Beloved friend,
There is an old Buddhist teaching story that feels ripe for this moment:
A woman is being chased by a tiger, running for her life. She reaches a cliff and with nowhere else to run, takes hold of a vine and shimmies downward. Dangling from the vine, momentarily safe, she pauses to catch her breath and consider her next move. Glancing down she finds at the bottom of the cliff another tiger; glancing up she sees the original tiger; both are snarling. A little ways overheard a couple of mice pop out of a little hole in the hillside, creep forward, and begin to nibble at the vine! She takes a deep breath and as she sighs it out, her eyes fall on a lone strawberry growing from the cliffside right in front of her. Carefully she reaches out, picks the strawberry, and eats it, relishing the flavor.
I aim in the spaces I hold for a careful balance in which we can on the one hand acknowledge the events of the world and grieve for them, and on the other hand experience refuge, safety, and joy. Refuge and boundaries are powerful right now: so that we can have spaces of freedom from the difficult events of the world, so that we rest, cherish, and play. Connection is also vital right now: so that we can share love, feel affirmation of our values, scheme together for good. In my prayers I am always wishing you both freedom and belonging and oh, how I wish that for you now.
Last night I grabbed a wonderful strawberry – a Low Tide Walk with the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. James brought his UV flashlight as for the Winter Farm Walk at Hama Hama Oyster Farm I shared about last week. We were treated again to incredible wonders of nature.
From the tidepools at North Beach County Park
I've got some more strawberries for you below, darlings. Oh, and one last mention: the winter-spring Working for Living: Energetic Integrity begins this Saturday, February. There are just 2 spots left. Drop me a line if you want one! Often after an event like this the next is only open to folks who took the prior one so that we can go deeper. I'm not sure if that will be the case here; I like to leave room to meet the moment. It does seem kind to mention, though, that I do teach more than is evident because not all events reach public registration, and this is an entrypoint. Also useful to know is that the timing is entirely flexible on your end; this is built to work with your living.
Kristie Dahlia Home
Sending Love
I found great joy in writing a little note of thanks and appreciation to the Rt. Reverend Mariann Budde, who used her pulpit to speak truth to power during the recent inauguration and who is hearing a whole lot of very different sentiments from others. I invite you to join me in showering her with love, gratitude, and support at mebudde@edow.org or
The Rt. Rvd Mariann Budde
Episcopal Church House
Mount St. Alban
Washington DC 20016-5094
Ancient, Research-Backed Cold Remedy
In late 2023 the FDA announced that phenylephrine (a common ingredient in over the counter cold medications) isn't actually effective taken orally. This combined with the greater care that the pandemic has led many people to feel about viruses has led to an upsurge in the practice of saline nasal irrigation. We have tons of research proving the efficacy of this simple, effective, long-time human practice. The ancient Indian practice of rinsing the sinuses with warm, salty water eases congestion by rinsing mucus, can make some viruses less severe by lowering the viral load in the sinuses, and eases allergies by rinsing dust and pollen. The Washington Post ran a nice, mainstream piece about this week that could be useful for sharing. The 2021 ELVIS Kids study also showed that putting a few saltwater drops in the nostrils of children with colds shortened the average duration of the illness by 2 days.
Community Reading: Hope in the Dark
Kristie Dahlia Home
To whet your appetite for tonite's gathering or just leave you with food for thought, one of my favorite lines from tonite's chapter begins with the famous F. Scott Fitzerald quote that, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." Rebecca Solnit goes on to share the usually-forgotten next sentence, which is, "One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise." She also says that, "The despair that keeps coming up is a loss of belief that the struggle is worthwhile." and ends with a line that gives me goosebumps, "Inside the word emergency is emerge; from an emergency new things come forth. The old certainties are crumbling fast, but danger and possibility are sisters."
Oh, the Mystery
The knowledge that hope relies on uncertainty has me leaning into opportunities for awe, wonder, surprise. That adds sweetness to words like "'It’s amazing, really, how little we know,' said Wainwright, the insect evolutionary ecologist."
I love where this article begins: in 2012, scientist Victor Ortega-Jiménez and his daughter were playing with a toy wand designed to gather static charge to float very light things, such as a balloon. When they took it outside and a spiderweb responded to it, lightbulbs went off for Oretega-Jiménez. That was 2012, and he's done fascinating research since. It turns out that a negatively charged web pulls on positively charged insects!
Max G. Levy
“As humans, we are living mostly in a gravitational or fluid-dynamics world,” Ortega-Jiménez said. But for tiny beings, gravity is an afterthought. Insects can feel air’s viscosity. While the same laws of physics reign over Earth’s smallest and largest species, the balance of forces shifts with size. Intermolecular forces flex beneath the feet of water striders on a pond, capillary forces shoot water impossibly upward through a plant’s thin roots, and electrostatic forces can ensnare any oppositely charged flecks that lie in their path.
The Turning of the Wheel: Imbolc
This Saturday is Imbolc, which marks the midpoint between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. Imbolc means "in the belly" and oh, I am feeling that right now! Imbolc is the old Gaelic marker for the start of spring and the Christian feast of St. Brigid, the mother saint of Ireland. It is still a living holy day in Éire. One lovely tradition is the weaving of a St. Brigid's Cross using reeds; here are instructions from the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland. Bonfires and candles are also commonly incorporated into celebrations of Imbolc, to nurture the idea of the return of the light.
I have created a different ritual around light for our household in this season. As a child, one of my favorite Christmas traditions was the welcome candles in the windows of our home. For our family in the long dark of the the Pacific Northwest these lights are up throughout the darkest season: going up at Samhain and down at Imbolc. I look forward to packing them away at the weekend, and to walking out to the meadow to cut some grasses to give that weaving a try. If you join me, send a photo! I'd love to see.
