You know I’ve been doing a lot of work in examining my relationship with my calendar and linear time, so I thought I’d invite one of my best friends on the show—who has these conversations with me often and who is healing many of these things in her own life as well—Stephanie Burg. Stephanie is […]

Lara Veleda Vesta, storyteller weaving with myth, initiation, ritual practice, folk magic, and ancestral connection, shares the story of a long and debilitating bout of illness that she now views as a rite of passage for many things including her connection with her ancestors. We talk about how experiencing illness or loss can cause relationships to […]

I’ve been feeling the call to invite more voices on the Belonging Podcast to help me paint in perspectives of this journey of Belonging that are different from my own. In this episode, I am so excited to welcome Ash Johns who is a trans-cultural ancestral healing guide, psycho-spiritual coach, ceremonial priestess, strategist, speaker, and author. […]

The moon is the ancient timekeeper of the year, and it mirrors the cyclical nature that we as humans move through—energetically, emotionally, hormonally, seasonally. It’s so powerful to tune into the cycle of the moon. So I’m sharing how I work with the moon—both how she works in folk magic, but also how I see […]

I use this word, “sisterhood,” frequently in my work and practice. It’s one of the most powerful tools I’ve found for healing, feeling a sense of belonging, and deepening your relationship to self, but it’s a practice and there are a lot of unhealthy models of sisterhood in media and popular culture. The best way […]

Today I’m talking about the importance of finding a sense of belonging in your body in a society that may not love and support the type of body you have in the way it deserves to be seen. This is a tender episode about how sometimes we can engage in unhealthy or harmful treatment of […]

Home is very important to me. Sure, I like to get out into the world to learn and connect and get my extrovert on, but at my core, I am an earth mama who really appreciates a cozy space to help me feel grounded. After living many years in a 100-year-old cottage, we recently bought […]

I’ve recently moved and am deep in the process of settling into this new home and infusing my magic and a feeling of sacred into it. So in this episode, I want to talk about that sacred hygge and finding belonging in the place where you live. This episode isn’t just for people who are moving […]

In this episode of Belonging, I’m welcoming my first guest, Jenni Heffernan Brown, to talk with me about a subject that we’ve both experienced and supported each other through: miscarriage. We’re talking about the multifaceted layers of grief, experiencing grief with a partner, allowing family and friends to (imperfectly) hold you when you’re going through difficult […]

As we enter the winter season, let’s take a moment to tap into the Ancestral folklore perspective of this time of year. As the days get colder and darker, it’s important to lean into both community and rest. In this episode of Belonging, we’re looking at some of the winter folklore associated with this season […]

This past autumn, when the veils were still thin and the season of ancestors was upon us, I hosted eight women in my home for the Rooted Magic Retreat. Our intentions were to come together to greet the ancestral season of going inward. We all wanted to reconnect to our roots, to remember how to […]

In this episode of the Belonging Podcast, I’m talking about cultivating a more meaningful relationship with the winter holidays. This is the time of year when seasonally and energetically we really want to go within. But often we feel pressured, frenzied, and can cross boundaries in preparing for the season and getting caught up in […]

One of my favorite things about traveling on pilgrimage to ancestral lands and sacred sites is to be able to connect to the women of that land—the women who hold the secrets of the ancestors of that place in their bones. When I traveled to Ireland for the first time for the autumn equinox in […]

We’ve talked about tracing ancestry through DNA, we’ve talked about non-linear ancestral time, and we’ve talked about ways to connect to your ancestry through pilgrimage and exploring the lands they came from or settled on. Now in this episode, let’s explore the ways we can connect to our ancestry through folkways—song, dance, story, and food […]

Today’s topic is an important one and may bring up feelings of discomfort, but I’m asking you to trust me. We’re going to dig into what decolonization is and how you can examine your own part in the story of colonization, the part your ancestors may have played in colonization, and how to move forward to […]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing my intentions and preparation for a recent trip I took to Maine—the land my matrilineal ancestors first settled on in the early 1600s. (You can read those posts here and here.) It was important for me, as a European descended woman with ancestors who first settled Abenaki […]

When it comes to connecting with your ancestors, you can do a lot deeper than mapping your genealogy or taking a DNA test. In this episode of Belonging, I’m digging into the why being able to map genealogy comes from an immense place of privilege, the beauty of making pilgrimages to the lands (both indigenous and otherwise) […]

I find that the more I share my experiences of connecting with my ancestors and traveling to the places they once lived, the more questions I get about my process and approach to doing this work. As a western woman who appreciates structure and likes to ask a lot of questions, I can really appreciate where […]

