Lichen Dying: You Will Lichen It

You are welcome for the cheesy, dad joke title of my blog. I am well known in my household for puns and play-on-words like this one. My husband sighs and looks away into the distance. My daughter laughs at me hysterically. It all evens out in the wash (smile). So, most of you know that … Continue reading →

Stitching Together Memories

My great grandma Ora (born in the year 1900), of the red clay hills in Mississippi, was an impeccable seamstress and skilled in hand-sewing quilts. As far as I know, she never used a sewing machine or, at least, she never did on her quilts. With her legacy of quilt making in my family’s past, … Continue reading →

Milk Thistle, Dreamtime, and the Liver

Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) (introduced by Europeans to the US) *** Milk thistle has been a part of my life and practice for about 15 years, now. However, I’ve been getting to know this herbal ally more and more lately as she grows so heartily out here in Coastal CA. In the past, I hadn’t … Continue reading →

The Ties That Bind Us, Can Also Free Us

For many years, I have been working on ancestral and lineage-based knots or wounds in my family line — opening up the channels of my ancestral energy to flow more freely. What I have noticed this past year is a heightened awareness of the importance of this in our personal lives and family constellations we … Continue reading →

Christmas, 1984 (a poem)

Christmas, 1984 It was the most memorable Christmas,Albeit strange and slightly disturbing. In all honesty,We had taken the orphan, baby alligator skeletonFrom the marshlandBleached bone white by the sun,And brought it home. I wanted to keep it.It’s long, pointed snout Intrigued me. And, at that time, I didn’t know its true fate. She later tied … Continue reading →

Wheel of Life 2022

“If I was to sum up one core lesson I shall carry with me after my year with the Wheel of Life Program it would be the power of “enough.” So to anyone seeking wholeness, the blessing of enough — being, having, feeling, sharing, understanding enough — I would say to them: welcome home. The … Continue reading →

Tug on This Thread (a poem)

Tug on This Thread The love you didn’t give me……you were never given…The strength you never showed me……you were never shown… The tears you did not wipeas they rolled down my face……just reminded you ofhow you suffered, alone……and that, so should I… The nourishing foodsseemed like a hassle.The songs……you didn’t remember the words… The dreams,you … Continue reading →

Wonder Woman Remembers Grandma (a poem)

My Mississippi grandma and her friendshad superpowers.Not the comic strip kind,but the surreal, Southern, storied kind. What made them fantasticalwas how they stood outagainst the sobering backdropof modernity. My grandma taught herself to play the pianoand could play and sing dozens of hymnals by memoryas if the gospel was flowing right through her.Her hands had … Continue reading →

Mallow Mallow and more Mallow Soup

Really, though. What has taken me so long to learn about molokhia (mulukhiyyeh) soup (Egypt, Lebanon, etc)??? A recent post in a foraging group led me on an adventure with our local, invasive cheesewheel mallow plant (Malva parviflora or Malva neglecta). Although the mallow used in molokhia soup is a different species (jute mallow or … Continue reading →