Dear Friends: On Sunday, December 18, 2016, this report on my brief visit to Standing Rock will be featured in the Tallahassee Democrat. I’ll be sharing Part 2 of what I learned at Standing Rock after the holidays. During the first week of December, I traveled with my niece Erin Canter to a snowy, stinging cold North Dakota prairie south of Bismarck, where encampments at Standing Rock have evolved into the longest running protest in modern history. In … Continue
Tag Archives: Spirituality
Out on the beach, I found these two remembrances of lives gone by: a Gulf fritillary butterfly, short-stopped on its fall migration, and a fragment of very old pottery (most likely made of the red clay in my bioregion). Barnacles had built a home on what once had been an ancient pot. I placed these beautiful remnants side by side, considering their messages of impermanence and beauty. Today, in many spiritual traditions, we honor our ancestors, and perhaps we feel their presence more closely in … Continue
Today, I offer you a guest post from Rev. Candace McKibben, my beloved friend and partner in all things ritual. The photos are by the always amazing David Moynahan. There’s more to come on bears, and restoring them to their deserved sacred status, but we feel satisfied with this start. This column appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat, Saturday, November 28, page 1C. The Sacredness of Life November 26, 2015 Rev. Candace McKibben About a month ago now, I was … Continue
I am a person of the coast, although much of the year I live 30 miles inland. I can sometimes feel deprived when I’m not down at the edge, where all is clear to see. Beginning on winter solstice 2014, I began a practice of observing and meditating on the comfort of the annual cycles of sunlight, wherever I am. My own home has become a tiny Stonehenge, a still place to receive the light. On the winter solstice in … Continue
My house in Tallahassee is deeply shielded by the hardwood trees of a remnant swamp forest. Most of the year, I can’t see the face of the sun from our windows. But in December the trees drop their leaves, and the sun rises farther and farther south of east. Direct light floods our bedroom and dining room for just a few weeks. I behold the approach of winter solstice. The passage of winter into spring will return the sun to … Continue