December gave the world a lot to celebrate: Bodhi Day, Day of Our Lady Guadalupe, Hanukkah, Yule, Christmas, Kwanza, Zarathost Diso, and New Year’s Eve. Colorful lights and crackling fires against a crisp winter canvas always help me find time to ponder spiritual connections and how humanity has attempted to make sense of and, perhaps ironically, immortalize our understandings. The written word and art have always been equally powerful mediums for capturing abstract yet visceral emotions. Even tentatively opening the door to a museum or a used bookstore makes me catch my breath in anticipation and reverence for the sheer energetic power combined in one space from so many inspired, deeply affected souls.
Kindred Conversations: Jasmine Hampton, Olympic Hopeful and Local Boxing Champion
“That’s life,” Jasmine Hampton reports cheerfully from training camp. If she is anything, she is a good sport. Hampton is a two-time Junior Olympics champion boxer and 11x national champion with a record of 106-17 or so. She was enrolled in the Olympic Training camp with US Boxing in Colorado Springs as an alternate, even though she won her weight class. The selection process can seem arbitrary, but she is happy to train in any case. Born and raised in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, I met Hampton as the cool high school kid who lived down the street. I got to know her as she became a champion basketball player and track star first. It has been a treat to witness her devotion to the task every step of the way.
Dying to Wake Up
Though Boo wasn’t my “real” grandfather I could not miss the realness of his final days. Despite the sticky doorknob, the smell of last week’s lunch, dead flowers, and the junk pile obstacle course, I made my way to his bedside. The clutter used to spark an uncomfortable itch throughout my body, but I’d accepted it. His 98-year-old body was tired, but his spirit was very much alive as he pondered the end.
Growing Green Indoors All Winter
As the days shorten and the gardens are put to bed, I find I not only miss fresh greens, I miss puttering in my garden and watching my food grow. So, for several years, I’ve been experimenting with ways to grow meaningful amounts of vegetables indoors.
Be a Solar Panel: Tips for Managing the Dark Days Ahead
It was late October when I moved to Michigan from Alaska 16 years ago. The day I met my new neighbor, he enthusiastically told me some of the reasons he loved Michigan. It was reassuring, as a mom with three young kids, to hear the positive things he had to say about growing up here, but I had to admit that I was probably most excited about living in a place that has four seasons. I said that as much as I loved living in Alaska, the long winters were challenging for me—cold winters when some days the sun would rise after 10 a.m. and set before 4 p.m. I did not mention how much my mood was affected by the scarcity of light, but when I noted that I looked forward to having more sunlight during the winter, he laughed and responded with something like, “I don’t know if you know this, but even though we don’t have the same extreme when it comes to sun up and down, the sky can be gray pretty much all winter.”
Kids Can Cook, Too! And Why They Should…
Cooking isn’t just about whipping up tasty treats (although that’s definitely a big part of the fun). Empowering and nurturing children’s culinary skills extends far beyond the kitchen. It’s a fantastic adventure where kids explore, create, and learn skills that will stick with them for life. Think of it as a mix of delicious experiments and add a sprinkle of essential life lessons on top. From crafting scrumptious snacks to understanding the fuel that keeps us going, kids learn the importance of nutrition, gain confidence, and feel accomplished. In today’s fast-paced world, introducing kids to the wonders of cooking is an invaluable gift, offering them a foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating habits and a deeper appreciation for the culinary arts.
Anne Biris — The Healing Power of Chinese Medicine
Anne Biris is a nationally board certified and State of Michigan licensed acupuncturist, Chinese herbalist, massage therapist, and practitioner of Chinese Medicine with offices in Ann Arbor and Dearborn Heights. She holds a Master’s degree in Chinese Medicine and has been practicing for 30 years. She also provides acupuncture on a volunteer basis in the poorest areas of India and Sikkim. Biris likes to fly under the radar, but after much prodding (because Anne Biris is a treasure that readers of CWCJ should know about), s
A Lament for Winter
On a recent morning, the sun rose just above the horizon, shooting spires of light through the trees and tinting the snow-covered ground orange. My exhalations froze in plumes as I walked our dog—or he walked me—amid the trees that cover most of our backyard.
The Quartz Crystals in Our Lives — Necessity, Healing, and Magic
For as long as I can remember I have had a fascination with quartz crystals. They call to my heart and sing to my soul. I have them in most every room of my home. As a spiritual person, I believe in the metaphysical and healing use of crystals of all varieties. My favorite crystal is clear quartz. I love the beauty and clarity of these faceted wonders of nature.
