On This Miraculous Planet, On Real Food, On Union with all that is
I was feeling nervous about teaching both children. How to juggle, how to manage, how to not lose my mind. We seem to be getting into a routine that is allowing everyone to have their own space.
Read More“I am sorry my beloved, but I can’t play with you, I need to get this done.”
“But WHY?!! I don’t want to do this anymore! This machine is too loud.”
“My dearest Dragon, winter is coming* and we have no choice. We need this wood to stay warm when it gets cold.”
Winter is coming and, like the ant, we must prepare.
Read MoreDearest Beloveds,
The time feels right to write down certain words that I say - often.
“No, we don’t need to buy a new stuffy/dress/bike/toy/book/candy/shoes/shirt/pen. I understand you might want X, but you do not need X.”
“But Momma! Why?!”
Read MoreDearest Beloveds,
In so many ways is life both AND. Your Momma is a rebel AND she is scared by not following the rules - especially medical rules and expectations. Both And.
The first time I did not do what was expected of me from the Western Medical Model was when I choose to go to Mexico for treatment.* 15 years ago I spent weeks feeling nauseous and untethered about making the decision.
Read MoreHomesteading in the beginning is a lot of planting sticks in sawdust, building chicken coops, watering seedlings, navigating bee swarms, spraying growing fruit trees with neem oil, on and on.
We are slowly moving into the harvesting part of this cycle where the efforts of earlier years are bearing fruit. In this case, our first honey harvest - 30 months after introducing the girls to their new home by the comfrey.
Here is what I learned from the process.
Read MoreDearest Beloveds,
A recent evening after saying goodnight to the two of you, I staggered to my own bed. We had swam earlier that day, the sheets were clean, and The New Yorker beckoned. It was 7:36 pm and your father was on call. I was looking forward to passing out obscenely early and not waking up groggy at 5:20 for my morning sadhana.
Then the peregrinations started.
Read MoreIn late March 2019, we planted a grove of locust sticks for our coppicing woodlot. The sticks were as tall as my knee. Three years later some are 15 feet tall, 8 inches around, and we are in full coppice mode. This is what we have learned so far.
Read MoreDearest beloveds,
We talk a lot about the Cranky Monster as a way to start identifying that part of you that identifies with matter. Eckart Tolle, Mary Magdalene, and A Course in Miracles call that part of you the ego. The Consilience Project might call it frontal lobe hijacking. Conscious Discipline might call it your reptile brain. Momma calls mine Busy Bee (so Busy fretting over nothing Busy Busy!!).
Read MoreIn February 2020 my partner took a beekeeping course. In March 2020 we built the bee boxes (painting them in the garage as snow drifted down, I remember thinking that summer would never come). In June 2022 we had our first swarm - evidence of a bursting bustling hive.
Read MoreDearest Beloveds,
As you both know, I grew up in a city. I walked to school crossing concrete sidewalks. The orange glow of the streetlights on my bedroom ceiling at night lulled me to sleep along with the clattering engine of the 96 bus. Every Saturday morning Baba, Tia, and I would walk to the Eastern Market to buy eggs, drop off Baba’s dry cleaning, and, once I was old enough to notice, to gawk over the artisan vendors.
Commerce was all around me.
Read MoreDearest Beloveds,
The effects of covid range from the tragic to the ridiculous. Tragic - thousands dead. Ridiculous - Dragon you do not know the words or the hand movements to children’s songs.
I had assumed you would know them and was rather shocked and sad at your first Kindergarten circle time.
Read MoreI have noticed myself more and more putting my own thoughts, ideas, sensations, desires, onto the animals that feed us with their bodies - to anthropomorphize the animals. To assign human traits to animals has historically been deemed unscientific - but I would contend that not assigning emotions, agency, or recognizable sensations to animals is a way to separate humans from animals, to make us better, and in turn to provide excuses for the mistreatment of such. Just ask Jane Goodall.
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My life vision is to love, be curious, identify my Cranky Monster, and be brave enough to speak from and for The Good.
Click here for more about me.
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