Awakening, evolving, becoming.  All varying degrees of reaching outward, learning, understanding, then pulling the lessons close to integrate into our being. In this issue we’re talking about embodiment.  What it means to fully integrate those lessons on a regular basis.  Even when life gets messy, a moment to pause, reflect, and appreciate the lessons brings us more fully into our wisdom.  Whether we’re reaching for expansion through curiosity or processing through the lens

“You’ve been warned,” my husband, Boyd, announces on a rainy, Sunday afternoon. He is standing in front of the bookshelf in our bedroom that is overflowing with books. Books on top of books. Layers of books. Books balanced on the edges of the antique shelves that I inherited from my Great Aunt Blanche.  “The box stays here,” Boyd slides an empty cardboard box across the floor to the wall with his foot.  “…in five days, this box will be filled,” he pauses for dramatic effect.

Once a month, I give myself a rejuvenating gift. It is a creative retreat in the form of an online group poetry class. It is a special group of people who are scattered across the country, and we gather on Zoom. The instructors create an intimate space that invites us to soften, to step into vulnerability, and to write from our hearts.   The reason this class is so important to me is that it assists me in releasing a constant companion, my perfectionism. For a few hours, my v

To embody is to feel something fully, letting go of “should” and “have to” thoughts and pressures to create a space where you can be your truest self. It is alignment that you feel so deeply that it serves as a guide, a compass, for how you live your life. When you achieve this level of expression it often leads to joy through being in a state of flow, ease through supporting your values instead of struggling to meet the standards of others, and fulfillment through being conn

I lather up, glancing casually in the mirror as the water works its magic and signals my hands and fingers to begin their unscripted dance: a hybrid prayer-handshake of sorts, at once a greeting, a thanking, a hoping. They instinctively slip over and through one another in their unconscious routine, their own miniature tai chi sequence: right hand curl over left, left hand grasp right thumb, right hand grasp left fist, left fingers slide down through right fingers, right thum

The other day, I was taking a yoga class, and the instructor said, “We want to feel the posture in the body, and we also want the body to be in the posture.” In that moment, as I focused on grounding myself in this balancing posture, I exhaled fully, then slowed my breathing down, repeating to myself on the in-breath and the out-breath, “mind slowing down, body slowing down.” I use these phrases as reminders to tune out the noise. I use them for myself before I start any writ