Hello community,

This is a picture that hangs, to this day, in the dining room of the home I grew up in (notice the wormy chestnut frame- there was a LOT of wormy chestnut in that cabin in the woods). My dad took this shot of a lady slipper that grew in the forest behind our house. A couple weeks ago, I was in class, and the professor asked us to share something that no one in the room knew about us. With exercises like these I love going with the first thing that pops into my brain, and for whatever reason, this beauty came to mind- mind you, this is a memory whose seed was planted some 35 years ago.

Eat sh*# and d**

Sounds pretty harsh right? well, if you came into this world with meconium staining and a cord wrapped around your neck a few times you may have that rattling around the subconscious. 

Meconium staining is when the infant has a bowel movement prematurely, and the child could ingest amniotic fluids filled with excrement. Add a little strangling with the chord that otherwise provides sustenance and your nervous system is cooked. More than that, t’s a matter of life or death. 

On my HeartMind~

It was around this time last year that I was out on a sailboat with my uncle and a buddy of his when we were suddenly surrounded by dancing orcas. It is as fresh as yester-daisies in my mind- the feeling one gets of pure and astonished presence when we get to witness such magnificence as the massively embodied mystery that is nature. It still blow(hole)s me away.
It’s fun how life sometimes unfolds in themes and highlights time with bookmarks and various demarkations. Last week I started listening to the radiolab podcast of the week and it was so good I had to pull over so as not to lose reception en route to my trailhead. The story of how a group of humpback whales, may or may not have been protecting and then ritualizing the loss of a young calf of another type of whale, was so captivating, I found myself quite emotional. As a young girl, I had a poster of a whale right beside my bed and somehow felt these creatures to be not only the sentinels of ocean health, but of mine as well.

Hello friends~

We are about to set sail into the great wide open and I am feeling enlivened at the prospect. It has been some time since I have been in Europe and I am eager to palpate, once again, a certain wisdom that comes only with age. The retreat we are engaging is in a small medieval town south of Paris and is beyond sold-out. We sold out all the rooms and so have stashed someone in the piggeonnier (tower for pigeons), and the last participant to join is shacking up with the retreat coordinator (I think she’s ok with it ;)). Clearly we are all craving some beauty, joy, grounding, and adventure. It has been a true pleasure doing business with you Kate Kilbourne and i’m looking forward to diving in with this dynamic group of exceptional individuals.

: : : the Empress within….

She will pause, she will witness and she will find…
It is the slow drip of a well earned arrival, the sovereign sustenance of one who shakes hands with her shadow and asks for this waltz, the finer attunement that comes from listening with the germinal heartear, the peeling back of layers of shoulds only to find the ache of a heart that knows.

Greetings gentle humans~

Included for you:

a date change, a time adjustment, some words from our friends, EBB enrollment, and a sprinkling of the various and sundry, and sun sun sunny filled

Hi beautiful friends~

I saw this image yesterday and it struck me as the sweetest statement of deep love.

How does it land with you?

I hope you are all finding ways of landing deeper in your hearts (however unexpected those ways may be), that are attuned to both personal power and mystery (a combo you may have heard about in class this morning :)).

THE ROAD BETWEEN TWO PILLARS

These be some threshold times. If we are going to play in this space suit called a body, we might as well make good use of this other finite playtoy called Time, which among other things, invites us to do things with a sense of growth, evolution, and intention. These mornings in and around the last days of December always feel a little bit like tiptoe-time to me…

Hi there terrific turkeys~

Just lollygagging around a bit over the weekend, I was savoring the fact that I’m mighty glad I get to connect with you in whatever way it is that we do, from time to time. So much gratitude for you all, and for the space that gets carved out, even in cyber worlds, when we intentionally listen and share. Thanks always for your words, your practice, and/or just your presence.

Dear beloved friends and community,

If ever there were a time to steal away and enjoy some of life’s more glorious iterations, that time might be now and that spot might just be the french countryside.

