Years ago I lived in a small fishing village by the South China Sea, working as a journalist, living with my partner. Our first child was born there. I remember seeing the grandmothers in the village carrying their young grandchildren on their backs as they bought food at the market, or washed vegetables by the … Read more
In a recent storm, just after midnight, the neighbor’s oak tree fell. This magnificent, 200 year-old tree toppled over, breaking the fence at the end of our garden, damaging the water system. This was the first time I met our neighbors, as we talked early the next morning over the immense trunk of the fallen … Read more
It was quite a few years ago when I was in a small cabin at a hermitage in the Sonoma Hills. It was only for two days, and turned out to be the last retreat that I would take for a long time. On the second night, while asleep, I heard these words: So much … Read more
Eight years ago, when I first began to sit in circle with the women in the shelter, I talked a fair amount. I wanted to explain about the feminine. Then we would sit in silence before a time of sharing. I would encourage the women to speak, saying that sharing helps to make their own … Read more
In a dream, I am looking at a river. The sound of the river increases until it surrounds me with the intensity of the water flowing by. And then, I hear a heart beating. It is the heartbeat of the river. The river has allowed me to hear its heartbeat. Steady, ongoing, it continues. In … Read more
I had a dream a year ago showing me the language of life. I was told: Speak about it, this language of life. How to hear it, how to decipher its meaning. The dream waited patiently, in the back of my awareness, waiting until I could trust, and engage with this deep inner knowing that … Read more
There is magic in a story. Some stories can show us that the divine exists – that there are forces that make things happen. I share this story about longing. On a cold, foggy morning I went to a large shelter for the homeless, where we were on the third session of a new program. … Read more
I am deeply familiar with the beautiful side of devotion. What has been unfamiliar to me is the fierce side. One night, I experienced this other side of devotion in a dream. In th dream, an indigenous woman called me by phone, although she was also somehow physically present. She was more fierce than anything … Read more
This woodblock print that you see here, Benedictas Veritas, carries the essence of what this blog is about. For the green expresses what I understand as a woman’s sacred relationship to life and to the divine.I once had a dream in which I see a vibrant, healing green stream that runs through women from head to toe. I am told that women need to find and recognize it in themselves, so that it can flow out into life.
When I first began to work in circles with women, an image arose when I was deep in meditation. The image was of many circles across the country, each circle held in a feminine container that linked heaven and earth. I reflected on this for many years. What did it mean, to connect heaven and … Read more