The Witchcraftsy Blog
Throwing a very un-merry Birthday
Call in the mad hatter: Last month under the full moon in Pisces (September 16th) marked my very merry un-birthday, the mid-point of the year on a quest towards my 32nd year.
Although I’ve been honored with parties and dinners hosted by loved ones and friends, I don’t expect others to make a big deal...
Herbs, Meridians, and Midwifery (oh my!)
Just a dash of a holistic health pilgrimage
“Stick out your tongue,” she said with levity and bit of laughter. My eyes rolled up to the ceiling, embarrassed to catch her gaze in such an awkward pose. Was it brown from the Saturday morning latte I just sucked down outside? Ew. Why was I acting all nervous? I jutted my tongue out of my mouth just as I had for doctors...
Yes, I’m a feminist.
In the heat of the summer of 2005, at the peak of the Jewish settlement withdrawal from Gaza in Israel, I boarded a plane out of Toronto with my mother to Jerusalem. Planes, trains, automobiles. Like any summer, it was sticky and muggy on the East Coast, and impossibly dry and arid in the Middle East. Stepping off the plane I deeply inhaled through my mouth — the air felt like crispy, greasy, shards of overcooked Thanksgiving turkey...
My Mala
“Damnit!” I yelled, running into my kitchen table bench, clutching keys tightly and spilling coffee down my arm; a quick, hot, muddy Nile river of Ethiopian blend. It was 6:45am this morning and I was running late for my yoga class. Juggling to stay upright, I dropped my mala beads on the hardwood floor. “Damn, again!” Bending over, my fuzzy morning eyes focused in on the unusually long thread poking out from the “guru bead”...
Finding Refuge Inside Necessary Walls
There is a confusing corner of Colfax and Sherman in downtown Denver, where a beautiful Catholic cathedral stands tall. Around it, chewing gum stains the slide walk like ink blots on a yellowed 1950’s psyche test. In every direction, neon lights blind and dizzy, liquor stores and McDonalds temp with chemicals, a disheveled crowd circles, swirls, stumbles and shouts across busy traffic: “Fuck you, you fucking fucker!” Horns honk.
The Impressive...
Hovering above Orlando
My phone rang, right when I was contemplating packing blue pants or black pants. My world has been an endless string of flights lately, and this past Sunday I was preparing for a 5:30pm departure to Frankfurt for work, where I sat at 2am when I started writing this blog.
I scrambled to find my ear bud, “Hola, Chica!” Instantly delving into the meaningless banter of what I was packing, my friend...
A sensical look into matters of our DNA.
A few months ago, I spit in a medical tube and sent it off to 23andMe, a genetic testing company handsomely funded by Silicon Valley heavy-hitters. At $199 a pop, you too can find out more about your genetic ancestry, predisposition to illness due to carrier traits, or laugh at ethnic features you may/may not have like a uni-brow! For the record, if you have a mirror, you can ascertain your level of uni-brow carrier...
Balancing Life in Motion
I don’t know much, if anything, about cars… vehicles, hunks of metal transporting me from point A to B. My morning commute doesn’t include stoplights, coffee burning my tongue, or manically checking traffic so I make my morning meeting. My commute for work takes on two speeds:
1.) A sleepy shuffle down the hall to my home office, just 20 feet from where...
Returning to the Temple — A Mayan blessing for a few badass yogis.
“My name is Sabina, and yours?”
I instantly liked her, and not just because I was told I would. She was smartly dressed in island chic, sporting soft wrinkles on her smiling, sun-kissed face. She welcomed all of us with a gentle, articulate German accent, peculiar for the island… but fitting in a paradoxical way. Connecting with her eyes I wanted to say: you’re special (accompanied with...
Lessons from a Shape Shifter
‘Pardon, oh, pardon, that my soul should make
Of all the divineness which I know
For thine and thee, an image only so
Formed of sand, and fit to shift
And break.”
-E.B. Browning
XXXVII, Sonnets from the Portuguese
In the past, I had a curious and critical friend...
Dear wounded, and healing…
I recently went through two personal traumas in the span of one week: the end of a long-term relationship, riddled with betrayal, and a spinal surgery that rendered me incapacitated. My able-bodied, stable self collapsed alone in an uncharted and unexpectedly dark winter. What I thought was a partnership, careened down to the damp ground after months of little earthquakes assaulting the roots. I watched my strong body twist in pain until all I saw in...
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