share your spiritual biography in 10 words, or less:

Presbyterian baptized, Baptist educated, Catholic trained, now witch by choice.

where are you turning for soul nourishment / joy / aliveness?

Always, always to birds and nature, and being in the soft light of dusk. Sunset-seeking as a primary goal. Wading into any body of water large enough to hold my body to help remind me that we are made primarily of water, just like a drop of rain or the ocean. Turning consistently to my community of beloveds who amaze me with the ways that they show up in the world and love each other as we all find ways to turn toward liberation and whole-heartedness. Toward “mending the future” as adrienne maree brown says.

what is a text you hold sacred?

Anything written by adrienne maree brown or Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Each of them reminding me each that liberation begins with remembering our place in the web of life. Through (bird)song, ocean breath, and rooted ritual, they chorus that we are not separate from nature but made of it. Any work of theirs centers nature, Black wisdom, queerness, ancestral memory, and love as a practice of justice. Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown changed me in profound ways and I always hold close a sentence from the introduction to that book, “When we are engaged in acts of love, we humans are at our best and most resilient.” 

what is a spiritual practice currently sustaining you?

Chopping vegetables and cooking for community is one of my core spiritual practices.  Honoring all of the abundance that we receive from the earth, and even more specifically, that this season of the cycle rains upon us – tomatoes and herbs and peas and melons and berries bursting with flavor. The earth WANTS to feed us and for us to be in reciprocal relationship (thank you, Robin Wall Kimmerer), if only we can open our hearts and minds and put our fingers in the soil, and pay attention. In the current political situation, helping to feed people seems like a very concrete way that I can show up given my physical limitations. 

how would you describe the work you feel called to do in this world (even if it is not the work you get paid for)?

I feel called to create spaces where people, and especially those pushed to the margins, feel seen, valued, and rooted in their wholeness. My work is about connection between people and nature (especially birds!), between access and joy, between deep care and systemic change. I am here to help build a world where nature and belonging are rights and where cycles of the Earth teach us how to show up for each other with love. Currently I am the Executive Director at Birdability, a nonprofit working to make birding and the outdoors accessible and inclusive for everyone, especially those with disabilities and health concerns, which is both the work of my queer, disabled heart AND what I get paid for, happily.

knowing that none of us “has it all together,” what is one question you are wrestling with, or bit of wisdom you are struggling to enflesh in your daily life?

“I’m wrestling with how to hold grief and gratitude at the same time without rushing either one. I BELIEVE in that practice, but learning to fully live it is something else entirely. I’m also learning that rest is not something to earn and that slowing down is part of the work, not a break from it. I know this in my bones, but I still struggle to live it fully especially when there is so much urgency, and so many people counting on us finding a different way forward that we so desperately need. Caring deeply for myself and staying centered in the grieving is revolutionary work in itself. “we live through the unimaginable, that’s what it means to be human. what matters is finding your own peace inside of that. which is impossible because the unimaginable is humanity, it is the result of our existence. so most people, at some point, they become aware that there’s one true binary in this world. you are either mending or breaking the future.”

– adrienne maree brown from “Ancestors,” the third book in the “Grievers” triology

who is one elder / ancestor / mentor whose guidance you draw from? what is one piece of wisdom they have offered?

I have learned so much from so many in my community, and will always be deeply grateful to poet and playwright, Reanae McNeal, who trained me as a volunteer and in my first job working in anti-sexual and domestic violence. The wisdom that I received from her, in words and actions, was that you could only heal deep wounds by paying close attention, being present with the pain, and then slathering on radical love and transformation of systemic injustice. Her belief that love was our primary weapon changed me at a cellular level.

what’s one oppressive untruth you are practicing unlearning / divesting from?

One oppressive untruth I’m practicing unlearning is that my worth is tied to productivity. That I have to constantly prove, perform, or produce in order to matter. It is so deeply tied to my internalized ableism that it feels like truth sometimes. I am learning to trust that presence, care, and simply being, especially in community and in connection with nature, are enough. Unlearning this takes daily practice, especially in a world that still rewards burnout and calls it commitment. 

what is one thing you wish were required listening / viewing? (please link to the song, poem, art piece, podcast, etc.)

adrienne maree brown’s books. Any of them, but especially Fables and Spells! They say, “It can take a while to recognize what you are when the lineage has been swept away. I reach back for the tools I was given to be in and shape the world, and at first, I cannot find them. I hear the smooth instruction to love myself and many iterations of instruction to surrender my power to others, to trust someone else to stand between me and the divine, translating, interpreting, directing the exchange. But under all of that there is a feeling that cannot be denied–a direct feeling of connection and invitation to the natural world. It is both within me and between me and life. This feeling courses through me when I hold space, hold change, when I doula, when I work as a healer and when I write.

I call it witching.

Witching is a practice of engaging the essential, natural world with magic and supernatural intentions. Throughout history there have been many names for witches and the work of witches, including shamanism, sorcery, healing, herbalism, midwifery and doula labor, conjuring, rootwork, ritual and spellcasting. There are lineages that provide a lot of guidance for the developing witch, and there are intuitive paths where the practices are shown, felt, called. I am definitely an intuitive witch I answer the call and I trust the love in the universe to guide my actions. And I use my witching for liberation.

This act of witching is about putting our attention behind our intentions. And being willing to invite and shape the unseen forces of the world (which go by many names and beyond all comprehensible names) to align with the highest good for ourselves and the whole.”

From: https://adriennemareebrown.net/book/fables-and-spells/