“When did you become so political?” my partner Joey asked me. I set down the irreverent flipbook while laughing at his response to the image that I posted with much glee on my Instagram page. “Mommy, when I grow up, I want to smash the white racist, homophobic, patriarchal bullshit paradigm too.” “I have always … Continue reading The Face of Courage
I’m barefoot and braless without a stitch of makeup and that’s no different than any other day in the last three years I have lived in the rural mountain home built by my partner Joey. "The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go" - John Muir I’ll see no one today but family but that’s … Continue reading Barefoot and Braless on Earth Day
My literary agent had been a model in the early 1970s. She was dark haired, tall and willowy like an English Cher. The metaphor strengthens with Julie Castiglia’s sharp English accent, contrast of black hair, green eyes, and paper-thin skin and her infamous curt communication. Julie used words like scissors and would assign her brutal … Continue reading A Tribute to my Literary Champion: Julie Castiglia
In these times, or perhaps moreso in difficult times, my thoughts turn to weaving together community. Last week, I cast around for a way to help build up our collective morale and landed on my gig to create the visitors newsletter for Bishop, California. I emailed the executive director suggesting I write a newsletter with GOOD … Continue reading Choosing Each Other
I am experiencing an unexpected and yet fully welcomed surge of power amidst this fear today. Like stepping into a familiar river, I feel as secure with Kobe here under my wing, as I did when my beloved Grandpy held me in his bear hugs when I was a child. I am steeped in my early … Continue reading Looking for Unexpected Blessings
I believe Witches Heal. I believe when the Bucolic Plague or the Spanish Flu raged through the land, Witches were not sitting around the well, gossiping about who started it or who let the virus slip through the cracks and spread. No, those Witches went to their cauldrons and brewed medicines to heal, potions to … Continue reading Witches Heal
Sometimes all you need is a bulldog in your corner. My sixth grade teacher, Miss Kneece, championed her students with a tenacious, sometimes, well actually oftentimes, blunt manner. At a time when all I wanted to do was hide my vulnerbility and pre-teen angst, Miss K would look right through my guise and remind me … Continue reading Mentors, Teachers, Sheroes
Many of us are interested in learning more about where the foods we eat are grown. But what about that chamomile tea you're drinking? It is an important, reciprocal “attitude of gratitude” to understand the journey that our foods take from farm to table or teacup. Afterall, herbs and plants are our allies, an integral part … Continue reading Farm to Teacup
To publish a book is to look inside your heart, describe what you see, feel, hear, taste, smell, and know, then share that with the world. Signing The Book of Spells for Kimmy Tejasindhu, my editor at Ten Speed Press who came out to my book launch party at Copperfield Books with designer, Sara Weitzman. … Continue reading Vulnerability of the Heart
I carried a vial of water from the creek that runs through my backyard and poured the water on the top of the Jorba castle in Catalunya with the prayer that the colonial mind be quenched of its desire to dominate and take more than it’s share. Within minutes, like a house of cards, my … Continue reading Mabon Shadow Work
