Filed under ancestry …

Wondering Why We Left

About six months ago, after about a full year of a very deep dive into my family’s genealogy…tracing many of my maternal lines back to America’s early colonies…I began to ponder on why these people left. Why did so many British, Scottish, and Irish peasants leave their homeland…risk their lives…to arrive in an unknown and … 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 →

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 →

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 →

Wheel of Life 2021

I stepped into the new year (based on the Julian then Gregorian calendars, that is) by taking a hike. I stepped away from motherhood duties and did just that. A hike. With a girlfriend. We talked. We sat on sandstone and gazed at the horizon. We looked at vultures circling in the sky. We saw … Continue reading →

Ancestral Blueprints and the Soul of America

This book and I found each other about 6-7 years ago. I was in the throws of running an apothecary in Mississippi, my home state. I was seeing clients…and feeling into the living narratives thoughtfully explained in this book. To say the least, it was affirming. I want to share this book with you. It … Continue reading →

Cordage and a Worthwhile Hand Cramp

I did get a hand cramp.  But, it was worth it. Let me back up a bit. Working with my hands has always been healing.  And, recently, I had the chance to learn something new…something I had been wanting to learn…basic cordage making. My first imprint of the process was at a Chumash Cultural Day … Continue reading →

Grandmothers Can Tell It Like It Is

When I worked as the Retreat Manager at a silent, contemplative retreat center in a holler out in the mountains of WNC about 10 years ago, the (amazing) cook gifted me this book. I haven’t picked it up in years. I opened it up and turned directly to this page. Sobering words, but words we … Continue reading →