I guess it's been a long time coming, yet only around Christmas time did I think of giving myself the gift of a blog in the new year. It has evolved from a lifelong love of writing but last year the encouragement of a friend to turn an outline I'd shared into an online holistic practice course (forthcoming!) spurred me into really thinking of myself as a writer – now, finally. After more than twenty years of centering my life around my family, homeschooling, homesteading, library and other jobs and many community projects, I am hearing the call to move ahead with my own work, my own path, and I say, Yes!
I have created websites on dial-up connections, and it wasn't easy. Since the arrival of locally-owned EC Fiber high-speed internet late last summer (yea!), I have been able to connect with kindred souls and naysayers, cheerleaders and skeptics, creating virtual community that overlaps with local relationships. These networks and webs help me to shape and re-shape the
I have created websites on dial-up connections, and it wasn't easy. Since the arrival of locally-owned EC Fiber high-speed internet late last summer (yea!), I have been able to connect with kindred souls and naysayers, cheerleaders and skeptics, creating virtual community that overlaps with local relationships. These networks and webs help me to shape and re-shape the
frame of my own understanding to draw a widening circle that includes the whole world in compassion and respect while sharpening my own focus to the points that hold the most meaning for me. Perhaps ironically, Facebook is a new source for a plethora of hot topics and vital issues, and myriad conversational partners with whom to hone my perspectives. It could be seen as a mind-numbing time waster, but for me it has been a tool for drafting article cores and theses, often with real time feedback, and in a global social context.
This blog is a new expression of a concept I've been developing for several years now, Essential Arts, which seems to be simply the expression of who I am in this life. It's a holistic philosophy, balancing mind, body, heart and soul. It's affirmative and challenging, deep and uplifting, sacred and practical, intellectual and celebratory. I expect it to continue to grow and change yet it has its own essence that will remain constant, blending human experience with Nature and Spirit.
I expect to post once a week at this point, perhaps Fridays, having stacked this initial launch with a small variety to sample. But alas, Mercury turns retrograde late within the hour, so this seems the most auspicious time to launch, having begun the site Monday in the midst of Imbolc celebrations, with Venus going direct last weekend, new moon in Aquarius, and the Chinese New Year of the Horse, a blessed time for new beginnings! While I'm not much of an astrologer, I will write more on my views of things like astrology and divination in the future. For now, suffice it to say that I appreciate suggestions to focus on certain energies and let other things rest for a time, and ultimately I follow my own combination of divine guidance, intuition, study and common sense and take complete responsibility for my choices in the moment, considering multiple layers of pattern and meaning without trying to predict the future.
Essential Arts is philosophy and education for the Age Of The Unknown, where we now find ourselves, on the cusp of denial and disbelief, awakening to glorious possibilities and horrifying realizations, beginning to perceive our immense power for creativity and healing or suffering and destruction, standing with the weight of all of history on our shoulders, not knowing if the next step will take us into our children's bright future or into the dustbin of time. Yet we must take that step.
This is my next step. Others will follow, some small and perhaps some larger leaps in the spiral dance that turns this Wheel of the Year. I invite all sincere and respectful participation and look forward to some incredible conversations. I expect new projects, courses, groups and relationships to emerge and others to lapse.
I plan to write about such seemingly mundane topics as punctuation, capitalization and vocabulary, but don't be fooled – these can have a profound impact on our lives, our thinking and society. And while adventures into spiritual depths of meditation, ritual and divination may appear merely esoteric they also have great practical value and can be accessible to anyone. A just, sane and viable economy is of interest to me and you will find more about that here as well as such varied topics as Horse Sense, microbe farming (are we farming them or are they farming us?), Transition (which is both a stage in birthing and a movement to re-localize our communities – coincidence? I think not), and other minutiae such as the transformation of all oppression into healing and empowerment (and perhaps a little humor thrown in for good measure, but I'm not kidding on that last one).
