Beltane begins with fire – specifically with the bonfires lit from the nine sacred woods (birch, oak, hazel, rowan (mountain ash), hawthorne, willow, fir, apple, and ivy). From that bonfire, the hearth fire in each home is renewed and rekindled. These woods symbolize the female and male energies, wisdom, birth and rebirth, life and death, …
Along with most of the rest of the United States, my husband and I are in the final stages of paying taxes for 2013. As most people who handle the process themselves — as opposed to hiring a CPA to do it — know, the US tax code is not exactly an intuitive document, nor …
Paying attention takes mental and psychological energy. It is much easier to make habitual choices. In fact, we humans are internally wired to put things in categories and to apply old lessons to new situations so that we don’t need to stop and think – which can be a dangerous activity when one is being …
Since my last Musings, I’ve continued to think about success, about accumulation, about consumption, about letting go — and I have come to the conclusion that I am really asking myself about identity. What constitutes identity? Is there some kernel of being that is uniquely me, separate from the family in which I grew up, …
I’ve been pondering success lately. As friends and colleagues move into retirement or pre-retirement planning (indeed, as my husband and I begin to consider the shift in life stages), I’ve been pondering how those I know, those I love, measure success. I was talking with my father recently about what he and my mother taught …