The TriMet region of Oregon is a place of rivers. In fact, within a 50 mile radius of the greater Portland Metropolitan area, there are roughly 32 waterways. Not all of them are easily accessible and some are really just creeks reaching for something greater, but many of them, while unique in vegetation and flow, …
I’m watching the Douglas Firs and Sacred Cedars dance and sway to the wild winds of winter and I’m thinking of you. I hope, as life’s gusts whip and blow through you, that you too might see the beauty of this chaotic choreography, that this tempest might also shake you free of your dry leaves, …
Dear Stephie, As an academic, I have spent many years working towards achieving various titles. As a Lecturer, I have spent most of my career helping others to complete their degrees. But now I have become a mum. While gaining a new title used to feel like second nature, this one was given to me …
Dear Stephie, I like to believe that reciprocity is a key ingredient in all interpersonal relationships. I also like to believe that love is selfless and does not ask for anything in return. The giving is the receiving. So, with intention to “be love,” I ask for your thoughts on arriving closer to the balance between …
I am still sleepy-eyed and waking from last night’s slumber. The house is quiet and I calculate at least 23 minutes of uninterrupted silence.It feels like Christmas. Even if it is for just a tiny block of time. I took the kids to see my family for Spring Break. It was a beautiful trip. Perhaps …
The morning is thick with last night’s rain dressed up as morning dew and the thirsty little seedlings and sprouts in my garden are so very grateful. It’s been a wild month. From talent shows to birthdays, I feel like every second of every day was jam packed with “to dos” and I am grateful …
Gosh it’s been a busy, running start to the year and for the last couple of weeks, life has been teaching me about surrender. I’m not going to go into the whole story. It’s not important. But here is the guts of it: I made a mistake. I didn’t know I had made a mistake …
My great grandma Pearl was big on gardening. She harvested her own black-eyed peas, pickled her own beets, canned cupboards full of summer tomatoes that carried her well into winter, and grew squash the size of small babies. Her hands held stories, soiled and wrinkled with the richness of her small southern plot of life, …
When I was 22 years old, I went to see a medical medium. Not necessarily because I wanted to, but because my mother wanted me to. I was convinced there wasn’t possibly anything the medium could tell me about myself that I didn’t already know. I was wrong. Only it would take me many years …
Dear Stephie, I’m on the cusp of making some changes in my life. That feels beautiful and overwhelming at the same time. For too long I’ve felt like I’ve haven’t been living life, just surviving it. Surviving through the hours of the day, the days of the week…well you get it! Satisfaction and fulfillment haven’t …
