Category: Racism

In fall we put most of the garden to bed. After months of reaping the harvest from long, sunny, warm days, we pull up tomato and zucchini plants, spread leaf mulch to keep the weeds down. Overwintering vegetables – arugula, lettuce, turnips, chard, kale – stay green. The rest of the garden turns brown, lies …

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 …

It has been a terrible couple of weeks in national news – a terrible couple of years, actually. When I feel despair, I restore a sense of balance and hope by taking effective action where I can. And I work in my garden. A few weeks ago, after days of rain, the rich soil in our parking strip was …

In America we are now experiencing a historically unprecedented assault on our Constitutional form of government and democratic institutions – led by the man who swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend” that Constitution. Retiring Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) said on CNN last week, “I’ve never heard of an administration, a president attacking his …

Early Monday morning, in clouded darkness misted by rain, two hundred people gathered at the Port of Tacoma to block the gates to a construction site. Puget Sound Energy, a utility company that is now owned by a profitable group of private equity firms, leased this land to build a huge plant to process and …

Today is Samhain, the beginning of the dark half of the year. The time of An Cailleach, the fearsome, wild, wise crone, so ancient that she made her home in the western mountains of Ireland before the Celts came. She is the goddess of sovereignty, and it is no accident that men who have egregiously …

The temperature began to drop, the light to dim. Not like ordinary sunrise or sunset, with their warm pink and orange streaks. This light was chill, gray, eerie, as if someone was turning down a celestial dimmer switch. Through my eclipse glasses, the sun’s bright crescent grew smaller and smaller. We and our neighbors in …

Now, at Winter Solstice, we walk into the darkness. A deeper darkness than we have ever known, it seems. It’s important to keep our eyes open, to know this darkness. What it looks like, how it feels, sounds, smells, tastes. How to survive and move in it. Where to look for the first rays of …

Cairn on Sliebh na Cailli at sunrise, Fall Equinox 2016 We are approaching Samhain (SOW-en), the start of the Celtic New Year, celebrated here in the United States as Halloween (All Hallow Even). “Samhain marks the beginning of the giamos season, the time of darkness, the realm of the goddess, where the feminine energy principle …

I don’t usually talk about electoral politics in this blog, but the events of the last week are so remarkable and related to the season that I want to address them. Lughnasadh (LOO-na-sa), celebrated on August 1 in the Celtic tradition, marks the beginning of the harvest. We gather the fruits from the seeds we sowed …