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Archive | Quoth the Raving

Have You Seen This Cat?

October 4, 2018 in Book Matters, Cat Lady Matters, Quoth the Raving, Spirit Matters

From Jeffrey Henson Scales’ “House’s Barber Shop” series, 1987-1992

I’m sitting in the writerspace today, everyone click-clacking all around me, and big tears are silently sliding down my face.

I don’t know how to work on this book without letting in all the big feelings, and right now that means I am assaulted by the breakdown of the environment and our country and my relationship. Really, it’s my relationship. Sometimes I wish I were an ER doctor or an air traffic controller, someone whose work entailed putting out so many fires that there was no room for reflection or, goddess forbid, feelings. Sometimes I wish I were an actual firefighter. Continue Reading →

Bittersweet Apples for 5779

September 10, 2018 in Quoth the Raving, Spirit Matters

I’ve posted this Louise Erdrich quote before but it bears repeating for the Jewish New Year. It’s how I always hope to live.

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

Lionhearts for All

August 11, 2018 in Astro Matters, Quoth the Raving, Spirit Matters

Today’s new moon corresponds with our final eclipse of the season, omgoddess. Eclipses release a tremendous rush of energy, and new moons signal, no surprise, fresh starts. As all this takes place in the sign of Leo, the lessons at hand are ones of self-love. How can we nurture our darkest corners, our most private hurts? How can we shine light on all of ourselves, not just the parts we deem fit for company? When I think of this powerful moment, I think of Marge Piercy’s quote: “Live as if you loved yourself, and it may happen/reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in./ This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,/for every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting,/after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.” Loving yourself is not the same as narcissism; it is in fact the opposite. Self-love is accepting that you are not perfect but whole nonetheless–a tree, a star, a mountain lion–regardless of whether anyone else ever tells you so. Start here, and you can move whatever and wherever you need. Blessings and love, dear ones.

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