Prophecy, Legacy, and Trees
I have dreams that come true. Not all of them, of course, but enough that I now accept this strange unbidden gift as a natural part of who I am. For example, I once dreamed that a dear friend’s daughter was pinned underneath a huge tree that had fallen on her. In the dream, she was alive, but she was unable to move the tree, and she was hurt. The next day I found out this same 16-year-old girl, had been driving too fast on a gravel road, went airborne over a bridge, and hit a telephone pole in her dad’s Dodge Ram. The pole fell, totaling the truck, and trapping her inside. She was banged up, shook up, but alive and safe. Before she had fully recovered, her dad received a bill from the city to replace the telephone pole.
Conscious Parenting: Harnessing the Power of Talking Out Loud — The Teddy Bear and the Talker
Imagine your child is trying to figure something out, like what to do for the summer. As your child talks to you, what kinds of questions do you feel drawn to ask? Do the questions have more to do with supporting your child in exploring the parts of the conversation your child wants to explore, or more to do with your own concerns? What could enable your child to get the benefit of having plenty of room to talk out loud and to take the conversation wherever your child wants to go with it?
The Parliament of World Religions Returns to the Shore of Lake Michigan
Religious leaders from around the world converged on the shore of Lake Michigan this past summer for a convening of the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. For one week, the McCormick Center, which normally plays host to auto shows and pop culture conventions, was filled with priests, pastors, monks, nuns, rabbis, imams, swamis, and various other devotees of world religions.
A Singer, a Song, and Memories
I first heard Steve Goodman’s song, “The City of New Orleans” over fifty years ago. I remember seeing him sing it at the Mariposa Folk Festival sometime in the mid 1970s, but I heard Arlo Guthrie’s much better-known version even earlier. I thought it was a terrific song, but I felt no special pull to learn it. I continued to come across it occasionally over the years, especially in the mid ‘80s after Willie Nelson’s version came out, and always felt the same about it.
Kindred Conversation: Joy Dettling, Life and Health Coach
Tears run down my cheeks. My right hand, resting on a hand cradle contraption, buzzes lightly. Life and health coach Joy Dettling asks me to continue speaking about my central concerns, as she monitors the correlating reactions on her laptop. “What’s bothering you?” she asked. “What are the blocks between you and your betterment?” With one deep aha moment after the next, I am surprised to be finding the words to express some of my most long-held emotional blocks and self-doubts. As I speak, the ZYTO EVOX hand cradle measures my reactions through the pulses in my fingertips and reports the levels on her screen. With a thumbs-up, Dettling assures me that, “We are on the right track.”
Out of My Comfort Zone: An Inside Journey
Here’s the thing I’ve noticed about stepping out of your comfort zone: The more resistance you feel about doing the uncomfortable thing, the more learning and transformation you’ll experience when you do it.
By definition, everything on the above list fell outside of my comfort zone, and nothing on this list catalyzed resistance like healing chronic illness. Healing has been the ultimate adventure out of my comfort zone.
The Current State of Sexual Health Education in Michigan
It wasn’t until later that I learned that my experience with sexual health education was not uncommon. I assumed, as a kid whose whole world was based around school, that everything in the curriculum was what was required to be successful in life. At the time, I didn’t realize how career-driven it was: Math, Science, English, and History were the four main subjects. Nothing about growing your own food, repairing clothes, doing your taxes, paying a mortgage, how to have fulfilling relationships, how to maintain good mental health practice, and more.
Book Review: I'll Show Myself Out by Jessi Klein
In a world awash with bad news and the relentless cascade of life’s endless absurdities, Jessi Klein emerges as a comedic voice of reason, a beacon of humor and humanity amidst the chaos. Her eagerly anticipated second essay collection, I’ll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife & Motherhood takes readers on a riotous journey through the tangled web of motherhood, midlife, and the quirkiness of modern existence.
Out Of My Comfort Zone: Sharing My Song
I’ve never enjoyed exposing myself to potential scrutiny and criticism. Staying quietly out of the limelight seemed like a good strategy for avoiding these unpleasantries. My friendly, people-loving nature, along with a deep desire for approval, caused me to prioritize putting others at ease, and to do what I could to keep everybody comfortable. I’d always believed that was the right thing to do…the nice thing to do. In many ways it felt good, yet a disastrous cost to me of all this people-pleasing was that I was chronically tense, and I was squelching my own true self-expression.
Astrologically Speaking-- Our Luminaries: The Sun & The Moon
Of all the lights in the sky, there are two that shine brightest—the sun and the moon. These two “luminaries” as they are called, illuminate our world more than any other celestial body, both literally and personally. Astrologically, they are also the two biggest influences.
Leaps of Faith, Winter 2024, Whitepine Studios
Fast forward to the summer of 2023, and I stood in an elegant gallery in downtown Saline, Michigan looking at a variety of impressive 2D and 3D artwork. I was there to learn how Whitepine Studios went from that upsetting message in 2020 to a thriving women-founded business that had already outgrown its first studio location (opened in 2021). Here is what I learned about their journey from setback to success.
