Re-membering Ourselves As Rain.

Consider that the human body is about 60-72% water. Our bones are approximately 22-26% water. That we can live with out food for days, yet we must have water in some form to keep from dehydration. That water pure and simple holds life.

So why is it that when it rains, do we become upset, despondent, down right depressed? Not always, yet sometimes this does happen. There are times that we pray for rain, are happy and grateful even as it finally starts it’s rhythm on the ground, roofs, our skin.

I am wondering since it is my belief that we are all connected to each other, to the Earth, it’s plants, animals, minerals. That maybe we become despondent when it rains, for we miss being able to fall from the sky, that somehow our bodies re-member being a part of the greater cycle of life, re-member begin rain.

I would like to invite us to consider that perhaps the rain is sharing information with us that we have forgotten how to hear. Dr. Masaru Emoto, wrote a book the Secret Life of Water, were in he talks and shares with us some of what he learned by watching individual crystals of water. Seems that like snow flakes no two are exactly alike. Just as none of us, though we are similar we are not exactly alike.

What information might we be learning if instead of being upset about the rain, we were to realize and embrace the importance of it’s falling. Not only are we 72% water, for the Earth, our home it is the same. We all need hydration. Hydra – hydro form the Greek meaning water. There are cycles and season, in which more rain seems to fall. Here in the Northern Hemisphere that is usually Spring. Spring’s elemental force is water. Spring begins in a fire sign, Aries ( to thaw what has been frozen) and quickly moves into a water sign, Pisces (bringing growth, and or emotions of change).

Tears, like rain help clear a path, open new spaces for growth. Water is Sacred, we have indeed forgotten how to hear the messages that it brings. Might we invite ourselves to consider begin in harmony with the rain, with our tears? Invite ourselves to Re-member when we bathed in the waters of the womb. What an amazing mystery and miracle that is! Yes, in some many ways we too are the rain!

What might it take for us to Re-member when we ourselves were the rain, might we return to being rain? What messages are waiting for us in each drop of this Life giving force? How often in pain have you stood in a shower of warm water running down your body, feel familiar? Or sat in a tub for relaxation, and comfort? For me there is a gentle quietness that comes when I am surrounded by water.

Today as you, stop for a glass of water, invite yourself to feel and know how amazing and Sacred the water in your hand is, what does it have to offer your body? What is it that we have to offer the water of the world? Both of us are offering Life.

May you find yourself in harmony with the water or waters you come in contact with today. In ending let me share with you a Madagascan saying 'Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly, but flooding the river'. May we too, walk softly giving thanks for the rain, even when it floods the river.




Photo - after 3 days of heavy rain in March...I found this in a friend's garden, I too wanted to be inside the drops hanging from the branch, knowing what life will spring forth.

Over Coffee

Recently, I sat at the end of a gathering of women, that had come together via a circle created by my friend, mentor, couch and life student Lael. She had us do an exercise of telling us each other, what we Appreciated and Learned from each other during the 6 months the group had been together sharing our experiences around a theme.

We were not given an opportunity to go oh, it’s nothing or any other silly disclaimer we might have in fact used to not take in what was said. Afterwards someone asked if we would be willing to send what we had said to each other ~ Fabulous Idea. Yet, I want to take it one step further.

How many of us love to receive postal mail? How many of us when we receive a letter truly take the time to sit with the letter? I got to thinking over coffee, and touching base with a friend this AM via IM. What if and how sweet would it be if each day over a cup of coffee, I would sit and write out a letter to a friend letting them know how important they are in my life.

Letting them know what it is I appreciate about them. What gifts they have given me in the way of growth. No not in an email- but in a real hand written note. How much this act enriches my day, when I send out the random letter here and there – yes, I do sometimes send and receive notes from my sweet child; (who by the by is an adult – that I facebook, email, Skype and generally speak to at least once a week) still my heart lights at this gift of a letter. I find I save it for the end of my day when I can sit in my kitchen and savor the moment. In my life and perhaps most of us – Life, Love, happens in the kitchen. There are the smells of cooking, (love), sometimes dirty dishes, (life); it is the place that I believe most of us go to Re-member some important detail of our childhood.

