Vernal Equinox Blessing

Outrage is the force that pushes plants past unyielding ground in awareness that the time has come to grow.


Justice is the breakthrough of green from concrete, of linked arms and raised voices.


May this be a season to compel us to crumble oppressive systems, perspectives, and practices, inside and around us.


The Earth and her people fertilize strong, sprouting RESISTANCE like new flowers flourishing.


A radical, revolutionary Vernal Equinox to all.

Holding Place, Healing Place

"Would you like me to tell you a story about a hot air balloon?"

"Yes."

Oak rubbed his wet eyes and wriggled closer into the fold of my arm, laying on my chest. Ronin rested across my side, nursing at the breast. I wanted sleep. I wanted space. I wanted to be quiet. But the moment required more from me. I took a long breath.

It had been an intensely trying afternoon. I could list the many compounded and likely reasons why Oak was having difficulty​: an early morning wakeup, no nap, busy schedule, no decent meal... But the truth was that he was holding even more than those synergized struggles. I cannot pretend to know fully what he may have been feeling or experiencing that afternoon. I only know two things: that I, too, have been in spaces where I could not understand what was happening to me; and that I trust that, somehow, I - we all - have to learn to be there for one another when we see someone we love go someplace beyond.

It was the moment when he was screaming and thrashing as his dirty diaper overflowed and his brother was wailing in sleepy hunger, as I tried to keep his legs from kicking my baby and change the mess as calmly and carefully as I could, that I felt the ugly surge of repulsion: I. WANT. OUT. This is too much. I need a break RIGHT NOW. It is too big, too heavy, too close.

I looked at my child in distress. Yes. It is too big.
So, I realized resolutely, I was not going anywhere.

By some small miracle, I did not scream or run or hit or grab or cry. I did what I didn't want to: I asked his permission, then I drew him in. I held him close. I reminded him he was safe. I tried to listen. He could barely articulate what was happening to him. Through choking sobs, he repeated over and over:
"I'm just so sad, Mommy. I don't know why. I'm...Just...SAD."

I told him I heard him. I didn't try to fix it. I just listened. More tears came for all of us.

His exhaustion made him more awake, but as we piled in bed, I thought perhaps a story could settle him alongside his brother. When he took notice of the balloons stenciled along the border of the bedroom, I told a version of a story I had spoken to him many times before:

"Once upon a time, there were two little boys.Their names were Oakie and Ronin.

"One day, as they were playing outside, they looked up and saw colorful balloons high in the sky. So far away, the balloons looked very small.

"But as they watched, the balloons started to look bigger and bigger...because they were coming down, down, closer to the ground. Soon, they could see the baskets below the balloons with people riding in them. Soon, they could hear the noise of the fire burning to keep the balloons full of warm air. Soon, the baskets touched the ground - the balloons had landed!"

Soon, we would leave his brother to nap as we went downstairs for a snack. It required holding, waiting through tears, gently offering a bite, patiently waiting to hear the need, breathing through the discomfort and exhaustion, to get down the much-needed nutrition. It required staying close when I wanted to create distance with exasperation or anger as the process took more time than I felt I could give. It meant letting go of my ideas of what was acceptable or not. It meant checking in with myself to be fully present to the moment. It meant getting myself back on track when I missed the mark. It meant complete surrender to my child with open arms.

I cannot inhabit where my son lives; I can only visit there. I can only visit when I listen. I can only see clearly when I'm close, and curious, and kind. I may not always understand, but I can stand by. I can be a landing. I can enter alongside. I can honor that I'm somewhere I've never been.

"Oak and Ronin floated up, up, up into the clouds...and below them, their house, the street, all the cars and buildings and people grew smaller and smaller. They felt the warm sun on their faces. They felt the cool wind at their backs. They imagined they were almost close enough to touch the clouds."

