a Place Called HOME

  I am angry… *surfaced after the 4th of July shooting at Highland Park, IL; republishing after the Madison shooting at Abundant Life Christian School 16 December 2024 Madison, WI I am angry… … because I am a woman  who has birthed Life  into the world AND watched men so carelessly & indiscriminately extinguish this Light! I am angry…  … because I am a woman who has had and has made  choices in my Life AND justice reversed this progress in the name of religion I am angry… … because I am a woman who has been marginalized, mistreated and raped for her resources  AND seen men who believe in their own providence do the same unto people of color, indigenous tribes and Mother Earth - ALL for the economy of money, power, and status  I am angry… … because I am a compassionate woman opening her arms and her heart to love & include more AND we label and categorize and discriminate down to a descriptor that divides US  I am angry… … because I am a wo...

  the ground is tilled for planting stirred up, unsettled exposing raw soil to the elements awaiting to receive the seed  some ground is frozen some is soft from a daily dose of light who knows what is most fertile it mostly depends on acceptance the details are immaterial where we land, how we grow temperamental to what gets thrown at us we learn to survive or thrive or die when a flower grows wild it can always survive, wildflowers don't care where they grow* just let the love & the light shine in nature knows the way to go there's a Spring in my SOUL yearning to BLOOM and must abide by nature's time  seasons and cycles that bring new LIFE #spiritliveswithin #intotheGRAYzone #pause #breathe #engage  #aPlaceCalledHOME #theRadicalAcceptanceofALL  *inspired by Wildflowers; Tom Petty

  There is a stone in my throat that blocks the path of my heart. I rely on my intellect to survive and even that fails me now. Now my heart has been quiet too long. It needs to be heard. It sits patiently in silence, yet words fail its expression. Expression is God living as Julia. However, the channel is not open; the stone is a barrier for that which needs to be given voice. My voice shoots out violently for attention It cannot stay quiet like the heart. The stone attacks the unknown predator who accidentally sets the tripwire. Once the tripwire is broken, so are my words; shattered like glass  because I hurt. Hurt didn't know how fragile the words are within me barely formulated against an image that provides me with meaning. Meaning that I, too, need patience and space and breath to inspire the words that are  so elusive to capture. Captured feelings beneath the stone yearning for words to set them free; no longer trapped within the heart but manifest fully into form...

  "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring  will be to arrive where we started  and know the place for the first time." ~ T. S. Eliot. This IS my childhood home. Literally, a place I called HOME for more than a decade. I am not normally attached to the mundane or nostalgic about my life yet, when my husband found this former house I grew up in, I was surprised by the emotion that surfaced within me.  a Place Called HOME - my spiritual companioning vocation - was never about a physical, tangible place. It is about finding those characteristics we associate with how we define HOME within ourselves. It is the journey away from our selves in a fervent discovery that what we are searching for lives within us and is expressed as us whether or not we allow it... with grace and wisdom comes that acceptance.  For most of my life, my dreams have informed the current state of my life through images of houses; burned down houses charred by the ...

 " Wonder is not precisely knowing" ~ Emily Dickinson I've been rethinking WONDER since Patrick Lencioni's The Six Types of Working Genius.  WONDER is the first gear of Working Genius that drives the other five. However, I'm more interested in how WONDER shows up in our own lives and drives our engagement in the world.  🌟 Openness & Curiosity: there are many things written on openness and curiosity from different disciplines; the biggest being able to suspend judgement and ask questions to gain understanding. Your experience is what you agree to tend to… the most difficult being Radical Acceptance for what is shared with you and what shows up within you.      ❔WONDER stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system by disrupting our default pattern of reaction. what surprises & delights you? when do you suspend bias? how do you practice intelligent naïveté? 🌟 Bewilderment & Hope: bewilderment is the disruptive factor in WONDER; it's a noticing w...

  co-REGULATION: a "continuous unfolding of individual action that is susceptible to being continuously modified by the continuously changing actions of the partner" (often between infants & caregivers) ~Wikipedia  I was first introduced to this concept through the performance company at Danceworks. In their Fight or Flight concert they explored stress, triggers and recovery through interviews and dance. It was profound and this idea of co-regulation intrigued me.  I am now exploring the idea and it's application in my own life. How did it impact my relationship with my children? Does it inform my relationship with my husband? And, if so, is codependency the shadow form of co-regulation?  And if after living through a pandemic that revealed how much we are connected, how does this concept of co-regulation apply to a larger context? How much are we responding to others who are responding to us? Are we co-regulated within our communities?  This holiday season ...