Today is Easter. We may know the tragic story of Jesus (Yeshua) on the cross, the betrayal of Judas, the anguish of the Mother – we may have been taught that he died for our “sins”. This is the externalized view of Easter.

Then there’s the story that Christianity appropriated the pagan worship of the new life of spring, that fertility was sanitized into a spiritual rebirth. Because, fertility means sex, and you can’t have any of that – or, if you do, at least don’t admit you enjoy it. Let it be whitewashed into bunnies and baby chicks, both sweet representations of “fruitfulness”.

There’s a different path into this story.

You are Yeshua. You are the human who doubts and loves and wonders if it’s all worth it. Who wonders if there’s a way to escape your destiny, or escape your past. Everything you have done, with all your best intentions, with whatever tools you had at your disposal at the time, all of it has led you here.
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My Lenten commitments are: refraining from all forms of caffeine except cocoa or chocolate, shutting down the computer by 10, and being in bed by 10:30.

I’m so glad I don’t suffer as much as I used to from perfectionist critic attacks. Sometimes I feel like the skills I’ve developed in this area are the most useful and foundational of all the consciousness work I’ve done over the years. Knowing that progress counts for a lot is incredibly affirming. I remember a time when not hitting a mark perfectly, a mark that I had created, would send me into a tail spin of self flagellation for days.

I have successfully refrained from the caffeine. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my chocolate, and have definitely used it as a stimulant on a few tired days.
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I realize some of you may still be in the ice and snow. Let me assure you that it won’t be long. She is moving her way across the land.

The fact that it’s Lent is part of my contemplation. My friends keep asking if I’m Christian when I say that. Well… yes and no. I’d call myself a Shamanic Christo-Budheo-Pagan these days. A Gnostic Mystic. A Laughing Fool. Lover of Food and Tribe. Pretty hard to pin that identity down, there’s just too much richness in the wild tapestry of life to try to fit it into a box.

For me, Lent is an opportunity to bring attention to areas of our lives that are often unconscious. Self-care. Other-care. How can we shine the light onto our habits, into our thought patterns?

Lent asks us to release habits or substances that may be blocking sacred expression. It also asks that we bring in acts of service. Where can we move out of our tendencies to be self involved?

And, how can we be joyful and free as we do so? Renunciation and service do not have to be an onerous task.

This is a valuable contemplation whatever your spiritual or religious orientation.

That’s my inquiry this season. Where does this rumination take you? I’d love to hear. I’ll share my discoveries along the way.

I’m offering three events this month, please RSVP if you’d like to join us!

Community event
Third Saturday with
The Cook Awakening
The Green Potluck
It’s Springtime, y’all! And, St Patty’s Day, or “Bring Back the Snakes” Day, as a dear friend calls it. And, Lent. Can we put all these together into a theme? Why not! Think green, fresh, Irish, and letting go of what no longer serves. Choose a part or all of the theme, just make it delicious. I think I’ll try and track down a nitrate-free corned beef, and cook up some cabbage.

No grains or refined sugars, please!

Saturday, March 15th, 11 am – 2 pm
Fee: one potluck dish to share
SE Portland address given upon RSVP
Contact Durga for suggestions, no one turned away for lack of imagination

Community event
Field Trip!
Wild Stinging Nettle Harvest
Nettles are ready! We’ll meet at the far end of the parking lot at the Sandy River Delta Park – take exit 18 off I-84 near Troutdale, OR. Call or text me at 503.422.8346 if you get lost. We’ll head out by 2:15 pm.

Sunday, March 16th
2:00 – 4:30 pm
Sandy River Delta Park
No need to RSVP, but we will be heading to the nettle patch by 2:15

Community event
Spring Equinox Bardic
Performance for Fun
This is an opportunity to have fun and/or go deep. Read a poem, sing a song, share a dance, or channel an extemporaneous offering. The earth is turning green again, it’s been a long, hard winter. Let’s celebrate Her return! Any offering is wonderful, but one in the theme brings cohesiveness to the evening. Kids welcome, including in the performance.

Saturday, February 22nd, 5 pm gluten-free potluck, 7 pm Bardic
Fee: one potluck dish to share if you come earlier, and a performance for the later portion
SE Portland address given upon RSVP
Contact Durga for suggestions, no one turned away for lack of imagination

It’s winter for real, now. The light may be returning after Solstice, but for most of us the air is cold and it’s more comfortable indoors. Or maybe under the covers.

Sunday marked the twelfth day of the Twelve Holy Days. I’m not particularly Christian, I find value in many symbols from many different spiritual traditions. And this year, the Twelve Holy Days felt very significant to me.

Solstice, December 21st, marks the moment in the northern hemisphere when the day is shortest, the longest night. The tightest contraction, if you will. There’s a span of time where things stop. The days aren’t immediately longer. There’s a resting. When early Christians chose the 25th of December as the birth day of the Christ, they did so for a reason. This is when we begin to experience movement again, just the inkling of expansion. The Sun appears again.

Those first 12 days of expansion are a time when we can experience the coming energy of the year. What will come into our lives? What intentions will we set? The 12 Holy Days are a time when God or the Universe or the Holy Spirit or your Higher Power, whatever words resonate for you, can be heard in the quiet. Some traditions say the 12th day, January 6th, is when the Magi visited the baby Jesus. When the Sun became known to the conscious mind.

Whether you know it as such or not, this is where your authentic New Year’s Intentions come from – your Highest Self speaking to you about your next steps in life.
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I’ve been feeling done lately. Just done. I don’t want to cook, I don’t even really want to eat much.

Some of it’s the heat (which is thankfully starting to abate). It’s definitely the humidity, which is continuing even as the temperature is dropping. It’s the busyness of getting in the last events of the summer while preparing for the school year’s beginning. Then there’s trying to keep up with a hyper fertile, crazy huge pear tree that came with the house we bought three years ago. I’m starting to wonder if maybe we could just sell the tree.

But, I just can’t let the pears rot, so I’ve been chopping, cooking, drying, leathering, juicing and reducing batch after batch of windfall pears. And I don’t even eat the things. Can you tell I’m a little over it?

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Haven’t written much in the past year. Not much at all.

Sometimes things have to die so that they can come back to life in a true way.

Starting from a young age I wanted to be an actress. I loved being on stage. My first real acting classes, I realized later, were my first formal spiritual training. The reality that I could take on different states of mind and emotions at will showed me I was not the personality that I knew as “me”. If that wasn’t “me”, what was?

I explored more as I became an adult. I became fascinated with creativity of many types – writing and film making, primarily. I was cooking for a living, until I could become “an artist”.

In my early thirties I shared the idea that I was waiting to “become an artist” with a group of teachers on a meditation retreat. One of the teachers said, “But, Durga, you ARE an artist. There’s no becoming. It doesn’t matter if you’re not making money at it. Being an artist is a way of being in the world. It’s a view.”
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