If it can be this stretching to hold my young child with love and let myself be open, how can I expect to hold with love a world of others who do harm, to enter their pain and recognize the throbbing Need at the center of any act of violence? How can healing happen?

I am not entirely sure which moment turned the tide, when exactly Oak felt like he was coming home to himself. I only know he kissed me, and his brother, and I suddenly felt the soothed spirit speaking beyond words. I realized I had stopped wanting to push it away. I was exhausted - we all were. Our throats were hoarse, our hearts ached. But we had weathered the storm. Nothing had been silenced. Nothing had been buried. Nothing had been turned away. And here we were, somehow still together...in some ways, perhaps, more so.

"As the day wore on and the sun began to set, the sky turned a rainbow of colors. Ronin yawned and said, "I'm getting sleepy." Oak patted his back and said, "I think it's time to go home."

"So they gently dimmed the fire in the balloon and began to sink, down, down, down, closer and closer to their home again. Soon, they could see the streets and homes and people. Soon, they could clearly see their own house and green yard. Soon, they felt the basket touch the ground, and gently, they opened the door and stepped outside.

"They turned to wave goodbye to the balloons as they floated up again into the sky, farther and farther until, as night settled, they disappeared into the distance. Ronin and Oak, hand in hand, turned together and went inside to recount their adventures as they drifted off to sleep. They imagined they might take another trip someday soon."

How can healing happen? I can only guess how it might begin. I can only be the most attentive and loving guest to the world of my beloveds. I can only hope to honor the gift with gentleness. I can only let go, then hold close.

Next Humankind

Bristly limbs of bare trees scrape the December sky blanketing Kentucky hills. Vehicles zoom 65 miles an hour across formations 480 million years in the making. Ronin, seven months old, rides near the window, winter scenery streaming past him, his keen eyes the color of pine brush and moss, soft skin pale like sycamore bark. I watch his warm fingers dexterously grasp little toys in play; solid bones, sturdy as limestone, give structure that animates his energy. A wind, I imagine, whistles through the corridors of branches along those ancient mounds, paths as multifarious as dendrite gardens in the mind. I listen to my son's breathing, the gentle, vibrational "aaah" as he explores his own sound.

The people native to this land lived here for the better part of 15,000 years before they were assaulted with metal and gunpowder by white invaders. In a few hundred years, their territory has been sliced by highways, cut by machines seeking fuel for capital, drenched in the byproducts of oil and coal. Native people live here no longer. The people who remain, the poor, are dying of cancer. And then, there are also storytellers, weavers, farmers, midwives, and healers - those who rectify the desecration with their creative spirits. I recall the courage of the Northern water protectors and hear chords of their song settle in the valleys like fog.

My mind wanders from Appalachia to Aleppo, the children covered in white ash, unsure which breath may be their last. They have stopped crying; their eyes are tunnels that lead me to my own incriminating complicity. I sit comfortably on a cushion as their homes and safe places crumble, the ancient city a living ruin. Bomb blasts reverberate in humanity's foundation. Instead of speaking out, much of the world sips coffee through small plastic mouthpieces that will take the better of 1,000 years to break down. The darkness increases. I click screen buttons, send electronic dollars, in the false light of a cell phone. Oak, two years old, happily sings of silver and gold, of the light's return. I close my eyes and pray.

At the Smithsonian, Robby and I turned to find Oak with his arms around bronze statues of two early humans, a child and mother. He gently patted the little one's back, keenly peering in the direction of the small statue's gaze, inquisitive about what the elder figure seemed to be demonstrating. We silently observed our own child, descendant of these ancestral creatures, embody through his reflexive curiosity the evolution of their instruction. His touch was fond, familial. I saw through tears the exhibit headline, "Imagination Emerges."

Humankind has drawn invisible lines to create countries and concepts, using the mind as a template for terrain we can reconstruct. Young primates yet, we continue to grapple with what power we can wield to magnify our species' influence and centricity. But the nautilus spiral of Earth time betrays our flimsy superiority: the thin edge, nearly invisible, is human history, all 3 million years. In its unfathomable complexity, Earth boasts the majesty of 4600 million years. And we are citizens of a young planet in this unexplored universe, 15 billion years wide.

