Summer Solstice is the height of summer, the longest day of the year, and the time when the sun is the highest in the sky. It is the zenith of yang energy and the beginning of the end of summer. After the solstice yang begins it’s decline as yin is birthed as we head towards autumn and the days get shorter. In the winter, when yang is born inside of yin, we celebrate the time with candles, twinkling lights, and stories from various religions about the coming of the light. Rar

Naming our own matrilineal lineage is an initiation of our sovereignty and an invocation of our milk line. My daughter, Nymue, and I did not have the same last name for the first 5 years of her life. We both had the last names of our father, who had the last name of his father's father's father's father... etc. You get the idea. Nymue and I have been looking for a name we can share for a long time. It has been a big prayer of mine to shed an old skin that got too tight and em

Our recent unschooling adventures have been focused on the medicinal mojo of the ocean, plants and wildlife. We went to the Farallon Islands, which lie 32 kilometers west of the Golden Gate. It was cold, foggy, and breathtakingly beautiful, as well as utterly lovely to feel the quiet calmness settling in, surrounded as we were by the vast expanse that is mama ocean. The islands are home to a huge population of birds and ocean wildlife. The Farallon National Wildlife Refuge is

I am experimenting with an unschooling path for Nymue. Unschooling is based on a philosophy that purports that when we trust in our children's innate curiosity for life, they will flourish in a constant state of learning. The path offers children the space to explore the world around them for themselves in accordance with the form and pace that feel appropriate to them. In his book, Learning All the Time, John Holt (who coined the term "unschooling") writes: Children, without

I'm slowly integrating an unforgettable adventure - an incredible opportunity to surrender to what is, emanate love, and embrace the unexpected as a path of transformation. Within the first 2 hours on the playa, I found myself in an ambulance on the way to the medic tent resulting in 7 stitches in my forehead. Soon after, the battery on my camper van died, my generator broke, and the propane tank leaked. Then to top it off, Nymue's babysitter didn't show up until the day befo