Let’s take a moment to step aside from our linear lives and explore the spiralic, healing nature of ancestral time. In this episode, I’m digging into our timeless connection to our ancestors and how in doing so, our lives are very much still entwined with those who have come before us through the cycles we […]

Over the past few years, I have consciously been making pilgrimages to the lands of my ancestors. It usually begins with a dream (either sleeping or waking) that compels me to plant my feet on the soils my ancestors once walked and are buried under. Last year, I traveled to Ireland—a beautiful experience that had […]

When it comes to belonging and creating circles of sisterhood, we tend to gravitate toward spaces of sameness, so in today’s Belonging episode, let’s talk about creating intergenerational sisterhood. It’s important to diversify your circles to get different and new perspectives on the life you’re living. There are so many ways to find diversity in sisterhood, […]

Let’s talk about seasonal self-care and living seasonally! Life for our ancestors was dictated by the seasons, so aligning ourselves with the seasons now might feel familiar in our bones. Today we’re honing in on this transition point between Summer and Autumn and how this might be affecting our energy, creativity, and desire for rest. […]

We are living in the most distracting of times, so let’s talk about productivity and focus. But first, let’s go back to the Industrial Revolution where we learned the mindset that quantity is better than quality, and where our value of how much we can output in a short of time was born. Productivity is important, […]

Let’s talk about self-care. It seems like a buzzword these days, but it’s so important because this is the key to knowing ourselves and coming home to ourselves. Self-care is your birthright, so today we’re talking about self-care—not as a fancy spa-like image you might see on Instagram, but as a way to give yourself the […]

Today we’re examining failure and our aversion to failure as a way to dismantle capitalism and patriarchy in our society. Failure helps us learn, but we’re so afraid of failing that it’s created a system of lying. So instead, we’re looking at how we can create cooperation, collaboration, and community. “The more we resist looking […]

When I began my journey with plants and herbs in a more serious way, I unknowingly had a disconnection from the land I was living on. I was purchasing dried herbs from online shops who were sourcing them from all over the world. I was buying flowers at my local grocery store who was shipping […]

In my lifelong research of the people I come from, I have been drawn to the ways my people signified important moments in a human being’s life. For instance, the way they venerated their dead, birthed their babies, chose and committed to a partner, and (of particular curiosity for me) marked and honored their monthly moon cycle or menstrual bleed.

One of the topics Tim and I tend to bicker about is our phones. I don’t like it when he checks his email first thing in the morning while still in bed or peeks at a message coming through when I’m saying something to him and he doesn’t like how I grab mine when we’re […]

We are all in some sort of transition. Whether it’s a shift in careers, a new phase of parenthood, healing, birthing, grieving, graduating, completing a project, beginning or ending a relationship, or a period of deep longing. Transition is something we are all experiencing. I am in transition. Here are just a few transitions I’m […]

In the spring of 2018, I guided 13 women on a sacred pilgrimage to Ireland—the land of their ancestors and a very special place that has preserved much of the mysteries of earth-based, pre-Christian traditions. Each of us journeyed there with our own intentions, and our week together culminated with a powerful ritual to welcome […]

We live in a culture that venerates youth. The tighter and dewier the skin, the firmer the forehead, the more you don’t “look your age”, the more you are rewarded by our society. Combine that with the fact that we are less and less connected to our elders—whether by moving away from family or placing […]

The teacher began the class by giving her name, the name of the original lands of her ancestral people (Poland, Ukraine, Croatia), the names of her teachers, and her preferred pronoun. I appreciated this way opening the class—by naming her lineage, sharing her origin story, and letting us know how she would like to be […]

It’s interesting how, when beginning the journey back to your earth-based roots and diving deeper into deeper spiritual ways of being, we can feel unsure of what feels most meaningful to us. In our seeking of sacred, we can tend towards mimicking what we see those around us doing. That yoga teacher works with crystals? […]

This week, I’m trying out doing solo video for my post. In the spirit of spring’s new energy, I was in the mood to try something new in my desire to connect more deeply with you here. I’d love to know what you think (leave a comment and let me know). Last week I talked […]

Lately, I’ve been thinking about all the times in my life when I’ve made myself smaller, dimmed my light, or played along with something that didn’t resonate with my soul—all for the sake of not being judged. This comes up a lot in the women’s gatherings and communities I facilitate, particularly when it comes to […]

When I first came into community with the witchy/woo-woo women of my town, I was so terrified that I didn’t belong. They all had different body types from me, wore flowy knit dresses and long beaded earrings from the same maker I had never heard of, and drank tea from expensive Chinese teapots in a […]

