Photo Credit: Thomas Bonometti on Unsplash.

The She-Wolf Inside Us

May 1, 2024

There is an ancient folktale from the desert Southwest about “a woman who was a wolf who was a woman” also known as “Loba Girl” or Wolf Woman who climbs the canyons, and sifts through the arroyos or dry riverbeds, gathering wolf bones over which she sings, until they spring back to life and run off laughing with the voice of a woman. Inspired by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ retelling of this story in her book Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, this folktale invites us to call back to life those buried and discarded parts of ourselves, so that we can find our true voice again.

Tern Teachings: Guests that Nest & Give

April 10, 2024

It is not only humans that tell stories. . . In the voice of bright white feathers and a charming black cap, a story darts its way through gusts of wind off the coast of Massachusetts hatching out of makeshift nests of pebbles and dry grasses. during the months of April and May. It is a seasonal story with themes of reciprocity and interdependence between the arctic tern, a migrating bird, and local coastal cloudberry flowers suggesting that even temporary guest can still contribute to a landscape’s thriving.

Ushering in the Autumn: Synchronicities that Fall from the Trees

September 29, 2023

The ripening of local cranberries to crimson, the late-blooming rich yellow goldenrod flowers, and the variety of brown hues of dying leaves ushers in the beginning of autumn. I see a remarkable synchronicity in the colors of this landscape where I live in Massachusetts and the reds and golds that are considered colors of luck, happiness, and joy during a festival of my own heritage: the Mid-Autumn festival which is celebrated in Vietnam (known as Tết Trung Thu) on this full moon in September. Streets are lined with red and gold lanterns, and the rich brown color of traditional mooncakes eaten on this special day just adds to the magical similarity!

The Old Woman Who Weaves the World

July 26, 2023

Like the concept of Yin and Yang, the folkloric archetype of opposing forces that create the cosmos, weaves its way into so many different landscapes and cultural traditions secretly behind a veil of different stories and visual motifs . . yet here it is hidden in plain sight, in the White Mountain Apache folktale of The Old Woman Who Weaves Together the World and the Black Crow who pecks at the loose ends and unravels it again. What wisdom might this folktale offer us in rethinking our relationship with the wild?

Caribou Sky: Bringing in the Light

May 23, 2023

Reflecting on the gift of a folktale that draws loosely from several stories from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, and indigenous Sami folklore: the Goddess of the Sun is pulled by a herd of caribou that transforms into a bear, as she makes her way across the horizon and brightens the sky.

Selkie: Coming Home to Oneself

May 12, 2023

An ancient folktale from the Faroe Islands, Scotland, Ireland and Iceland about a seal-woman, or Selkie, who loses her pelt, and how she finds it again. Though this story is ancient, it still speaks deeply to the lived experience of those of us who offer our time and energy to others at sacrifice of something vital to us whether it is a love, a dream, or the potential to develop, and how important it is to reclaim it.

Crow Challenges Hobomock: A Nipmuc Folktale of Self Transformation

November 23, 2022

“Crow Challenges Hobomock” is an ancient Nipmuc folktale retold by Larry Spotted Crow Mann in his book Drumming and Dreaming (2016). I love this tale for its timeless wisdom: that real change has nothing to do with outward appearance, but happens from within.