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My Corner of the Sky Inside

May 17, 2020 in Age Matters, Cat Lady Matters, Church Matters, City Matters, Quoth the Raving, Ruby Intuition, Spirit Matters

It was a beautiful morning full of the bittersweet longing that defines middle-age, regardless of whether you’re coupled up, family’d up, quarantined up. I woke before the sun, made strong French-press coffee with cream, finished reading my detective novel before springing into the day. Maneuvered mini-car Minerva over the bridge to pretty-pretty John Lindsay park from which I walked miles and miles up the Manhattan side of the East River–steering clear of the runners (oy vey), nodding at all my fellow masked travelers. On a patch of waterfront grass as far from the madding crowd as you can find on a NYC morning, I flopped down to pray and meditate and swan in soft unkempt sun. Only a particularly curious squirrel crept up, and she kept a respectful distance as I pulled down my mask and breathed in big big air. By then it was 9 am so I cruised over to the Tompkins Square greenmarket to fetch gorgeous spring produce (strawberries! ramps! mint! pea shoots!) and mediocre peonies (even mediocre peonies are peonies) before scooting home, Roberta Flack pouring out of the speakers. Back home I baked skillet cornbread and pickled watermelon radishes while jabbering on the phone with a friend about a disappointing love.

From a corner permakitten watched through greenly slitted eyes–judging my backsliding as only a feline can judge.

Now it’s midday and I’m already worn out and at loose ends. That’s not pandemic. That’s the sadness that finds us in all the places quotidian pleasures can’t reach. You know: those corners we just don’t feel held. Come mid-life, only the foolish believe those corners fully disappear.

So, dear ones, no nonchurchy church this afternoon. This is a day for reception rather than inception–for rest rather than rigor and wonder even when you can’t wander. Mary Oliver wrote: “My job is loving the world.” It’s all of our jobs, really. Love up your corner of the sky today. I suspect I’m poised for a three-hour nap and a to-go tequila cocktail. Then next Sunday (5/24) we’ll Sky-Inside together. Mark those calendars: (5/24) at 1pm on Rubyintuitionbk IG Live.

The Church of Real Work

April 27, 2020 in Church Matters, Quoth the Raving, Ruby Intuition, Spirit Matters

Behold this image of the aftermath of yesterday’s readings and Sky Inside live Instagram services–the nonchurchy church portal I’ve been creating since Quarantime began. These are such trying times but deeply tuning into people is always uplifting. Because whenever I tune into a person, I always encounter their divine self— what I call their best self or the soul.

It’s only when we’re disconnected from this divinity that we fail ourselves and others.

I’m especially grateful for this work because Taurus season is a time to be beautifully of use. After many weeks of shelter-in-place dormancy, we must re-activate ourselves—dance around, primal-scream at our demons, do whatever it takes to release our static energy and salvage our sanity through service to ourselves and each other. For me this service entails translating people back to their best selves–whether through the vehicle of tarot cards in my capacity as an intuitive or through film and television reviews in my capacity as a critic. (We’re still taping Talking Pictures via Zoom for PBS.)

The larger point is that each us is a beloved child of the universe with a unique calling that make us feel most ourselves. That’s not capitalism’s division of labor. That’s a divine division of labor. So let’s each grab a tool—be it a pen, a guitar, a microphone, a garden shovel, a sewing machine, a smartphone, a spreadsheet, a callsheet—and do what we uniquely can to make this world better. Marge Piercy says: “The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real.” Real work is the most practical magic of all.

For a reading to determine how you may uniquely be of service, book here. Taurus season readings are pure pleasure.

March into the Future, Bird by Bird

March 1, 2020 in Quoth the Raving, Ruby Intuition, Spirit Matters

I’ve learned that there will always be a next time, and that I will submerge in darkness and misery, but that I won’t stay submerged. And each time something has been learned under the waters; something has been gained; and a new kind of love has grown.—Madeleine L’Engle

Hello March! Sometimes, especially in the dreary last days of winter, my clients want to hear about a future that is magically better than their present. It’s human nature to crave a “Santa Clause.” But the truth is that our lives are a mixture of fate and free will—-the culmination of our choices in the face of factors beyond our control.

And entropy is change, too. To avoid it we must work our problems as we sow seeds and till fields. Sun rises, sun sets, but only when we consciously channel its light do we grow something from our shit. This is practical magic at its core–change we manifest rather than passively await and observe. This is love as a verb. This is the self-reckoning that is the foundation of radical self-care.

How I can help is to divine a path on which you thrive—-marching bravely forward (bird by bird step by step) into a future conjured with the good wind of the universe on your back.

To find a path of your own, get in touch. Art (left-right); Jacob Lawrence, Horace Pippen.

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy