The Gift of Innocence
The other night, I had an astonishing dream of a sweet young woman who was a ewe. She had horns and blond, tightly curled hair. She wore a white shift, and she was seven or eight months pregnant. She had stepped out of a story that we had heard told by a king. I...
From Streams to Rivers
I absolutely applaud the message delivered on International Women's Day by Lauryn Oates, Executive Director of Canadian Women for Women of Afghanistan. Lauryn IWD message 2023 - YouTube In her address, she said: You don't need to be Afghan to stand with Afghans, you...
Time for Singing
I had the pleasure of attending Sunday's Muse's voice workshop over the weekend, and she gave us the opportunity to write the story of our voices. Three words from her writing prompt started an outflow. The silent cry. It wasn’t there in the beginning. I’m ten years...
Enter Scrutiny (And Exit, Please)
I can’t believe that I’ve lived this long without discovering the books of Kathleen Raine. Kathleen, where have you been all my life? Kathleen Raine was a poet and essayist who revered the visionary imagination and felt the heartache of its loss in a materialist age....
Soul Cakes for Hallowe’en
I was taking pictures of Hallowe’en skeletons and ghosts in our neighborhood when I came upon this one specter reaching for her little ghostly child. The moment I put my camera on her, the wind picked her up, and she and her baby turned in my direction. Then a light...
Magic Words
"To those alive to the order of reality which they embody, the old symbols will live again; it is not they, but we who are dead." -- Kathleen Raine, Defending Ancient Springs, 1967 Remember a time when words mattered? When you strung them like pearls on a slender...
Tribute to the Queen
September 8, 2022 -- Queen Elizabeth II has died today, and I feel the urge to sit straight up at my writing desk and pen an entry in my journal that dignifies her. She was much more than a figurehead, and at the same time, that is the best description of the role she...
A View From Beyond Reason
I’m sitting on a bench overlooking the sparkling sea off the western side of Cape Breton Island. It’s a deliciously quiet afternoon, a reprieve from the building project going on next door. The workmen have stopped. I hear the dull din of traffic from the highway and...
Love in the Dark
A few days ago, I started humming a tune. It wanted words, and so I started singing, “What on earth am I meant to do?” The song had an ancient, mournful spirit, as if were a lost hope looking for light during these troubled times. I stood up from my chair and walked...
No Speak
I'd like to dedicate this story "No Speak," to my friend Ellen Jaffe, who passed on March 16, 2022, and will be missed dearly by many shining spirits. No Speak No Speak is a remarkable child. She’s about four years old. She has a large, round head and her auburn hair...
Time to Shrive
In his book, The Practice of Dream Healing, Edward Tick writes: …in our contemporary moral vacuum, public figures seem to see it as their duty to resist and deny the need for shriving. Shriving. It’s an old word, so unused and unpracticed that it has slipped out of...
Looking Back at the Looking Glass
In his book, Mirror rorriM, Mark Pendergrast takes us on a time-travelling tour of the looking glass, and he's left me enthralled by the impact that mirrors have had on human societies. Pendergrast is mostly interested in the development of the mirror as a technology...