22 01, 2024

Let’s Be Unwilling to Relinquish the Sensual

By |2024-01-22T19:33:49+00:00January 22nd, 2024|Artistry, Creativity, Spirit, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on Let’s Be Unwilling to Relinquish the Sensual

Sometimes, a visitor to my home notices the mermaid-blue typewriter or the record player or the crowd of ink bottles and fountain pens on my desk. From time to time, one of them asks why I have these things in a tone that suggests I may be keeping a zebra in the bathtub or a [...]

8 01, 2024

The Sails of My Ship

By |2024-01-08T15:15:29+00:00January 8th, 2024|Artistry, Intelligence, Love, Spirit|4 Comments

By sheer chance, I just opened a journal from 2021 and felt encouraged by this entry: "The hardest goodbye (at the end of the term) was with C who tried bravely not to cry. It’s easy to assume I don’t mean much to people, that I’m part of the furniture of life. But even that [...]

19 12, 2023

Listening to Pleasure

By |2023-12-19T14:43:15+00:00December 19th, 2023|Artistry, Creativity, Intelligence, Spirit|2 Comments

Sometimes in my morning writing, I ask questions of “Wise Kate” – that part of me that knows more than I do at present. Today, I asked her: “What do you believe about pleasure?” Here’s what she said: +That it’s as necessary as air and water to life, and more than that – to [...]

5 11, 2023

Use Your Brain to Make Yourself Happy

By |2023-11-05T15:20:33+00:00November 5th, 2023|Artistry, Creativity, Intelligence, Spirit, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on Use Your Brain to Make Yourself Happy

Yesterday I finished listening to the BBC podcast, “The New Gurus” – or rather, almost finished listening because when the host began to cover things I’d rather not think about, I turned it off. Same with a book I began reading recently. About twenty pages in, I set it down. “Nope,” I thought. “Three hundred [...]

31 10, 2023

A Visit to the Thought Store

By |2023-10-31T15:21:13+00:00October 31st, 2023|Artistry, Creativity, Spirit, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on A Visit to the Thought Store

I'm very inspired by the idea of the "thought store"* and on a grumpy, anxious day recently, wrote this little piece in my journal and changed my whole day:   I closed my eyes and entered The Thought Store. I carried my needless anxiety - a black garment with scratchy lace - and marched up [...]

10 10, 2023

The Lovely Fields (guest post by my friend Jo Toale)

By |2023-10-10T17:16:17+00:00October 10th, 2023|Celtic, Spirit, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on The Lovely Fields (guest post by my friend Jo Toale)

Here's a lovely treat for you today: a post by my friend and neighbor, Jo, that will make you want to hop on the very next plane to Ireland. Also check out an exciting opportunity in the PS! The Lovely Fields by Jo Toale (2019) I went home to a place I’ve never been.  Mountains [...]

26 09, 2023

The Secret Yearning

By |2023-09-26T14:18:15+00:00September 26th, 2023|Creativity, Love, Spirit, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on The Secret Yearning

Have you noticed that people who have ruled out all possibility of magic are a bit… depressed? And even, dare I say it – depressing? Please note that I didn’t say, “People who don’t believe in magic.” No. What I mean instead is people who have declared either with actual words or with their whole [...]

9 09, 2023

When Irish Cold Warms You

By |2023-09-09T14:54:22+00:00September 9th, 2023|Celtic, Learning, Spirit, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on When Irish Cold Warms You

The night was cold and windy and the hedges on either side of the narrow road that runs outside Ballyferriter, a town near Dingle in Ireland, were emitting a preternatural sound. My hair stood on end. I was twenty, my head full of tales and romance, and it’s not too much to say: I was [...]

12 08, 2023

Come Back to Yourself with Words: affectionate

By |2023-08-12T13:23:15+00:00August 12th, 2023|Artistry, Creativity, Spirit, The Bardic Life, Words|Comments Off on Come Back to Yourself with Words: affectionate

In Irish, one way to indicate an improvement in one’s health is teacht ar ais chugat féin – literally, “to come back to yourself.” I love that. It implies that feeling better is a homecoming of sorts – a return to the self we regard as truest, the one that engages with life in the [...]

6 08, 2023

Watching a Squirrel Grooming Her Tail – and why that matters

By |2023-08-06T15:09:10+00:00August 6th, 2023|Artistry, Love, Spirit, The Bardic Life|2 Comments

This morning I came across this entry in a journal from 2021: "Watching a squirrel in the hemlock, grooming her long tail." I felt a rush of gladness. A moment later, I asked myself: Why? From this brief note in an old journal, a bouquet of reflections. ♥A tiny moment like this plants a [...]

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