Inner Path

I love dandelions. You need to know that to understand this story. I don’t see them as the pesky weeds many people do. I see them as these tiny gifts from the universe scattered all around in spring, summer, and early fall. They symbolize resiliency to me, surviving despite the efforts of many to destroy them. They remind me of the beauty in the common, help me to see the extraordinary in the ordinary, and call my attention to the beloved wildness in all of us. After mor

I stepped out on my porch a few days ago to take an evening walk. It was mid-May, so it should have been 78 degrees. The sky should’ve been cornflower blue with fluffy clouds that reminded me of cotton balls. There should’ve been a gentle warm breeze blowing by. I should’ve been wearing flip-flops and a short sleeve t-shirt with some cheerful saying about sunshine on it. Instead I dug out the fuzzy pink jacket I wear in the winter and zipped it up to my chin to stave off

When I was a little girl, I loved to play in the woods behind my house. Actually, it was just a small patch of trees that separated one neighborhood from another, a short cut for some, but to me it was a place of adventure and exploration. As I walked under the shade of the trees, I would stay in anticipation of a new discovery, looking for something I’d never seen before, the uncovering of some sort of mystery, whether it was a bug or a mushroom or a trickle of water. At ti

I had a conflict the other day, nothing major but a conflict nonetheless. I am a “nine” on the Enneagram. If you know much about the personality type system called the Enneagram, you know that “nines” are considered the peacemakers. We don’t like conflict. At all. Sometimes we will do ridiculous things to avoid it. So after feeling twisted up by that conflict, I wondered, “Is conflict necessary?” Of course, I know it’s all around me, but is it necessary for our spiritua