A large part of my Call to clergy, and my vocation, is focused on caring for others. I have felt myself drawn to this kind of work across the story of my life. Growing up, all the way through high school and college, I was often the confidant for friends going through a hard time. In my first profession teaching high school, that vocation of caring for others dovetailed with my other primary vocation of teaching & mentoring others. Then, while working on my Initiate work, the Call to priesthood hit me like a freight train, and I came to understand that I could blend those vocations, caring and mentoring and teaching, together in my priest work. I continue to lean into that blend in my current occupation and education as a chaplain working towards board certification.
Continue reading “When Caring for Others is a Calling”Oak Leaves
Reflecting on the ‘Total Eclipse of the Heartland’
This past week I had the privilege to travel to Tredara with my family and many other pagan (and pagan-adjacent) folks to experience the totality of the solar eclipse that stretched across the United States on April 8th. “Tredara is a 22-acre facility owned and operated by druids of Stone Creed Grove. It features multiple nemetons, an Ancestor Mound, a shrine to the Nature Spirits, and many other sacred spots” (Stone Creed). Every time I have visited Tredara has been amazing, especially because they always seem to have new shrines each year (this year was a lovely Hekate shrine), but it was especially wonderful this visit because experiencing Totality is absolutely awe-inspiring, and then to see it on sacred ground amongst my spiritual community was ineffable.
Continue reading “Reflecting on the ‘Total Eclipse of the Heartland’”Harvest & Homesteading
One of the primary ways I’ve found that I connect to the Nature Spirits and to the Earth Mother is through the little suburban homestead that I’ve built. It helps me stay intimately connected to the cycles and seasons of the earth.
Continue reading “Harvest & Homesteading”
Mist to Open. Mists to Bind. 