The Smallwood Armadillo

Armadillo Medicine Recently, armadillo medicine was introduced to me when I pulled the card from an oracle deck that I use for guidance. An armadillo

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What the Painting Awakened

The Painting I first encountered The Meeting on the Turret Stairs while scrolling through Facebook. Something about it stopped me. I couldn’t have told you

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Deep Dive

A River Runs Through It There’s a scene in A River Runs Through It that has stayed with me for years. Not because I’m a

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That’s Not True

I No Longer Soften the Truth “And the biggest difference between then and now is this: I no longer soften the truth. Not for other

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Magic Christmas

The Magic of Santa

The Santa That Never Left: On Believing, Not-Believing, and Believing Again On Christmas, community, and the magic that outlives belief For Faith Mark, who taught

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Breaking the Spell of Hope

✨ HOPE-FREE: The Freedom I’m Still Learning to Trust I need to begin with this truth:I am not fully hope-free.Not yet.Maybe not ever, not entirely.

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✨ Awakened By Shakti

There are moments in a spiritual life when something arrives that is not simply interesting, not simply useful, not even simply beautiful. There are those

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The Prayer Wheel

✨ My father has been gone for over ten years now. Lately, he has been visiting me in the spaces between my thoughts — in

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Moments in Time

Some people come into our lives and stay for years.Others brush by for a moment — a single crossing of paths, a fleeting exchange —

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The Power of Our Story

The Power of Our Stories: Remembering, Healing, and Reclaiming Ourselves It’s been 42 years since my life split in two—the day the girl I had

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Learning to Listen

Ganesha and the Elephants of Gonarezhou I’ve been studying Tantra for fifteen years, and I’ve learned that its deepest teachings don’t just live in books

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The Audacity of Longing

Longing Claimed Most of my life before studying Tantra, I thought of longing as something secret—something to be hidden away. It lived unnamed in the shadows, something

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Love Remains

Love Remains

The Past Is Just a Story We Tell As I get older, I’m realizing something quietly profound: the past isn’t a fixed place we can

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Breath As a Practice

Everything Begins and Ends with the Breath A little over twelve years ago, I began studying Tantra. Tantra is a Sanskrit word that is often

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I Don’t Know You

Happy Birthday, Mom I woke up this morning thinking of you and longing to know more about you. That longing stayed with me throughout the

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Faith

Faith Williams Mark July 26, 1932-September 3, 1984 Faith Leads the Way Home The Last Time You Stroked My Hair Today is another anniversary of

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Carol-Trust the Unfolding

The Beginning I first came to Shalom in 1977. My therapist suggested a retreat at Kirkridge led by protégés of Jerry and Elizabeth, and something

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