Cold, white marble, carved to look weightless, shoulders the recognizable Capitol domes. The extravagance distracts from the metallic taste of death, the smell of suffering, holding the place together like mortar. Countless African slaves worked to forge these spaces in which they were not regarded as human. The lofty ideals emblazoned on the walls, speaking of liberty and dignity, taunt the memories of African people whose rich heritage was scoured like ship decks, whose vibrancy has survived their oppression and their descendants'. "Out of many, one" - by force. The efforts of over 200 years have not yet made us a land of the free. To this day, only the survivors of oppression feel the heaviness, accurately estimate the cost. Their descendants are the prophets of our time, calling out in the wilderness of ignorance, holding aloft truth's torch.

In the belly of a colonial ship, Oak said, "A long time ago, I was down here and heard a loud BOOM." Running through the tunnel between Congress's Library and the Capitol Building, he remarked, "Before I was born, I was down here." Certain places hum with a story we somehow know we continue with the tones and cadence of our Voice. The trees and hills and sands and stars are still telling it. The children know the language and interpret for us in every unexamined gesture, every intentional question, every moment we stop talking long enough to listen, to breathe, to touch freedom. The scope of our lives can only be as broad as the understanding of our smallness.

I can imagine the next iteration of humanity: a species that looks in the mirror and sees a striving animal, that begins to only describe any individual with their chosen name, that participates as a cell in the body. The next humankind will absorb the sword into its heart and there dissolve it, will again discover fire but this time within, will honor abundance with temperance, will be led by the generations to come. The next humankind will know its humble place on the dirt. Our ancestors are waiting for us there, whispering the Soul's common fate.

"Aleppo" derives from the Aramaic word 'Halaba,' white like its soil and marble. The mountains ache like exposed joints, blasted and bald, empty caverns devoid of black coal, ghost canaries singing. I look up into the clouds swirling as in the soothsayer's sphere where questions answer each other. Freezing rain falls on the glass pane, running like rivers or neuron networks or veins, before evaporating into the atmosphere, eternal air and light.

Gratitude Is

Gratitude does not recline in an oversized armchair, stuffed and surrounded in luxury, declaring, "I'm so thankful for what I have."

Gratitude leaves our mouths and arms open wide in wonder that WE EXIST when there could have been absolute no-thing-ness.

Gratitude makes us bare and vulnerable to the truth that nothing at all can be earned...everything we have is gifted by the ancestral universe.

Gratitude illuminates our rich happiness as intrinsically connected to all others' well-being.

Gratitude deepens the hunger to empty our pockets and lighten our packs to be more available to the Source, to nourish our Earth siblings, to share the infinite abundance of Life.

Gratitude requires us to investigate why everyone does not have enough.

Gratitude demands we defend the land, water, air, and diversity of this planet: our common birthrights.

Gratitude implores us to take only what we need so that others might live.

Gratitude insists that we care for each other in messy, challenging, unpopular, radical ways.

Gratitude is the sigh at the end of a day well-spent, whether with tears or pain or belly-aching laughter or deep soul gazes or whatever it took to feed our Children, whispering, "I am blessed to make the most of being alive."

Gratitude is the only redemptive final prayer.

What Would Dory Do?

(Disclaimer: this is a very silly but personally relevant reflection on a Disney movie...use what's at hand, right?)

At the story's beginning, Dory despairs. She believes that she has lost what's precious to her because she is who she is: forgetful, flighty, and seemingly directionless. At times, she feels trapped by the idea that those qualities can only yield the same sad results in her life. She feels she can't do anything "right."

