She stands on a snowy hill, dressed in white; a lone beacon of warmth in a frozen landscape. From a distance, you can see her breath puffing out in measured clouds. As she walks closer, her warmth wraps around you like an embrace. She stops in front of you, and suddenly she's no longer …
Where are we?
We're walking the Wheel of the Year, spending around 6 weeks in each season. Normally, right about now we'd be completing a season and getting ready for a "rest week" when we clear off our altar, pause our anointing practice, and let the work of the season settle and integrate. But this time, …
How to Dream
I've used the image above as a Winter Solstice reminder for many years. It's a woodcut by artist Mary Azarian (brilliant, amazing, buy everything she makes). The image is of a woman sitting in her warm house, snug under a quilt, leafing through a seed catalog while it pours snow …
A Winter Morning
I wake up before dawn. I pad downstairs to the kitchen, glowing in the light of my grandmother's ceramic Christmas tree, to fill the kettle for coffee. I check the thermometer; 50 degrees in and 29 degrees out. I build a fire in the wood stove. Two big logs side by side, then paper …
Rest Ye
Once upon a time, I spent 4 days in the hospital recovering from surgery. And I loved it. What I loved most was middle of the night. I'd wake up just enough to sense a nurse standing very near me, touching my arms, tucking me in, reading my vitals. Sometime a doctor would come in …