Music Ennobles All It Touches
Lughnasadh is here. I invite you to think, what have you harvested? What harvests are yet to come in? Are the skies clear, or does rain threaten to undo all your hard work? What do you wish you had planted, back in spring? Lugh shines brightly, high overhead. Many-skilled, he invites us to work hard … Continue reading Lughnasadh
S P O I L E R SPACE I love this movie for so many reasons. It isn’t High Art, but it can be unpacked just as a ballad or a myth can be. There are layers of meaning there for the Celtic scholar, but like any good story, it isn’t necessary to be aware … Continue reading Brave — An animated ballad for our time — SPOILER ALERT!
A year or so ago, I was looking out across Oakland when my perspective suddenly flipped. Instead of seeing the trees among the houses, I saw the houses among the trees. This was when I realized just how precarious our supposed ownership of this land is. Redwoods stand like solitary steles, the tallest things in … Continue reading The Urban Forest
I was driving down Van Ness Avenue today when the forest caught my eye. It was only some red, red flowers growing in the median. They drew me in as I waited at a light, and then I saw the honeybee drinking from the tall blue iris above them. Only a moment, then the light … Continue reading The Forest Abides
We gathered under the redwoods in Ben Lomond. We were few, but somehow that only gave more power to what we experienced. There was time for deep conversation, and to learn from one another in a way that the excitement and energy of a larger group doesn’t always make room for. Workshops included drumming; alchemical, … Continue reading House of Danu Gorsedd 2012
Once upon a time, back when I still had a car, my partner and I were driving on I-5. I saw a bit of white and tan flap at me from the shoulder, as if thumbing a ride. My heart sank as I realized it was the broken body of a barn owl. It was … Continue reading Owl Magic
My step dance teacher told us that set dances were always the same, unchanged. But she’d go on to say that “this is the way the step was done when I was a girl,” and she’d demonstrate, quick and clean. Though she was past fifty and round, her feet were still sure of themselves. “But … Continue reading The story is always true, even if it’s told differently.
