I didn't grow up in a church community, though I had a brief love affair with the ritual I found in an Episcopal church in Oregon in my twenties. My legitimate quest to create a spiritual practice was birthed in middle age by borrowing from the Buddhist practice of mindfulness, and the strong connection I felt for the worship of the Earth as taught us by our first nations. In Native American cultures The Great Spirit is a deity intertwined with the fabric of the Universe and the web of the life on Earth. It wasn't until recent years I discovered my Wiccan roots and the pre-Christian possibility that my ancestors were Earth worshippers. When I started this journey I worried because I didn’t know how to pray. Turns out we all know how to pray through our love of and gratitude for the gifts of life. This vault is for those who, like me, hunger for a spiritual practice and are learning to braid their own.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Grateful for all my brothers and sisters


I listen to the slugs, I hear them sing, I hear them sing.
I listen to the slugs, I hear them sing, I hear them sing.
The slugs are my sisters, the slugs are my brothers.
We sing together and we sing to each other.
I listen to the slugs, I hear them sing, I hear them sing.


Slugs break down organic matter, which is important for recycling nutrients like nitrogen through the food chain. They are a good source of protein for snakes, salamanders, toads, frogs, badgers, hedgehogs, moles, shrews, porcupines, foxes, raccoons, beetles and various birds, such as owls, robins, blackbirds, thrushes, starlings, seagulls, jays, ducks, geese, chickens and crows.