Did you know this time we are living in is being called “The Age of Loneliness”? Yes, we have such prosperity with our technological advances—many of which I am super grateful for and rely upon on a daily basis. We can connect to each other with our phones and laptops with texts, tweets, social media […]

It was my turn to share, and I immediately felt the tears begin to well up and my chest tighten with that familiar protective instinct. It was if my body was asking me, “Is this a safe place to let go and cry? Can I really, truly share my deepest darkest truth in this moment?” […]

The question I am asked most often these days has to do with the hows of connecting more deeply with your ancestral lineage. How do I connect to the lands and rituals and traditions of my ancestors? How can I use the results of an ancestry test to translate them into real wisdom? How do […]

I have learned that it is good to begin by naming your place and people. I am currently writing this blog post in the town of Mill Valley in California, on the occupied lands of the coastal Miwok people. My people are almost entirely from the European continent, representing the Celtic, Pict, Nordic, Slavic and […]

We’re getting to that time of year where they are starting stringing lights on the large redwood trees in the downtown plaza of my town, the ladies who own a local pie business are sampling bourbon pecan and gluten-free pumpkin at our local coffee shop, and pink metallic holiday trees are popping up in our […]

The sweet and faithful apple has been re-enchanting me during these darker autumn days. The apple is such a quintessential representation of autumn to me. Right now, I’m seeing so many of us wearing our best plaid flannel outfits and wanting to go apple picking, drink apple cider, and bake apple pie. …and there’s a […]

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a handful of conversations with friends who have described the energy of the past week as overwhelming, rollercoaster-y, and unnerving. Beyond the obvious indicators of upheaval and strife that are hitting the news headlines every.single.day (I know…it’s exhausting and deeply frustrating), there’s a greater energy at play […]

The natural world has been my greatest guide when it comes to sense-making and navigating life. I find great comfort in the way the seasons cycle every year, but also how she (yes, nature is a “she” to me) gives us little hints about what she’s going through and what she needs. For instance, here […]

We are the living dreams of our ancestors. I’ve always been fascinated by food as an expression of culture and humanity throughout time. So much can be expressed through food—not just a love of gathering with kinfolk and loved ones, but also as a signal for what’s happening on the land and in your community. […]

I didn’t grow up feeling a lot of trust with the plant world. My family had a sweet little garden (growing mostly tomatoes and gladiolus—my father’s favorite), but I didn’t have a kindly old grandmother teaching me about the medicinal uses of the weeds surrounding our suburban tract home. I climbed trees and ran through […]

Autumn, in many ways, is the seasons of roots. As the air begins to chill and move towards winter’s frost, the plants are shifting their energy down towards their root to stay strong and survive the winter. This is the time when we harvest many of the roots, harnessing this powerful energy of resilience and […]

I’m going to begin this post by saying what’s true for me… Gathering with women is my passion and can come more easily to me than others. I am an extrovert, meaning I derive energy from social interaction with other people. I was known as a social butterfly growing up—easily cultivating friendships in my various […]

I’m constantly reminding myself to lift my head from my laptop or smartphone (or juicy fantasy fiction book) and look to what’s happening in the natural world for guidance and clarity. It can be so tempting to allow school schedules, work deadlines, and the mandates of the Gregorian calendar run the show that is our […]

I’m often asked for some sort of specific how-to for the way I walk in the world. They want the step-by-step recipe, the blueprint, or the link to buy the book that will tell them the path and the steps you must take in order to embody a sacred and meaningful life. And I have […]

I’ll never forget the day it *clicked* on all levels of my being… My 28 year old self stood on the back balcony of her third floor walk-up apartment, looking at the nighttime sky and realized that the moon—the one that waxes and wanes through her cycle every 28 days and guides the ocean tides—that […]

I can’t begin this without sharing what feels most true for me right now… I’m tired. The kind of tired that has me getting out of bed a few hours later than usual and yearning for a midday siesta that involves homemade strawberry basil lemonade, a hammock, and two very lethargic kitties. It’s a slow, […]

My hope is to one day be an elder, not just an older. During my conventional school years, I prided myself on being able to find the right answer in a moment’s notice. All it took was an easy internet search or quick purchase of a bright yellow spark notes booklet that contained everything I’d […]

As I journey deeper into the ancestral traditions of the women of my lineage, I feel all the more connected to my own body. I often look at my hands with such awe and reverence for what they are capable of and how all the women that came before me are helping to guide them […]

