Beloved friend,
Today is my birthday. I am 56. I aim to walk down into the forest to talk to the trees, the fungi, the moss, and the birds about this after I finish writing to you.
Today registration is open for the first of three 2026 Workshops for Living. These online workshops are the spiritual heart of my teaching and mentorship practice. I offer them in the winter, spring, and autumn. Winter's edition will be Cosmic Grounding, an exploration of the source of the lovingkindness/unconditional love which lies at the heart of spiritual life. If we take as the root of our value system the stance that existence is precious, that the life of the universe is a glorious mystery, and that the opportunity to be a conscious node in the body of the cosmos – the life of the universe, dancing in a self-aware form – is a beautiful, perhaps sacred thing, then we are profoundly worthy. Because we exist.
Our meditations will ground into our bodies, the Earth, and the cosmos. In my way, science and spirit walk hand in hand in adoration of the mystery. We will marvel at the fact that every hydrogen atom in existence was created during the Big Bang and every drop of water in us consists of these same atoms. The ancient yogis said Tat Twam Asi: Thou Art That; you are the life of the universe. We all are. Everything is. We will nurture curiosity about existence and comfort in belonging to the life of the universe. Lovingkindness supports living your values, healthy relationships, and the development and expression of personal boundaries through innerdependence and interdependence.
Friend, you are as precious and miraculous as sparrows, rainbows, rivers. You are as wondrous as a spiral nebula. Come, explore with me in the New Year. We'll root into the vastness and blossom anew.
Full details and registration.
Today I'm going to honor my birthday by spending some time luxuriating in creation. Maybe I'll thread the orange and lemon slices I dried this weekend to make garlands. Maybe I'll finally make the window ornament I've been imagining from the bag of feathers I traded with my sweet friend Susea for our first yoga class together over a year ago. Maybe I'll take my pruning shears when I head outside and gather some cedar and snowberries for wreaths. Deciding which project to enjoy will be part of the fun! I'll return next week with photos of whichever came about, and then I'll be taking a two week break for the winter holy days to gather, dance, and rest. The donation-based Tuesday morning Meditation Gathering will not meet on 12/25 or 1/1.
Resources
Holiday Tenderness
The winter holidays can be a tender time for people experiencing grief and loss; fresh waves of grief often arise for people who have experienced loss during the year. Christine Pride wrote a sweet little essay called "The Fragile Heart’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays" which contained this gem: "Trust that the people showing you love as as enriched by it as you are." If you have a dear one who has lost a loved one, experienced a breakup, a move, or lost their job this year, it's a kind time to connect.
Enriching Escape
Door of Perception is Ben Roth's long-term project about which he says, "I started this personal archive of re-enchantment in 2013, following a calling towards the mystery. I want to invite you to extend your imagination and to stand in awe before creation. Because if we aren’t overwhelmed by the beauty of life we’re not paying attention." It's a huge trove of images and words and a beautiful place to explore if you need a nourishing place to rest. Thanks to Bryna
Celebration with Care
One of my practices as a host is to be sure to serve a fancy, festive, delicious beverage that does not contain alcohol. In wintertime my go-to is mulled cider, which is easy to make and serve in a crockpot. Leftovers can be refrigerated and enjoyed for days! We've just finished the Thanksgiving batch here. The Kitchn has a simple recipe, though it's easy to improvise with ginger, orange slices, cinnamon, allspice, clove, nutmeg, and even black peppercorns. Also great in a thermos for outdoor events!
It's Not about the Stuff
"I love you more than accidents/ I love you more than whoops" is the opening of Amanda Pahls' little ditty to sing upon the breaking and spilling of things. "Are you alright? Yes? This bowl got to be enjoyed on a delicious fall day, had a very good life, and this is the very best way that a very happy bowl can go out," begins the Resilient Daughter Project's video, gesturing toward fragments spread over a wood floor, which introduced me to the song. Ahhhh.
Followup Fungi
I spent more time meeting my strangest neighbors and I'm delighted to share with you some more names after last week's missive. Silky Pinkgill! Goblet funnel cap! Blackening Slime Spike! Blushing Fibrewort! And it turns out the big orange ones allll around our house are Fat Jacks. I had no idea that mycology was such a delight-filled realm.
Resistance is Love in Action
Gifting season can spread love far beyond your everyday, and reminds me of a beautiful Wendell Berry poem:
LIKE SNOW
Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly,
leaving nothing out.
In our family, we tend toward charitable donations rather than material gifts for adults, and greatly enjoy the tradition of choosing. This year's candidates include:
Undue Medical Debt purchases medical debt and wipe it out. Every $1 donations eliminates $100 of debt. Your gift can result in someone receiving, instead of yet another collections notice, a letter informing them that their debt has been erased.
All for Lunch, which "began as a simple Facebook fundraiser to pay off lunch debt in the small town of Suwanee, GA has grown into a nationwide movement". The Utah Lunch Debt Relief Foundation is another group that eliminates lunch debt, and this article about how it began is very moving: a guy read an article about school lunch debt, called his local school, and asked what theirs was. $835, he was told. He paid it off, encouraged others to do the same, and... you see the trend here. You could call a school near you and contribute locally, too, to give in this way with no overhead.
Supporting Me in Supporting You
This is human work – I do it by hand, with my own mind and heart; I do not use AI in the creation of what I offer you. I invest at least half of a day every week in the creation of this newsletter. It's a labor of love – folks have been stepping up a bit lately as I've been clearer in my ask, and thank you – but I'm still earning less than I'd get paid by McDonald's for this time.
If you enjoy my work, you can give me a raise! You could make a one-time donation of thanks of any size. You could upgrade to a paid subscription for as little as $5/month.
If you're a reader of books and you buy them from the indie Bookshop.org by starting at my bookshop, I will receive a commission of 10%, even if those books aren't in my shop. This has picked up lately! Thank you, whoever is making this choice. It matters to me. (Bookshop tells me what the titles are; they don't tell me who bought them.)
Sharing my newsletter with others when it moves you brings my words to them and perhaps their support to me; hopefully everyone benefits!
If you are a supporter, thank you; it means the world to me to know you value my work in the world, and it puts food on my table.
