I remember my father saying to me once that honesty is like pregnancy, either you are or you aren’t. He felt if he were to put one lie on his taxes that would make him a liar, and he could not live with that. I remember the emotion in his
I have just been moved to tears by a poem by Robert Bly. Today I went to the Fines Creek Bluegrass Festival. I saw breathtaking talents that have been honing their craft since I was in diapers, which inspired me more than I can say. But what delighted and intrigued
Tonight I joined with a wonderful gathering of friends and some who came up to the mountain this weekend just to play music. We listened to a porch full of musicians singing heartful, heart-breaking, funny, hilarious, inspiring, great bluegrass songs as the sun went down across the Smokey Mountains, and
I sleep outside each night, listen to the owls, watch the moon and hear changes in the wind. Rain comes through. Birds awake me, and bees too, so industrious in their buzzing I have to put a pillow over my head. I live on the mountain, yet attempt in the
There is a big story going on, a universe story and a deep personal story speaking just outside of our normal modes of perception. I sense that whatever any of us are living now, the stories that we understand and can tell about our lives are like looking through a key
Speaking with my dear Mother today, she was asking about Coco and how I was doing in the aftermath of his passing. I told her how much he had been my rock and source of love and strength for so long and how hard it is to feel that absence.
In a grief filled sleep this morning, missing my recently passed dog, Coco, a dream image presented itself. Coco’s bed was there, empty, with an owl and raven on it. His bed was a soft little thing, so the weight of these birds tipped the side of it, their size
Yesterday I thought of the indigenous phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child.” My thought was, “It takes a village to do anything.” As physicist David Bohm, who developed a fascinating method and theories about dialogue said, “We are not meant to think alone.” We are meant to
I began a 21-day ritual on August 10th for clearing and cleansing the old, and inviting the future. There are a list of things I do each day as part of it, one of them being clearing some space in my house daily. The power of this has rocked me
I have so many heartbreakingly sweet kindnesses paid to me in the last three days – from strangers who happened to read my blog and send heartfelt compassion and empathy, to dear friends from every time in my life telling me of their loving concern, to family members who offered