equinox

wild roots

weaving stories of wonder and truth

as i pulled together this newest edition of wild roots: weaving stories of wonder and truth, i've been listening and looking for patterns that have revealed themselves lately. today, these patterns fell into natural order as we land on equinox.

in the northern hemisphere, this means we head into darkness. the days become shorter, the nights longer. trees shed their leaves and the earth prepares for the new life that will come again in the spring.

for now, though...it is a time of turning inward. a time of hunkering down.

nature's rhythms help to make sense of the patterns i've been noticing in my everyday life and point to the reality of our interconnectedness and interdependence. patterns include emptiness/nothingness, death, and freedom in the form.

read full post here.

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.

The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,

The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy

Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony

Of death and birth.

— T.S. Eliot

do we choose to live, dying or die, living?

eighteen months or so into this virus and i'm still wondering:

what is our relationship with COVID? and what it might look like to be in right relationship with this virus?

and underneath these questions: what is our relationship with life? with death?

Read full post

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A Spiritual Practice

"Sit in your cell and it will teach you everything"

"Sit in your cell and it will teach you everything" is the foundational Wisdom from the Desert Tradition of Christianity and Abba Moses.

Read Cynthia Bourgeault's spiritual practice of "sit in your cell" here.

"When I Die"

by Sweet Honey in the Rock

"Oh, Death"

by Rising Appalachia

“The off-center, in-between state is an ideal situation, a situation in which we don’t get caught and we can open our hearts and minds beyond limit... To stay with that shakiness--to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge--that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic--this is the spiritual path.” --Pema Chodron

bearing witness

these threads of story are offered with love and gratitude, with faith that they matter in the weaving of our connective tissue and collective stories.

it is a matter of bearing witness.

amy j howton, ed.d.

WildRootsInc

www.wildrootsinc.com