Over the years, women have come to me wanting to know how they can cultivate more meaningful relationships with other women. They tell me they’re tired of the same old surface level conversation, the automatic default to complaining about their partners or their job, gossiping about other women, or the dreaded social awkwardness that can […]

As much as I can feel like I was born in the wrong era and find myself drawn to earlier times of cobblestone streets or ancient temples, I am extremely grateful for technology right now. Let me explain. Not only is modern technology connecting us in this very moment through underground cables and wireless routers […]

Water is sacred. You probably know this already. Afterall, 75% of your body is made up of water. You know what else? Trees are made up of 75% water too. Water is in your blood, your brain cells, your saliva and your tears. You were created and birthed in an amniotic sac filled with water. […]

A knowing shiver ran down my spine as I heard those words uttered. I felt my lips mouth a knowing yes as I listened to the radiant shamanic bee priestess speak these words of truth. For a few months now, I’ve been taking a class called The Folk Medicine and Magic of Old Europe with […]

Recently, a beloved sister in The Creative Sisterhood shared an article that struck a nerve with many women in the community, including myself. It brought up beliefs around what it means to be successful, the sheer exhaustion of striving, and the glorification of the Type A perfectionist in modern day culture. Through the sharing of […]

Once again, the sun is telling us we are in a time of transition. A transition from the quiet reflective winter into the quickening energy of spring. The soil is warming, new shoots are bursting through and buds are starting to bloom. This past Monday (the 20th of March), we in the northern hemisphere crossed […]

Today, I’m writing you with a tender heart and an aching womb – having just experienced the loss of my first pregnancy. Being someone who encourages creative expression and copes better in the presence of community and a feeling of belonging, I’ve been gently encouraging myself to express the feelings, words, and sounds that are […]

Most of my life, I’ve had an aversion to Februaries. It was a bitter joke in my family that we couldn’t be responsible for who we’d become during that dark, cold month because it was always sad and a little bit ugly. The novelty of the winter holidays had worn off and now it was […]

So many of us struggle with the transition to the darker, colder days of autumn and winter. It’s certainly true for me because, after 4 years of living through Februaries in Boston, I turned my booty around and moved myself right back to California where winter looked more like a minor few 30 degree nights […]

I talk a lot about feeling connected to my ancestors, specifically the women in my lineage. I have found that, the more I work with my hands, the more I get that remembering feeling. It’s like I can see my great great great grandmothers gathering at the table cooking meals, making medicines, and telling their […]

I’ve got a theory about why Autumn is such a popular time of year. Beyond the pumpkin spice everything and cozy sweata weatha, I believe we are innately tuning in to the natural rhythm of the seasons and preparing ourselves to release and let go of what is no longer serving us. The trees provide […]

Before we get into Autumn head wreath making fun, I want to share a few thoughts on sacred adornment with you. I used to translate dress for success to mean dress how the conventional world typically views a “successful woman”. To me, that meant boxy clothes in drab colors that didn’t flatter my curvy body […]

After years of fighting against and wrong-making my darker emotions, I’ve learned to love and embrace my sadness. Let me explain. I come from a lineage of women who carry the weight of wanting to make everything okay. Big smiles were plastered over heavy hearts, uncomfortable moments and mistruths. My New England born and raised […]

One question I’m often asked is about how to cultivate deeper relationships with women, especially if you are an introvert or live in an area where there doesn’t seem to be a lot of creative, conscious ladies to connect with. I find this topic of sisterhood fascinating, because it’s something every woman wants (to feel […]

Tracking the cycles of the moon within my own body has been a beautiful experience for me. Over the past few years, I’ve been on a journey of getting more closely aligned with nature, la luna in the sky, and the wisdom of my own body. The results of which have brought me so much […]

If you know me at all, you know that I’m a big believer in the magic that occurs at the intersection of sisterhood and creativity. I’ve seen it time and time again. When we women come together to work with our hands, we remember the wisdom of our great great grandmothers. As we step into […]

All my life, I’ve wanted to help people. If there was some way I could share wisdom, provide a shoulder to cry on, or inspire a new way of thinking or doing, I would go for it. I would give my best advice on how to fix her situation and pull in for the tightest […]

If you’re like me, you hit the ground running soon after the clock struck 2016. That first week of January, I went after it. I had a head full of dreams, plans, visions, and resolutions and nothing was going to stop me. The new year energy is infectious. Promise and optimism fills the air. Advertisements […]

The autumnal equinox is just around the corner (falling on September 23rd this year), marking the first day of fall in the northern hemisphere. The beauty of the equinox is that it marks a balancing of things – night and day are equal. It feels like nature’s little pause so our bodies, minds, and souls can transition […]

