Category: Illuminations
Reaching the Next Era in your Life
When I was a teenager with chronic pain and felt like I would never see the other side… When I decided to leave my whole life behind in NYC and move down to Appalachia to study herbalism… When I first started teaching and wasn’t sure anyone would show up for my classes… When I decided to live alone…
How to Work with Plants in a City
I snuck into the office and closed the door. Maybe “snuck” isn’t the right word, since my job as a plant waterer gave me access to every room in the building. But I still felt like I was doing something illict. The office building was in the middle of Manhattan. To get there I had…
Your Destiny as a Human
I walked up to the gap, the wind nudging me from behind. In the space between the budding tulip poplars I could see out to the mountains beyond. They were blue and beckoning, full of promise, hope and homecoming. I could feel the Earth beneath me. And I could feel my place on her lengths. And…
Nature as Divination Deck
Omens are everywhere in nature. Before tarot cards or runes, we knew how to read the oracle of the natural world. The pattern of the clouds. The bird you heard when you first woke up. The flower growing by your doorstep. The answers you need are already in the world around you. They’re simply waiting for you to…
Contemplation as an Ancestral Skill
Years ago someone asked me a question that I’ve never forgotten. “In your ideal world, if you could get paid to do anything….what would you do?” I was still young when I was asked this, but my immediate answer was: “I’d get paid to walk outside in nature, to think, daydream and ponder.” To me, that sounded like…
What Does this Spring Hold for You?
Lately, I’ve been waking up every morning to listen to the dawn chorus. The songbirds have returned—along with the flocks of spring flowers—and it’s thrilling, comforting, promising. Every spring I find myself embracing a tender belief in new beginnings. The flowers open and the hope I’d nearly given up returns like the songbirds. There is newness on…
The Boundaries Empaths Most Need
I walked along the head-high hedge, gathering hawthorn berries in the fold of my handkerchief and snacking on rose hips. Yarrow bloomed at the edges like the frill of a skirt and stalks of blackberry reached out to tug the cotton of my sleeves. I wasn’t trying to find a way into the hedge. Instead,…
What it Means When You “Fail”
This time last year I was in the first few days of postpartum. Snow blanketed the earth, its white light entering our home like a soul while I nestled in bed with my daughter. It was a time of profound, newborn joy. I remember lying next to her, cheek as close as I could get,…