Why Learn Irish?

I’m getting ready to teach my first Irish language class through the Celtic Wisdom School, though I’ve taught Irish for about 25 years now at Harvard and a few times at Boston College – and so I’m grappling with the question: Why would anyone want to learn Irish? When I was falling in love [...]

By |2023-09-18T22:15:50+00:00September 18th, 2023|Celtic, Intelligence, Learning, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on Why Learn Irish?

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 [...]

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

Of Bards and Beatles

Sir Paul McCartney is an honorary member of The Bardic Academy! In a recent interview, he claimed his bardic lineage: “My excuse (for not reading music) is that I have a Celtic background and they never wrote anything down. It’s all BARDS and you’ve got to remember it all… We just make it all up, and [...]

By |2023-09-01T03:30:55+00:00September 1st, 2023|Artistry, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on Of Bards and Beatles

Why We Should All Write by Hand – at least a little

Like everyone else, I do my fair share of typing, both on laptops and in the tiny text box on my phone. But here’s why I write by hand every single day and why I honestly believe it’s in everyone’s best interest to do so, too: It’s calming. It’s a human-paced activity in a [...]

By |2023-08-26T19:19:34+00:00August 26th, 2023|Artistry, Intelligence, Learning, Poetry, The Bardic Life|6 Comments

Deep into the Night: reading for gold, then and now

Can you picture your long-ago bedroom when you were about twelve years old? Here’s mine: A single bed over which my mother had very helpfully affixed a reading lamp (thank you, Mama!). A desk for doing homework. Two small bookcases brimming with my favorite books, perhaps fifty or sixty, all of which I’d read at [...]

By |2023-08-20T18:30:20+00:00August 20th, 2023|Books, Intelligence, Learning, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on Deep into the Night: reading for gold, then and now

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 [...]

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

Watching a Squirrel Grooming Her Tail – and why that matters

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 [...]

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

The Upside of “I Don’t Care”

How do we really change our lives? What defines the moments when we leave behind one stage of life and enter another? While it’s comforting to think that we achieve a desired change by making a well-considered plan and calmly executing it, in my own life, the biggest changes have followed from the words, [...]

By |2023-07-23T21:57:03+00:00July 23rd, 2023|Artistry, Creativity, Learning, The Bardic Life|Comments Off on The Upside of “I Don’t Care”

Come Back to What Helps You

Do you ever have a spell of time where, either because you're busy or because you fall into one of life's mysterious boggy patches, you lose track of what most brings you to life? This happened to me recently. April's poetry celebration kept me on the hop, as well as the millions of projects [...]

By |2023-06-10T15:46:45+00:00June 10th, 2023|Uncategorized|2 Comments

April’s Poetry Celebration – the whole shebang!

We had a wonderful time this April, making poems, learning from Wes McNair and our other poetry guides, and feeling connected with our poetry community through laughter and enjoyment. This was our fourth annual Poetry Celebration sponsored by the marvelous journal makers, Jumping Fox Design. Each year's Celebration contains sparks (writing prompts) and dares [...]

By |2023-06-10T15:59:59+00:00May 1st, 2023|Artistry, Creativity, Poetry, Videos|Comments Off on April’s Poetry Celebration – the whole shebang!

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