One of the types of Ancestors I personally venerate are Ancestors of the Order – humans who followed a similar life path to my own. In my case, these are the priestx classes of many cultures: the people who chose to place themselves in service to Spirit, the journey of human souls, and the creation…
Tag: mystic
This short meditation was offered for the August 23rd service streaming service at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick. Full text below: I don’t remember where I first heard it, but somehow I learned the phrase ‘if you want to know where a culture will be in 20 years, look at where the counterculture…
When I consider potential titles for an autobiography, ‘Crying in Savasana’ is definitely in my top five. It seems like so many watershed life experiences have landed during a yoga practice or in the reflective/integrative period afterward. In 2011, one such moment landed like a ton of bricks. I was at a retreat and the…
This sermon was for the August 2nd, 2020, service of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick. Sermon text below: My day begins in the garden right now. I hand water my vegetables, fruit, and flowers with water from rain barrels. There are more efficient ways to water a garden, but I’ve discovered that hand watering…
I live in the mid-Atlantic, a region blessed with a long growing season. It is high summer here. Hot days and abundant sunlight drew the first round of life from the dark earth. Afternoon thunderstorms watered tender, twining greens. The spring seeds grew and flourished, and the first harvest has now been gathered: radishes, peas,…
This sermon was for the July 19th, 2020, service for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick. Text below. I can always tell when a writer doesn’t actually spend much time outside. I’ve read so many stories where the forest is described as quiet. Even in the middle of winter, quiet is not a thing that…
Sacred poetry has long explored the liminal spaces between the ecstatic and the mundane, the tragic and the joyful, the sacred and the profane. The shining new addition of The Gorgon Verses to that body of spiritual inquiry includes the paths of gender, sexuality, and identity. Through verse sometimes spilling gently, sometimes rushing in great…
The prolonged stress of physical distancing, a looming pandemic, a tumbling economy, and long-overdue conversations about and attempts to redress the racist systems in American culture has a lot of us feeling off balance. I recently had to start making some larger lifestyle adjustments simply because my ‘normal’ methods of supporting my own mental health…
What do you find in the Underworld? Take off your crown. This cold gold burden neither heals nor helps, lifts nor loves. Set down authority, command, and hierarchy. See it for what it is. Release the privilege of rule to the soil. What do you find in the Underworld? Lay down your jewels. They do…
Think about the friendships you value the most. Maybe you are thinking about your best friend or the sibling who just ‘gets’ you. Maybe you are thinking about that friend who makes you feel better every time you are together – the one that somehow helps you see the brightness in life. Friendships take many…