Every new year it becomes clear that we are acculturated to striving. It reminds me of a documentary series I love to watch with my children called Capitalism. In the first episode, it discusses how we have been taught to
Letting go of Striving
Chocolate Magia
I was joking with the amigas on our Solstice call tonight about ceremonial cacao. Or any spiritual/cultural practice that has been commodified and made into a craze. The minute it’s a craze, we may want to reflect. I have found
We are not separate from the web of life
Much of the anxiety that many feel is often a result of the way we have been socialized to seek approval from others. When we worry about what others will think of us, how we perform, how we measure up.
We are all trauma bonded
There is a horror film called Mama* that my sis showed me a scene from, because it vividly captured our experience. In it there is a dark mother ghost and two older siblings who break away from her. The bright
Questioning narratives
After my mother had endured the death of her two young children and her beloved husband, she was understandably struggling with depression, grief, heartache, devastation. The whole family traumatized and in shock, and she with very little resource to support
The only ‘expert’ is you
For years I have cringed when I have seen panels of parenting ‘experts.’ This is such a western paradigm rooted in competition/conquest. I like to deconstruct the ‘experts’ because I’ve worked with many a mother who is comparing herself to
Vulnerability as ceremony
Like most women, I experience a few days of hormonal sensitivity every month. I have always held that these are times to embrace with tenderness. Society shames women at this time, calling this vulnerability weakness, madness, hysteria, PMS and so
how we tell the story
By the time I reconnected with my mother around age 13 through visits, I had lost nearly all of my Spanish, and most of our connection. I struggled to know what to talk about with her, so we mostly just
the ancestral is not new
One of the moments that woke me up to the fact that so much of what we seek through holistic and alternative health, spirituality and earth practices are literally reclamation of connected practices of our ancestors…was in a conversation with
Mi Mami
I want to share a picture I have of my five year old self sitting with my mother somewhere underneath the fluorescent lights of a JcPenney (or something like it). Just me and her. When I find it I will.