See how it goes for you. I am grateful this morning to another friend, who felt with love and care to make my computer wire-less even in my smallest of NY style apartments in Portland, ME. He makes me smile with the love and growth we have shared. Yes, are you listening – you are forgiven for the breakfast debacle. So over coffee, I am sharing this with you. Reach out and touch a friend, share a cup of coffee even if they live across town, write them a little note – let them in on how you feel.

All love.

ps who might have a fabulous picture of a cup of coffee I might use?

In the stew...

So, before you read to far; hoping for a recipe for some fantastic stew, sorry, there isn’t one. This is more about our becoming us. Or more exactly the me that I have become.

This past year I have been blessed to be re-membered into the lives of two wonderful women that knew me at an earlier time in my life. Living as a single Mom in a little community in Colorado, Manitou Springs. Now what has gotten me to thinking about stew is both of these women said upon seeing me “Wow, you’ve not changed a bit!” This of course was meant as a compliment

Yet, it got me to thinking about all the wonder and changes that I have been through since I have seen both of these women. The spice of friends. The flavors as events that have helped shape me to this point. Things I have been witness too and the great amount of learning that has come my way.

Though to the eye it may appear that I’ve not changed, when for me I believe I have grown into my handsome good looks. In many ways we are all a bit of a stew pot; a magical alchemical process. From our first beginnings, the story that lives within us of ancestral beings. That we come from stardust, and carry within our chest the sound of Mother Earth as a heart beat. The mystery of how we swim in a pot of all the molecules of everything that has ever been and is ever becoming.

Awe is the word that comes to mind when I sit with some of the stories, that are shared with me. They too are a part of all that I am. I often wonder at my own ‘story’; would I be me if certain things were not a part of the great list of ingredients that have been tossed in? Would I live so intensely? ( This by the by is what I have been told about myself.) Would I choose to find the beauty, the laughter, see the sorrow? I will never know ~ what I do know is that I feel blessed, grateful and filled with Grace. I have been loved, been given opportunities a plenty to give love. It is my plan to continue to do so till my last exhalation of the Divine, that is my breathe.

I have been thrilled at times with the manifestations that marinating in my own stewing process have brought about. There have been sad nesses, hurts and fears, all apart of the mixing and marinating, the process of becoming, of blooming into who I am as are you. (Re-member earlier I said we are all in the pot together?)

So to those of you, who have traveled beside me as friend ~ I Thank you for all the magic we have and are sharing. To those that I only know as whispers on the wind ~ you I thank also ~ on the wind I feel your Being. I am greatly blessed. I am Grateful to be in the world with YOU and your stew- ness. Yum!

May we all continue to marinate to the fullness of our flavors, talents, full of love and compassion for each other and our selves.

Okay – I fibbed here is one of my favorite stews…soups; hmmm I wonder at the actual difference, but as they say ~ that is another story.


Stone soup (chick pea/vegetable) Gypsy Soup serves 8-12
Approx ¼ cup olive oil
2 medium onions chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
3 stalks celery chopped
2-3 each, carrot, sweet potato chopped
1 winter squash butternut or acorn
1 sweet pepper – red if possible
3 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 ½ cup dry (soak overnight)

3 cups stock, (made from any veggies or herbs left from day before) or H2O

Sauté 1st 3 items, in olive oil, adding in carrot, in large soup pot. If using dry chickpeas, cook before hand till they are tender enough to place on your tongue, press to the roof of your mouth and mash.. Mix all ingredients together….Let cook and meld flavors together

Season with:
Couple dashes of cayenne
2 cinnamon sticks
2 bay leaf
2 T tamari
1 T paprika

The original recipe and inspiration for this, comes from the first Moosewood Cookbook

picture of me at about 4 maybe 5...I thank Tirzah Griffin at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tirzymcwirzy/ for scanning this picture for me.