On the days leading to Beltane, the Celtic May Day, I walked through the forest wishing for Beltane songs, wishing I knew the ancient words my ancestors would’ve sung to celebrate the season of fertility and new life. I found myself humming one morning, and spontaneously singing the opening of an old favorite song, “Feeling…
“Love alone is not enough. Without imagination, love stales into sentiment, duty, boredom. Relationships fail not because we have stopped loving but because we first stopped imagining.” —James Hillman, The Force of Character: And the Lasting Life, 2012 “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of…
These times are inviting us to share our stories. I keep getting that message over and over again. This past weekend, Sharon Blackie, our Spirituality in the 21st Century presenter, spoke about myth and story. Her storytelling of “The Handless Maiden” felt divinely timed, gently inviting us through story into exploration of these crazy, enchanting times…
In September 2016, I got a tattoo (my first and only, so far). I had considered getting inked before but had never found any symbol or phrase that I could imagine still wanting on my body when I am 70 or 80 years old. But in the summer of 2016, my beloved grandmother, who I…
This past weekend, Prairiewoods held our annual conference, Spirituality in the 21st Century. Our facilitator, mythologist Sharon Blackie, used a fairytale as a focal point for the themes we discussed. The tale, “The Handless Maiden,” tells the story of an innocent young woman whose hands are cut off to protect her frightened father, who has…
“Spring has returned. The earth resembles a child who has memorized many poems … For all the trouble of her long learning she wins the prize. Her teacher was strict. We loved the white in the old man’s beard and shaggy eyebrows. Now, whatever we ask about the blue and the green … she knows,…
When King Arthur first meets Lancelot duLac in the musical, “Camelot,” he wishes to introduce the French aristocrat Lancelot to Queen Guinivere, who has gone out with the court “a-Maying.” Lancelot is thoroughly baffled by this term … “A-Maying?” he asks. “It’s a sort of picnic,” Arthur explains. “A time for gathering flowers, for eating…
Hello, Prairiewoods friends! Last Saturday I was out at Palisades-Kepler State Park. It is a place I feel at home with, a land of love, wisdom and magic. The Spring Beauty wildflowers are in bloom, carpeting the land in utter delight. They are so abundant, so joyful in their dancing, that I could not help but…
A great blessing, among many, of Prairiewoods is the honor of walking with people in discovering nature as threshold into deeper awareness of God. In these days of pandemic—a.k.a. pan-deepening at Prairiewoods—we witness young and old of all faiths, race, economic status drawn to the intriguing woods, wetland and prairie. As John Muir, father of…
“Conversation is perhaps our greatest hope not only for healing the rifts in human understanding but also for restoring and reinspiring our relationship with the natural world, which is our first and most profound home. Care of the world is always essential, and care arises from conversation.” —Thomas Dean, Introduction, Tallgrass Conversations: In Search of…