No ‘might’ about it, we’re headed thataway and I’d looovvve to extend an invitation to you and yours…

It is with such sweet excitement that I present to you…

by Alphonse Mucha- Native American Woman with Flowers and Feathers

… But it sure can be of benefit to spend some time on one (thanks for the drumroll John Donne).

I am just back from the wilds of the woods on San Juan Island, and good lord I don’t even know how to express the beauty of this world sometimes.

WELCOME TO CLARITY.

INCLUDED INSIDE:
NEWS, EBB OFFERING, HITTIN’ THE ROAD JACKIE, LATE AUGUST SCHEDULE SHIFT, VITAL VITTLES- THINGS I LUV, AND MORE~

Always it's spring and everyone's in love and flowers pick themselves. ~ E.E. Cummings

WHAT THE… ? WHATEVER COULD IT BE, ALIGHTED THERE UPON MY EAR??

Ah sweet joy that it is to have a body!…

Full transparency, i have not always felt that way. There were many years when my body was not my friend- or rather, i was not a friend to her. Years of not listening or being kind; of the many traumas and stories welling up and me trying to silence them to the extent that being in my skin was darn near the most uncomfortable thing going. The alchemy that saved me had everything to do with the following ingredients- a body practice, food, relationships, words, and nature. I don’t think i could have done it without a one of them. All were required to relearn, or quite possibly find for the first time, an ability to plop back down into a body i had exited. I know so many of us are holding a lot these days.

..as well as the soft, the kind, and the creatively caring….

HI DEAR FRIENDS.

We are deep in the heart of women’s history month and i feel so moved by the feminine spirit these last few weeks. I know many of y’all aren’t on social media so i put a link below with some footage of a collaboration done here in San Miguel, with artist Ana Raga for International Women’s Day (check out her art- this woman is spinning lots of beautywebs out there!). It was an evening filled with the sorts of stories that both break and mend a heart, movement, music, art, and dance. A video is being created that will be up on my website in the next month or so. I’ll letcha kno, but until then, you can see some snippets at the links below.

Out like a lion, in like a lamb……
Happy month of unpredictability y’all~

As far as I can tell, the oldest mention of the lion / lamb proverb dates back to 1732, but is probably older than the eighteenth century given that much was shared through story and oral transmission. And you’ve probably heard it in both directions- lion lamb, lamb lion- which is not because people forgot the way the saying goes, but rather that our weather world expresses herself in all sorts of wild ways. If there’s one thing we’ve all saddled up next to this last year, it’s been the unpredictability of existence.

SOMETHING FOR YOU~

Y’all it’s m’birthday!

Well, not yet, but soon :)

So i am all sorts of alone down here in Mexico, which is a contradiction in terms right out of the gate, because no one is ever alone in Mexico! If it isn't the parks full of people enjoying the present moment and one another, or the vintage vw bug passing through the streets inchmeal and with loud speaker- irrefutably reminding you of “your place in the family of things”, then it’s simply the Virgin de Guadalupe whose image is at every turn and in every corner keeping you company (and whose presence is also a surprisingly undeniable and yet, so welcome and benevolent, friend to the dweller of Mexico).

I N T R O D U C I N G

NEW YEAR NEW YOU
(ALONGSIDE OLDER WISER BITS)

In a year where tears have fallen like rain, there is a way that we can be with it all, and let this rain water the plants of our deepest yearning - personally, culturally, collectively, and as a planet.. So that it can land on the soils of our darkest hour.. So that all can be held, suspended, in wet discomfort, and so that it can innovate new life and sprouted growth of untapped and even unfathomed possibility.

I N S I D E : : :
Holiday Schedule
Solstice Gathering
Last-Minute Present Idea - at a Discount
New Year New You Retreat
A Song

INCLUDED INSIDE: MEDITATION FOR SOOTHING AND SITTING WITH OPPOSITES, A MANIFESTO, A POEM, AND MORE WORDS STILL

Words, bones, and breath… i dont know of any better anchors for this wild animal of a mind….

There is much to tap into today. Many feelings of many sorts.