Putting Spark to the Cold Ground

I once spent a night alone in a biologist’s cabin in Garden Valley, Idaho. It was January and the entire valley was padded with a foot of powdery snow.  I was doing a clinical rotation in that small town and the doctor I worked with had an arrangement with the family that owned this cabin,…

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Week 11: Recovering A Sense of Autonomy

Are your kids back in school yet? R doesn’t start until this Monday, but I’m already sorting through emails and filling out forms—even as I’m writing this I’m getting interrupted! And so it begins… (cue ominous Lord of the Rings music).  I’ve had a few people comment on my quantity of writing. How do you…

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Week 10: Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection

[If you are just joining in, we are going through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron “a spiritual path to higher creativity”….Feel free to jump in or start back at the beginning. There are posts for each week (chapter)!] I was born under a full moon in Aries. giving me a deep sense of internal…

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Week 9: Recovering a Sense of Compassion

[If you are just joining in, this is a book by Julia Cameron “a spiritual path to higher creativity”….Feel free to jump in or start back at the beginning. There are posts for each week (chapter)!] Today marks the start of the last month of Summer of Creativity. I hope you are seeing some changes…

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Week 7: Recovering a Sense of Connection

I am sitting in bed with a cold La Croix because I have a summer cold this week. Does everyone have a summer cold this week?!? It’s not covid—I’ve been testing. And it feels like a while since I had a regular, boring cold. I have not missed it. River’s home this week and we’ve…

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Jesus and Cheeses

When I told my friend Sofi about this poem, she said, “Jesus or cheeses!? Those words sound the same.” So now I’ve got to write a poem about cheeses…. But here are two poems for a Sunday and one strange piece of art, because why not? Worth Repeating I stumble over and over; it is…

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Week 5: Recovering a Sense of Possibility

Welcome to Week 5! By this point, the novelty of the book and process has worn off. You may have hit a rhythm with the morning pages. You may still be struggling to make the artist date happen. You may have learned somethings about your internal narrative around life and your desires. But by this…

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Week 3: Recovering a Sense of Power

This week we dive into the underworld, the shadow side. Let me assure you that this work is work that is worth doing. If you can become, at least familiar with, if not comfortable with, the dark side, the hard emotions, the shadow work, the stuff your brain naturally wants to avoid—you become fireproof. It’s an act of bravery. It’s an act of self love. 

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Attention

I smell the ocean on the warm breeze flowing steadily past the skin on my face and arms, which are slightly sticky from the drying salt water. The sun is headed down but the days are long and it will be hours before it sets. There is a seagull walking past, eyeing the abandoned beach…

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Week 1: Recovering a Sense of Safety

“Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.” Carl Jung I know I said “Week 1” last week, but I think keeping the chapter numbers aligned with the weeks will help us all to stay on track so…Week 1, Take 2. Whew!…

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