Do you know what an umbel is?

Do you know what an umbel is?

“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...

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home: month 6

home: month 6

Read the whole series on home here. Our Christmas wreath is still hanging on the porch of our home. The bright red bow remains, but no longer pops bright against the winter greyscale snowscape. The evergreen boughs have turned brittle and brown, and the bow is now easily upstaged by the blooming geraniums, roses, peonies, and pansies opening to the warm summer sun. In late February, when I went to take the wreath down and place it in the compost pile, I found a nest built on the very top of the wreath, so I let it be. It was too high for me to see into the nest, but I watched as a bird came...

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An interview with Brittany Taylor, M.A (they/themme)

An interview with Brittany Taylor, M.A (they/themme)

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...

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Presence, absence, and the queer magic of life

Presence, absence, and the queer magic of life

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...

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home: month 6

home: month 5

Read the whole series on home here. When I have been home What can home be to those who are weary? I write this particular writing in the wake of multiple mass shootings that have taken place in vastly different cities, neighborhoods, and locations. I write this in the wake of aggression that has been on the rise. I write this thinking so agonizingly over Ralph Yarl and Jordan Neely. My aches ache at this point. Do Black boys deserve the right to live and flourish in this nation that has been dubbed the “land of the free and the home of the brave?" I write this knowing that covid has taken...

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An interview with ada vargas

An interview with ada vargas

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...

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