EDIT: Since writing this post, I have educated myself on the origins of this practice of smoke cleansing and how to approach it with more integrity and less cultural appropriation. You can learn more here.  Ever since I came across a basket of beautiful wildcrafted smoke cleansing bundles in an apothecary in Colorado, I have […]

Summer is the season of bare feet and sandals. If it were up to me, I would be barefoot all summer long. Just imagining putting my bare feet in the cool grass is enough to calm my entire nervous system and have me wanting to gaze at the clouds after an afternoon picnic. Because we […]

Welcome to the final installment in the Moon Cycle Series! In case you need to catch up: Part One: I talk about my journey to making peace with my period Part Two: Your connection to the moon and breakdown of the 4 phases of your cycle Part Three: Incorporating ritual and self-care into your moon cycle […]

Welcome back to the Moon Cycle Series! In case you need to catch up: Part One: I talk about my journey to making peace with my period Part Two: Your connection to the moon and breakdown of the 4 phases of your cycle Part Three: Incorporating ritual and self-care into your moon cycle (+ sea […]

Welcome back to the Moon Cycle Series. In case you missed it… Part One: I talk about my journey to making peace with my period Part Two: Your connection to the moon and breakdown of the 4 phases of your cycle Part Three: Incorporating ritual and self-care into your moon cycle (+ sea sponges!) For […]

Welcome back to The Moon Cycle Series, sweet ones. In case you missed it, you can check out Part One, where I shared my story about how I went from hating to re-signifying my period and Part Two, where I shared how your cycle is connected to the moon as well as a breakdown of what’s […]

Now that I’ve told you the story that took me from hating my period to seeing it as a beautiful and sacred part of my life, I want to talk about how I’ve been able to do that. As a woman – your menstrual cycle is, in so many ways, your internal compass.  I’ve gone […]

I want to talk to you about a very sacred thing that unites us all as women and with the cycles of nature and the planets. It’s something I’ve been studying and diving into on my own journey over the past several years, and I’ve been a little nervous to talk about here.  I’m talking […]

Can you feel it coming? Summer, I mean. Depending on where you live, it might be super hot and summery already or you’re finally enjoying the spring weather and you’ve got a few more weeks before summer really hits. Either way, I think we can all agree that it’s warming up and, with that, our […]

Can you feel summer peeking its sunny little head around the corner each morning and evening? It’s like, with each extra minute of light we get, the promise of summer’s playfulness and joy grows stronger in our bellies. I find myself yearning for iced drinks in fancy glasses and picnic blankets on sweet smelling grass. […]

Dark chocolate. You know it, you love it, you gotta have it. Did you know you can easily melt dark chocolate and infuse it with beautiful herbal flavors like black tea, rose, and coconut? Making chocolate bark may become my new addiction because, after making these 2 batches, I thought up at least 5 new […]

This is one of those dabbles that made me feel all giddy from head to toe. I mean, using vegetables to dye easter eggs and using plants and flowers to decorate them. Just so completely lovely sweet. When I sat down to decorate my eggs, I tried several different ways. The first way was by […]

We live near the forest now – a forest of redwood trees. We step out our front door and out the green gated entrance to our cottage, walk about 200 feet and we are under a canopy of beautiful, old trees with soft gentle bark and deep, grounded roots. I recently went on an herb […]

One {of my many} passions is the study and pursuit of productivity. Not productivity in the sense of doing more in less time just so you can fill your precious waking hours with more things. That is the old paradigm of success and I no longer subscribe to it. I’m talking about deep focus. When […]

I’m learning more and more about the evolution of our lives and the development of our belief systems. I get frustrated when we humans (myself included) feel the need to identify ourselves as one type of individual, as if we will be that person for the rest of our lives. I’m a democrat. I’m a vegetarian. I’m a […]

If there’s one thing this past year of personal transformation has taught me, it’s that life is so much better when you just own who you are. As someone who has spent the past 20 years of my life trying to act like someone who I thought people would like most, I can verify that […]

I discovered the beauty of rose water in my Friday evening yoga class. It comes at the end of the class when we’ve vinyasa’d the funk of the week out of our bodies and are resting in savasana. That’s when the teacher would gingerly walk around spraying a rose water concoction over our limp bodies. […]

This has been my go-to edible gift for the holidays 5 years in a row now. I know I’ve shared a chai recipe on the blog before, but this is one special recipe. The candied ginger with the fragrant spices makes for a sweet and spicy creamy chai treat. The pink peppercorns give that extra […]