Doing plant medicine in Peru

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Doing plant medicine in Peru

I imagine when most people read that sentence they will think of Ayuhuasca in the jungle - which is not too far off base if by jungle you mean your own cabin, running water, and three meals a day. I spent 18 days in “The Space that Heals”, or Hamphichicuy, right outside of Tarapoto, Peru. For the first time in years I was able to truly rest - right before the many plants I was taking chewed me up, churned me inside out, and gently placed me back on my feet.

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Letter to my children: When is the sky falling?

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Dearest Beloveds,

I was recently on the phone with a social worker who told me there are a lot of resources available to have you two talk to someone about my health doings – therapists trained to talk to children about death and dying and sickness.

My current thinking on this is that until the sky falls, the sky isn’t falling.

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Letter to my children: On distractions and street signs

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Dearest Beloveds,

In some respects these two subjects are related - distractions and street signs. Both of you are right now gazing beyond on a level that you hadn’t before. Watching you emerge into sentient curious aware humans with your own interactions with the wider world is honestly one of the many joys of parenthood. Thank you.

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Letter to my children: on catching leaves and turn down services

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Dearest Beloveds,

I wanted to take a moment and say thank you for our amazing life. Thank you both for being bright eyed and bushy tailed (thank you Baba), for being curious, for being my hearts - jumping and running and balancing through this amazing life. Thank you both for looking out at the world this month and immediately exclaiming to your sibling, “Let’s go catch leaves!”

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Letter to my children: On being unplugged

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Letter to my children: On being unplugged

Dearest Beloveds,

This story has echoes of "when I was your age we walked to school uphill both ways in the snow," but that can't be helped. I want to share this story with you because maybe it will make you feel that sense of time and change that I felt with Aunt Louisa told me that when she was a child there was an actual cow, named Betsy, who lived in the CowBarn.

A cow slept in the building where your father and I spent our honeymoon.

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Contented Baby and Contented Dementia

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When we were pregnant with the Bean, I devoured Gina Ford’s The Contented Little Baby Book. Her unparalleled surety in her schedule was an anchor of sanity for me as a new parent.

A few months ago, I was recommended the book Contented Dementia by Oliver James. Aside from an apparent British obsession with the word contented,* I wanted to write about both of these tomes as they feel like bookends of my life right now.

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Letter to my children: On faith

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Letter to my children: On faith

Dearest Beloveds,

I have recently been reminded, thank you again Amma’s Circle of Love Letters, about the myriad faces of faith. I feel like I spent many years thinking that faith and surrender were intellectually weak and hokey. Boy was I wrong. They are difficult to intellectually rationalize and not easily grasped by the thinking mind - but that is not a strike against them (as I thought at one point).

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Letter to my children: On choosing a mate

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Letter to my children: On choosing a mate

Dearest Beloveds,

The word mate is so funny to me - it rhymes with skate, connotes zoos, and makes me feel as though I need a tail. Partner is a good word too, but it also works for businesses. Though, I guess, a marriage is rather like running a business (servant leadership, open book finance, negotiating, the art of compromise, long term planning, a vision - thank you Zingermans) especially once children get added to the mix. Husband and wife are loverly as well. But I think mate is the best word for what I want to talk about.

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