I think I'll try to keep my posts shorter than this one by breaking up potentially longer pieces into multiple posts focusing on specific aspects of topics, perhaps crafting longer pieces for publication elsewhere or using them as a springboard for a workshop or online course. Education is one process of sharing the philosophy of Essential Arts and this blog may become the hub of that multi-directional exchange. I don't just want to teach you Essential Arts – I want to learn with you! We are all teachers and students. I look forward to hearing from you if you have thoughts on Essential Arts you would like to share.
Thank you for your patience while I learn to navigate Weebly. So far, so good, I think! I plan to continue making changes, adding and updating between weekly posts, at least for a while, so check back soon to see the work in progress.
My intention is for the greatest good of all, by the free will of all and with harm to none. So be it. Blessed be!
This blog is a new expression of a concept I've been developing for several years now, Essential Arts, which seems to be simply the expression of who I am in this life. It's a holistic philosophy, balancing mind, body, heart and soul. It's affirmative and challenging, deep and uplifting, sacred and practical, intellectual and celebratory. I expect it to continue to grow and change yet it has its own essence that will remain constant, blending human experience with Nature and Spirit.
I expect to post once a week at this point, perhaps Fridays, having stacked this initial launch with a small variety to sample. But alas, Mercury turns retrograde late within the hour, so this seems the most auspicious time to launch, having begun the site Monday in the midst of Imbolc celebrations, with Venus going direct last weekend, new moon in Aquarius, and the Chinese New Year of the Horse, a blessed time for new beginnings! While I'm not much of an astrologer, I will write more on my views of things like astrology and divination in the future. For now, suffice it to say that I appreciate suggestions to focus on certain energies and let other things rest for a time, and ultimately I follow my own combination of divine guidance, intuition, study and common sense and take complete responsibility for my choices in the moment, considering multiple layers of pattern and meaning without trying to predict the future.
Essential Arts is philosophy and education for the Age Of The Unknown, where we now find ourselves, on the cusp of denial and disbelief, awakening to glorious possibilities and horrifying realizations, beginning to perceive our immense power for creativity and healing or suffering and destruction, standing with the weight of all of history on our shoulders, not knowing if the next step will take us into our children's bright future or into the dustbin of time. Yet we must take that step.
This is my next step. Others will follow, some small and perhaps some larger leaps in the spiral dance that turns this Wheel of the Year. I invite all sincere and respectful participation and look forward to some incredible conversations. I expect new projects, courses, groups and relationships to emerge and others to lapse.
I plan to write about such seemingly mundane topics as punctuation, capitalization and vocabulary, but don't be fooled – these can have a profound impact on our lives, our thinking and society. And while adventures into spiritual depths of meditation, ritual and divination may appear merely esoteric they also have great practical value and can be accessible to anyone. A just, sane and viable economy is of interest to me and you will find more about that here as well as such varied topics as Horse Sense, microbe farming (are we farming them or are they farming us?), Transition (which is both a stage in birthing and a movement to re-localize our communities – coincidence? I think not), and other minutiae such as the transformation of all oppression into healing and empowerment (and perhaps a little humor thrown in for good measure, but I'm not kidding on that last one).
I think I'll try to keep my posts shorter than this one by breaking up potentially longer pieces into multiple posts focusing on specific aspects of topics, perhaps crafting longer pieces for publication elsewhere or using them as a springboard for a workshop or online course. Education is one process of sharing the philosophy of Essential Arts and this blog may become the hub of that multi-directional exchange. I don't just want to teach you Essential Arts – I want to learn with you! We are all teachers and students. I look forward to hearing from you if you have thoughts on Essential Arts you would like to share.
Thank you for your patience while I learn to navigate Weebly. So far, so good, I think! I plan to continue making changes, adding and updating between weekly posts, at least for a while, so check back soon to see the work in progress.
My intention is for the greatest good of all, by the free will of all and with harm to none. So be it. Blessed be!