“If you look at the field beside the road and you see merely the generic ‘meadow,’ you’re less likely to care if it’s bulldozed for a strip mall than you are if you know that those tall, flat-leaved spires are milkweed, upon which the monarchs have flown two thousand miles to feed, or if you can name sailer's breaches and purslane, lamb’s-quarter, or the big umbrels of wild carrot feeding the small multitudes. Isn't the world larger and more valuable, if you know what an umbel is?” –Mark Doty Do you know what an umbel is? A cluster of blooms, sprouting from a common center. A collection of...

share your spiritual biography in 10 words, or less: I'm a Healer and Practitioner on the Emotional Karmic Body. where are you turning for soul nourishment / joy / aliveness? I've been turning to my inner-work for soul nourishment. Through my self-nurturing rituals and my somatic therapeutic techniques for deep grief, I consecrate my body as my own altar - a portal of love, dignity, & miracles. what is a text you hold sacred? My childhood journal that has held and kept me for the past 27 years of wisdom. Her words are my guidance, my reflection, and my degree for the work I do now. what...

A week or so ago, a dear neighbor and I found ourselves sitting together in the sun-drenched afternoon heat, sweating, raising a toast to memorialize the trees that another neighbor had cut down. The trees were old, and cedar, and the aromatic scent of their vibrant aliveness lingered in the air. I have loved these trees dearly, and cried when the chainsaws came for them–these very trees offered shelter and shade to my ancestors, great-grandparents who died before my birth, whose presence and absence I feel deeply, and daily. This neighbor’s 4 year old and I scooped handfuls of the fragrant...

share your spiritual biography in 10 words, or less: turn towards that which nourishes you again and again where are you turning for soul nourishment / joy / aliveness? listening to the seemingly hundreds of birds that live on my busy city street provides instant grounding and transport to nature despite the context. a special delight comes if i can spot a specific little bird who is chirping near me and I can see their beak opening and their chest puffing up to send out their song. and the music of beautiful chorus, toni jones, and chris-n-teeb almost every day! what is a text you hold...