God is good.God is great.Let us thank him for our food.Amen. I grew up with this children’s prayer to bless the food that I ate. It’s short and easy to remember. Today, I remember those moments of grace. We joined hands as a family, took a moment out of time to be grateful, and asked …Read More
Blog
Can you Exorcise Depression? ~ Andrew Solomon
“Spirits leave me alone to complete the business of my life and know that I’ll never forget you.” Andrew Solomon’s long battle with depression first brought him to traditional Western medicine with medication and counseling. As a writer, this struggle led him to research treatments in other parts of the world. He tells a colorful …Read More
Take Your Medicine Wheel
“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle. That is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in …Read More
Morning Prayer ~ John O’Donohue
Matins ~Morning Prayer Poem by John O’Donohue 1Somewhere, out at the edges, the nightIs turning and the waves of darknessBegin to brighten the shore of dawn The heavy dark falls back to earthAnd the freed air goes wild with light,The heart fills with fresh, bright breathAnd thoughts stir to give birth to color. 2I arise …Read More
I See Dead People ~ Dr. Christopher Kerr
“Medical training is about learning to defy death, when you can’t defy it, deny it, or avoid it.” Dr. Christopher Kerr, MD, found comfort in the avoidance of death until his career path inevitably led him to hospice. As a hospice doctor, he cares for those at the end of life. He has found that …Read More
Call for “Stories in Medicine”
The practice of medicine struggles with the often conflicting perspectives of healing, marketing, and money. How can we explore the stories in medicine? The frame of storytelling offered by Annette Simmons in The Story Factor describes six types of stories of influence: who am I, why am I here, vision, teaching, values, and elephant in the …Read More
Release & Renewal ~ New Year’s Retreat 2020
“Beautiful experience allowing you to dive inwards and pull up what allows us to truly grow…” ~J.V., New York About a decade ago, I had what I like to call my early early pre-pre-pre-mid-life crisis. (There have been a few others since.) Endless loops of thought. “Is this what I should be doing? Is this …Read More
#31: Spirit of the Shamanic Drum (Stephen Cavitt)
“What we are hungry for in the Western world is a reanimation of spirit.” ~ Prof. Stephen Cavitt The shaman enters the dream-like state to bring back wisdom, guidance, and healing. There are many ways to navigate the multiple layers of reality. One of those ways is the drum. Many shamanic traditions use the hypnotic …Read More
Florida Storytelling Festival ~ Jan 23 – 26, 2020
“What story are you going to tell?” That simple question prodded me forward onto stage. My friend did not ask, “Are you going to tell a story?” She had heard all my stories. She believed that others should hear me too. She could not fathom why I would not just get up there. Inside, my …Read More
Livestream – National Storytelling Festival, Oct 4, 2019
One person on stage underneath a white tent telling a story. The largest of tents holding more than a thousand in the audience. Tense moments of silence shifting into roaring laughter, then moving into the depths of emotion. The National Storytelling Festival invites the top Storytellers in the country for a weekend of storytelling. Can’t …Read More