Category: Healing

At Samhain, celebrated the eve of October 31 through November 1, the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the spirits becomes more permeable. Our Halloween traditions come from ancient Celtic pagan practices to honor and feed the dead, listen to their advice, and scare away evil spirits. Many pagans believe …

In medicine, informed consent is the process through which a care provider explains the risks and benefits of a test, procedure, or treatment and the person undergoing it, in light of this knowledge, gives their consent. We sign consent forms for vaccinations, diagnostic tests, and surgery. How often do we involve the cells and structures …

Love is the antidote for trauma. I’m not talking about the kind of love that requires us to blunt our awareness of the terrible events we experience and hear about. I’m talking about awake love: love that takes in everything and holds us with beauty and joy in the midst of it. But trauma often …

Photo by Linda Gisbrecht Most of us who now consider ourselves able-bodied will eventually experience one or more disabilities, if we live long enough. Some people use the phrase “temporarily able-bodied” as a reminder of this fact. As I age and my body structures show seven decades of wear and tear, I feel this truth …

Bealtaine, celebrated on May 1 or May Day, is a sacred time honoring our connection with the Earth. We relish the beauty, sensuality, and fertility of the Earth and our earthly bodies. On April 21, I dreamed: I am looking out over a vast, flat, open vista of land with large antlers projecting upward from …

It’s spring in the Pacific Northwest, a time when plants that pushed leaves through near-frozen winter ground begin their promiscuous blooming. Next to the hardy hellebores, narcissus and daffodils show off their yellow bonnets. Slender willow branches, brown in winter, turn spring-green as their leaves sprout. At Lake Quinault, where we spent a few days …

My grandparents Florence and John Taylor. Florence died in the flu pandemic of 1918-1919. What is the coronavirus epidemic calling us to? Ironically, this disease that separates and isolates us from each other as we try to prevent its spread also calls us into deeper levels of connection. Connection with community, with ancestors, and with …

   Now that the temperature outside is rising, it’s no longer snowing, and I can spend a few hours out in the garden, I take stock of how the plants are doing. Which ones died, which ones barely survived weeks of below-freezing temperatures in February and a sudden March snowstorm, which ones thrived. Two chard …

Hello darkness, my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence Songwriter: Paul Simon “The Sound of Silence” lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group In the …

Yesterday, on the eve of Samhain (Halloween), I prepared an altar in our living room to honor our beloved dead. On the cedar chest built by my wife Martha’s grandfather, I placed cedar boughs blessed in sacred circles held over the past two months. On top of the cedar, Martha and I arranged photos of …