Category: Illuminations
What is your Second Song?
I’m sitting in a dark room nursing my daughter. It’s midday or it’s midnight and I’m here in the room because it’s the only place where she’ll settle. I’m here because I need to be. I’m here because there’s nowhere else to be. I’m here in a dark room singing the second song of my life….
Why the Earth Created You
I’ve always known I was sensitive. As a kid I often felt deeply affected by things others seemed to take in stride. Like sleepovers. I still remember how hard they were. Long after everyone else had fallen sleep I would be lying immobile in my sleeping bag, staring at the ceiling and praying for dawn,…
What it Means to be “a part” of the Earth
You hear people say it often— humans are a part of nature. As lonely or outcast as we might sometimes feel, we aren’t separate from the living world. We are nature, a creation of the Earth just as truly as the upright oak or the moss-covered boulders of the mountains. But what does it actually mean to be “a part”…
The Earth Already Forgives You
There’s a question I get asked often— and every time someone asks it, I know I’m connecting with a kindred spirit… In a time when humanity has caused so much destruction, how do you deal with the guilt of being human? I love when people ask me this, because I have an opportunity to give them the…
How to Embrace your Destiny
I was laying on my back with the windows open to the summer breeze. The coolness of the evening was just beginning to settle into the crease of the mountain and the scent of basil was still on my hands from the garden. It was one of those moments— quiet, complete, and rare— when you…
How to Work with Land Spirits
I cradled the roses in my arms. Soft as skin, the flowers glowed as I carried them through the dark forest towards my altar, a flat triangle of stone set among the roots of a tree. Kneeling in the soft dirt, I laid the flowers down one at a time.Each rose was a prayer….
What Happened After my Book Came Out
For years I’ve watched other authors build up to the release of their books and wondered…. what happens after? What happens when the project you’ve poured your whole heart into finally arrives into the world? Now that my own book Mirrors in the Earth has come out, I can tell you. A few books arrived a day early,…
What the Earth is Asking of You
I used to think it was never enough. The efforts I made to help the Earth. The things I did for others. What I had to give. This feeling of not-enoughness showed up in every area of my life. When I worked so late on the computer my eyes began to burn. Or when…