of Life, Political Action, Spirituality / 27 Comments

115 I should have known sorrow would flood my heart. I should have known grief would grab my belly and soak my face. I should have known I’d search the crowd for my dead husband’s smile. I should have