Blog

Here’s what I want to tell you: the Japanese monks and nuns write poems as they lay dying. Japanese death poems. You can look it up. What do they say? Some version of I am here at the edge of unknowing. It is dark. It is light. The light is within the dark. There is … Continue reading darkness as medicine

Peace lies broken, her wings crushed under the weight of tanks. The old hollow words of peace on earth good will towards men will not raise her up, will not put wind under her so that she might fly again with the olive branch and a promise of renewal and hope restored. Because peace lies … Continue reading all will be well

I guess you could say my assignment was to procure illegal drugs for a grieving mother. Did I accept? Of course. I had been a hospice social worker close to a decade by then, accustomed to walking blind into rooms, apartments, RVs, broken down trailers, Santa Fe mansions, assessing needs, finding resources, sitting with the … Continue reading earth angel

This is how to cast a spell on grief: Open the windows wide and let the howling wind sweep the room clean. Invite in the ancestors, the ones who have been waiting for a healing. Sit them down and tell them that the spell you cast is on their behalf. Say this to grief: Knock … Continue reading a spell cast on grief

 Of course we can all feel it coming. Our collective nerves are on edge. Wars, bombs, genocide - an entire population nearly starved to death, the endless news feed of political rallies that sound more like Nazi Germany than America. Ask anyone how they’re coping. It’s no joke, they say. It gets worse every day. … Continue reading tool kit for chaos