Sparks to light your wild idea
Horse Lessons: Discovering with my horses
I have had (if that's the right word) horses for about 20 years, finding them again post childhood when we lived in California. They became central to my world for over a decade, and then, after a serious fall and a move back east, a beloved bunch of pals who entertained one another more than worked with me. A few weeks ago, we lost our Arab mare Ivy, to a colic after a series of pretty horrifying infections. On a snowy day, our vet and I (and, honestly, I think Ivy, too) agreed that it was time to let her go. [...]
The Return of Myth America!
The Return of Myth America A Mythic Radio Show I spent the better part of four years wandering into a delightfully dilapidated radio broadcast studio every Tuesday morning to talk about the intersections of myth, imagination, and the American psyche on an NPR affiliate community radio station. I loved every minute of it. But the moment came when it was time to move on, and in spite of grand plans to repurpose hours worth of musings into a podcast, life and other projects intervened. (Yes, I am the perennial toddler, chaser of shiny keys...) The Birth of a Mythic Podcast As [...]
Joy: Greeting an Uncertain Future
In the midst of global crapitude, my sister and my intrepid mother have together bought a house. My sister has lived on Cape Cod for over 35 years. She is a creative iconoclast in a place that has both celebrated its creative iconoclasts, and has failed to find a way to keep them supported as the chasm between who has money (and lots of it) and those who don’t has gotten deeper. Like many beautiful places where the rebellious and imaginative have gathered over the years, it can be hard to afford to live there. She has been increasingly worried that [...]
Life, Resurrection, and the Mythic Teachings of Frogs
In the Catskill Mountains of New York State, where I live, the return of spring is a distinct moment, at dusk on the night when the spring peepers erupt into song. If you’ve not had the pleasure of experiencing peepers, they are tiny little woodland frogs that spend much of their lives living on the forest floor. Every spring, on the first warm night, they wend their way across leaf mold and even snow to find the nearest pool of still water. And then they sing, with haunting shrill voices, loudly enough that if there are enough of them, you can [...]
Ask for a Glass of Water: When the World Is Scary
Ask for a glass of water... How to unfreeze when the world is scary around you. As the coronavirus upends how we all are living, and brings such uncertainty, fear for our loved ones and our livelihoods, our communities and our future, we're in one of the toughest moments most of us have experienced. An offering from a good friend, in this wild era: I was talking with my friend Chris a few days ago, and he told me something he learned when he was an EMT. In times of crisis, we can simply freeze in panic. Our minds and our [...]
Breathing Fire: Let Your Dragon Burn, Baby, Burn
Breathing Fire: Let Your Dragon Burn, Baby, Burn Most of us struggle with how powerful we might be. We spend a lot of time banking down flames, avoiding conflict, not wanting to hurt people's feelings, not being too much. We are afraid of breathing fire in the world. We want to be NICE. I do, at least. Do you? Ugh. Because, yeah, well, nice is, well, nice. And it's damning with faint praise, when you think about it... What Happens if You Let Go of Nice? And instead go for thinking about how you can light a fire of creativity and [...]
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