Category: Animism
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I’m currently reading The Energy of Prayer by Thich Nhat Hanh. Like his other books, it’s thoughtful and gentle. But this one, in particular, has landed deeply for me. What resonates most is the way he speaks about spirituality without dogma. It’s not about what you’re supposed to believe, but about how you live, breathe,…
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The holidays are sometimes a difficult time for me. That’s not a complaint, just a fact. This year feels different though, more exposed. It’s the first holiday season in decades that I’m doing without alcohol or benzodiazepines. No numbing. No softening the edges. Just me, just as I am. I don’t regret that. In a…
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I want to begin by saying something clearly and respectfully… one doesn’t have to be Christian to enjoy Christmas. I realize that may already be obvious to many people, but I’ve had thoughtful questions from Christian friends about what Christmas means to me personally, as a Buddhist who also sees the world through an animist…
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I’ll be sixty years old in a few short months, and I can say without hesitation that I’ve learned more about myself in the past year and a half than at any other point in my life. I’ve learned how to face fear.How to endure intense physical pain.How to survive withdrawal, not just medically, but…
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I grew up being taught that meaning, comfort, and salvation came from believing the right things about a (to me) distant God. Defined in ancient books, filtered through doctrine, and guarded by rules. I tried, for many years, to hold those beliefs. But they never “took” in me. Instead, they made me feel boxed in, anxious, and…
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A Moment That Changed Everything Back in 2011 something happened that altered the course of my life and quietly anchored the animist way I now understand the world. I have sleep apnea, and at that time I didn’t yet have a CPAP machine. Falling asleep on my back has always been dangerous because it worsens…
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It’s far too easy to become distracted by everything that’s wrong in the world. So easy, in fact, that it can blot out everything that’s still good. With so many news companies competing for our attention, we’re inundated with headlines from the moment we wake up, unless we take steps to protect ourselves. For me,…
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My grandmother had little in the way of formal education by today’s standards. She didn’t get a 4-year college degree. She never owned a car. My grandparents had an outhouse until my father and his brothers finally built them an indoor bathroom. She didn’t get a telephone until I was already a teenager. And yet…
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I am surrounded by beauty, mountains, forests, rivers, and streams. For so long I was unable to see the beauty all around me. Blinded by despair and subdued by chemicals. But now clearheaded, I realize there is no time to waste mourning time lost. Now is a time for living, basking in this newfound clarity.…
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The mountains do not stand, they watch.Their granite faces remember the first dawnand whisper names in the language of stone. The streams do not flow, they sing.They coil around my feet like silver serpents,telling stories older than the bones in the earth. The forest does not grow, it breathes.Each tree is a guardian, each root…
Whispering Wyrd 