He had a light brown beard and was wearing a flannel shirt over a t-shirt. Blue jeans. A little pudge over the top of his belt. White. I stopped the car and let him cross in front of me, feeling suddenly an immense compassion arising from my gut. He waved gratitude, walked on. I’ve never …
CW: Graphic descriptions of women’s bodies and sickness. Also, mention of child sexual abuse. I was going to write you a lovely, holiday-y post about the newborn sun and the return of the light, but then I spent the afternoon in a scaldingly hot tub of bloody water, throwing up over the side onto the …
Today is the shortest day of the year, tonight the longest night. Frequently, when people speak of the Winter Solstice, they speak in terms of the return of light, the birth of the newborn babe (and not just THAT one–Mabon and many others predate the one that is named in the current most dominant religion), …
Spider is one of my primary animal spirit guides. She is especially sacred to artists and creators and most especially to writers, but I didn’t know that when she introduced herself to me. It was in my woods, on my land. She claimed a pair of my swim trunks, my favorite swim trunks, which I …
It’s an alder. In the photo. This is a long story. I foolishly composed it on my phone in a fit of sudden need to get it all down. Well, here it is. My name is Fen. I have known this for much longer than I have lived it. The name came to me in …
Have you heard the whistle-beat of a woodpecker’s wings overhead? Watched the mist descend upon distant mountaintops? Come to the woods with me and sit. It is an art as ancient as stone craft, and as forgotten. To listen. To see. To wait. To be still upon the Earth so long that her inhabitants come …
My aunt and I were not on good terms when she died. It has been one of the great regrets of my life. Her father had died just a few months prior, and in the last weeks of his life she and I had had a falling out over his care and other things. I …
This morning have you seen a sparkle of light through the shaken leaves of a cypress, after an unseen squirrel has hastened across the branch? Yesterday, did you examine the exact shape of an oak leaf, its veins branching like blood vessels, like roots, like lightning, a thousand fractal shades of red and brown and …
“Everything is broken, yet much remains.” ~ Stone Person There’s this atheist Australian comedian I really love named Tim Minchin. He’s funny and vulgar and smart, but he also annoys me. He has this energy that is common among atheists (not all atheists, to be clear) of disdain for anything that hasn’t been thoroughly validated …
I went to Dragon Hollow today. Climbed up the stream bed with two bags, filled them both with stones. Carried them down again and put them in my car. When I got home, I lined part of the garden path with them. Garden photos later. First I want you to know what happened in the …