However, by the tale's end (no spoilers!), she realizes she can accomplish incredible things, in fact, BECAUSE of who she is. She's willing to take a risk without certainty of the outcome. She trusts her intuition even when there isn't a clear "reason." She is optimistic and "just keeps swimming" even when setbacks seem insurmountable. She depends on friends to help where she knows she can't rely on just herself. Her friends in search of her end up finding her because they ask, "What would Dory do?"

Eventually, Dory begins to *intentionally* lean into her wacky way of moving through the world. In several tense moments, she comically asks herself, "What would I do? What would I do?" Each time, she's saved by her own unique approach. At last, doing what Dory would do allows her to reclaim her losses.

These days, I'm trying to ask myself a similar question. Instead of feeling anxious and trapped, depressed or despairing, I'm trying to take a deep breath and repeat this mantra: "What would Mandy do?"

When I think of my most aligned, grounded, open self and who She could be in the world, I catch a glimpse of who I want to be and become. The Best Me is someone I want to be like. Just checking in with myself is a practice in intentionally living better, one step (splash!) at a time.

My friends, the wide ocean of possibility needs YOU to be just who and how you are. We need your weird, your clever, your unprecedented, your unimaginable ways. Only you can BE you, and only by being ourselves wholeheartedly can we just keep swimming together.

Dory doesn't only end up finding something that was lost "out there." The happy ending is that she found...Dory. Dory found Dory, and only she knew the way.

Today, please go in search of yourself, each moment you can pause and pursue you. Sift through the reflexive reactions or self-judgments. I implore you to ask yourself, "What would ✨✨✨I✨✨✨ do?"

The answer to that will help us ALL find ourselves. 

Post-election Fireside Ponderings

🎶"We are the world..."
"What a wonderful world..."🎶
...songs and sentiments I want to believe.
We all just need warmth and light, someone to hold us.
We're all looking up at the same, big old moon.

But my friends' children are wailing in fear of their families being separated because they escaped here.
A child was murdered on the same street where I attended a baby shower this weekend...presumably because he was a refugee.
Brown and black neighbors in my city are being assaulted more blatantly because racist predators feel empowered.

These aren't illusions. The moon suddenly looks so big,
but in fact, it's even bigger... it's just so far away, it's easy to pretend we're imagining its enormity.

Fire breaks down everything it touches. We reflexively step back, stay safe...but sometimes, we're meant to walk right into it. Now, it's time.

In the end, personal relationships - and love - will save everything.

Election Vigil

A family from Michigan was trying to distract themselves from the news and just happened to come to the Big 4 Bridge. The parents and three children were in Louisville for a work conference but couldn't stand sitting in the hotel room, feeling alone. As they approached the foot of the bridge, they saw a few folks gathered with candles. They were asked, "Are you here for the vigil?"

Afterward, they introduced themselves with profuse gratitude. "We had no idea something like this was going on. It was just what we needed." They were just what I needed, too.

Someone standing next to me caught my eye, smiling in the candlelight. "I'm the sister of the first man who was married to his partner in Kentucky," she told me. We tearfully embraced. "They both had to work tonight, but I wanted to be somewhere...for them. For me." For all of us.

A student, a lawyer, a college professor, a Waldorf teacher, an international nonviolent witness, a retreat leader, a doula, an academic, a massage therapist, a writer. Children, parents, activists, friends, siblings, teachers, neighbors. Louisvillians. U.S. citizens. Companions.

All holding a light.
All turning to one another, sharing their names, looking into one another's eyes.
All standing next to flowing water, common element, and bridges, structures of connection.
All holding their fears and hopes and angers and despairs and visions.
All singing, "Dona nobis pacem."
All nodding in recognition that we MUST listen to our children and let them lead us.
All imagining what we hope to see in a more just and peaceful world.
All choosing to show up on a cold night to be reminded of who we are, and that we belong to each other.

Gratitude for that circle of light. Let's tend it. Let's be nourished by it. Let's grow it. Let's use it for our collective liberation.