When I was four years old, my sisters organized a little birthday party for me. Struggling in extreme poverty as an immigrant single mother, my mother rarely celebrated any of her children’s birthdays. So it was significant that they pulled
It’s all about relationship
This past week we took our eldest to university. All summer and especially this last month, he has been so sweetly intentional about spending time with us. When we were traveling in Mexico, he kept remarking on how he likes
Naming the Inner Colonizer
A while back mi maestra Estela told us we all need to recognize our own inner colonizer when doing the work of liberating ourselves. I resonated with this term so much because I always felt we need to acknowledge that
Medicina cada dia, ceremony every day
I’ve heard the aboriginal communities are saying at this time we must engage in ceremony 70% of the time to know how to live and heal with the earth. And yet as we are living in a time where we
The Silver Lining and the System (on Post Traumatic Growth)
Around age 10, I started to learn to use the concept of the ‘silver lining’ to manage my grief/loss and helplessness. At this age, I had already moved around 12 times with different caregivers and I was generally depressed. It
Letting go of Striving
Every new year it becomes clear that we are acculturated to striving. It reminds me of a documentary series I love to watch with my children called Capitalism. In the first episode, it discusses how we have been taught to
Chocolate Magia
I was joking with the amigas on our Solstice call tonight about ceremonial cacao. Or any spiritual/cultural practice that has been commodified and made into a craze. The minute it’s a craze, we may want to reflect. I have found
We are not separate from the web of life
Much of the anxiety that many feel is often a result of the way we have been socialized to seek approval from others. When we worry about what others will think of us, how we perform, how we measure up.
We are all trauma bonded
There is a horror film called Mama* that my sis showed me a scene from, because it vividly captured our experience. In it there is a dark mother ghost and two older siblings who break away from her. The bright
The only ‘expert’ is you
For years I have cringed when I have seen panels of parenting ‘experts.’ This is such a western paradigm rooted in competition/conquest. I like to deconstruct the ‘experts’ because I’ve worked with many a mother who is comparing herself to