A spore adrift, hanging delicately in the air, is that me or what I give? Currents rise and fall so slight only the most fragile attest to its force. The mere drag of a leaf’s individual canopy catching air completely changes a spore’s path. Is empathy for the wild overshadowing the potential in domestication, the … Continue reading Being Fungi
Yesterday I harvested my first crop of pink oyster mushrooms and tried them for the first time (to me, they tasted exactly like scallops when cooked and makeup when raw, loved them both ways). The excitement has been rejuvenating. Hobbyist mycology is both fast paced and flexible in how much time or energy is expended— … Continue reading Of Fungi and Fun Times
All is one, one is all— you are a starfish. You are also me, writing these words, as you say the same ones in your head now, at this moment. You’re also shit. You’re also gold. What are the practical reasons behind believing in a cosmic unity? Life is fuller, but life is also easier … Continue reading On Unity
The act of struggle has been taught to abandon gratitude, crisis informs us we cannot afford to be thankful. How can I possible accept my current situation? Wouldn’t that make me complacent? But I already was complacent with struggle, resigned. I was fearful of gratitude. To accept the gifts of life, I would need to … Continue reading Gratitude, a Foundation
Rain is gravity and water facilitating connection, intimacy. Falling over everyone, everything, conductive and collective, water both spreads and gathers. The world is bound from sky to ground— the common denominator washing over all surfaces and substances in a union through contact. Should an energy source be involved then electricity would make one entire body … Continue reading A Drowning Rain
how many encircle you, apple tree, nowo’layers o’layers stack-side more,the core of your trunkcounting rings of a cross section,still-direction, to be so many things,if you can see, how many are we?togethered, apartedI trust only you, hope-thing of healingcount us for true, one may say oneI am— alone, but no—beings stand beside mebelow us as well, … Continue reading two bittersweet nightshade, fifty clover, orchard grass, six ghosts, and four spirits
Certain aspects of reality appeal to us by crossing the boundary between Self and Other. Not just reflections, inspiration is an external twin of our most internal core. Exactly the same, yet separate, in union they form something new. Within me is the child naturalist and when I stumble across something related to the natural … Continue reading The Pull: Describing Inspiration
We each have a journey that we’ve watched play out before us. Sometimes we neglect it, veer off course, but deep down we know where our soul is trying to lead us. In childhood we take our first steps. Someday we’ll take our last steps. Many parts of my life have been lost to trauma … Continue reading True to Yourself: My Path
Living is a series of relationships. How we interact with the life around us is part of what determines how synchronized we are with the world— the real world, outside of social constructs. This is the domain of weather, minerals, fauna, flora, etc. Today we’re focusing on flora, the plants. When we think of nature … Continue reading Your Relationship with Plants
My fiancé and I spent the day in the woods. We opened ourselves to experiencing our surroundings, and we explored. I’ve been communing, harvesting, and distilling conifers the past month. From the needles I make essential oils and hydrosol. Today I gathered eastern white pine.
Sustaining Practice 