Stephanie's Studio

This poem, the first time I learned of it and studied it, was back in high school in an English class with a brilliant and inspired teacher, so in love with poetry that he infected us all with his passion. T.S. Elliot--this guy was a true genius. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Pufrock,” by T.S. Elliot leaves me speechless. It is complete and well resolved in a way that leaves me fully satisfied.  I love the pace, the atmosphere he creates and his incredible use of personification. Elliot asks us to look at the world through unfiltered eyes. He dares us to take an honest look at our surroundings, the places we go and ultimately at ourselves as we evolve, change and age.                                   (Vincent Van Gogh - "Self Portrait" 1889) This is the anthem of artists and writers. Here is an excerpt for you to enjoy on what seems to be a promising Sunday morning: The...

Yesterday, I wrote a post called Everyday Rituals. I can’t believe I forgot what I do before that warm shared drink. I like to start the day with a cleansing chilled drink. Simple, really but it leaves me feeling clean inside and ready for a day of clean, healthy eating. I have heard of people all around the world, doing a variety of different things with the types of water they drink, from hot water plain, to cool water with lemon, ginger and cayenne in parts of the Caribbean for weight loss. I like to fill my empty belly with several glasses of iced lemon water shortly after my feet touch the ground in the morning. Lemons are so bright—they scream Good Morning! They are also energizing and a good natural cleanser. Ice, is such a simple pleasure. What would we do without it? Water is refreshing. Often too, we mistake hunger for thirst so I start my day with this iced lemon water—a glass or two. It reminds me to get hydrated and stay that way. Then, through...

So, here we are, back to Friday and the Natural Healing Corner. Today, I invite you to focus on your everyday rituals. What do you do every day without fail? What makes your day a go, right from the start? I like to share and be with my family. More specifically, I enjoy waking up and sharing a drink with my son and husband. It doesn’t matter what type it is, green tea, hot cocoa, chamomile, rooibos or even coffee, it’s the shared activity of drinking that is the ritual. As we sip our drink, we mentally and spiritually prepare for the day ahead. Recently, my husband’s friend, shared a gorgeous bag of dried hibiscus flowers with us and advised us to make tea. Though it originated in the Motherland, in Angola, it is popular in his native Mexico, and this friend feels that hibiscus is an elixir for a good, strong life. Our shared drink, at least between my husband and me, over the past week has been hibiscus tea. Blood red, hibiscus has strong red, healing medicine in the for...

                                          (Ploughman in the Fields near Arles--Vincent Van Gogh) I was listening to the weather report the other day, as we living in these heavily snow-covered regions are known to do, quite frequently mind you, when I heard a weatherman saying it was already spring. I know I have a tendency to get busy with my work, losing track of time occasionally but how had spring escaped me, I thought as I searched for my fur-covered snow boots? Then I listened more closely. He was explaining meteorological spring. He said it is kind of like a bookkeeping matter. The date is handily assigned to the beginning of the month, when spring will occur to make things smoother. Smoother? Really? Nevertheless, in this case the assigned date was March 1st. If you have been reading my blog or books for a while, you know I get pretty excited about the changing of the...

                                                             (Female Mask - Igbo People) I have been working with mask making the last few weeks. They are simple, self-drying clay masks.  Now that one of them is ready for some paint I have started to look it at more as a symbol. Today, when I looked at it though I realized it was quite grotesque and well, in a word hideous. But in all its ugliness, that is what masks can be for us.  The beauty is that a mask can be whatever we want it to be and used for a diverse array of purposes.                                                              (Okuyi Mask - Punu People) What happens when we peel away the ...

No one wants to wake up, randomly wondering what the day is all about spiritually, though that is exactly what many of us do unless it is a holiday, sabbat, equinox or solstice. Luckily, I have many resources, all around me, in hard copy as books and through my numerous online groups. Today though, I consulted what is like a devotional to me, “365 Goddess” only to discover today could be quite an amazing day. What Telesco says about today’s Goddess dove-tails so nicely with my current spiritual direction. March 4 th is devoted to the Japanese mother goddess Kishi-Mujin. She offers safety and invites us to welcome spring. Her guidance is focused around grounding and centering as well as striking a balance between the polar forces. So today can be dedicated to prayer, meditation, gentle earth invocations and cleansing. Offerings using water can be made and my beloved pine, is important today. Pine is used in Buddhist rituals today to ward off evil spirits. How this ...

A major running theme in my posts has been transition recently. I was delighted to find that our topic for the month over at  Creative Every Day  is Transitions. Creative Every Day is a year long challenge, to do as the title says--create daily. Creativity is given a wide birth--it can be writing, visual art, cooking, crafts--whatever it is you consider creative. I have found much food for the soul through that challenge over the years I have participated. I greatly appreciate the people that come forward to comment on my blog from that website. We support one another in whatever way works best for us, often that includes commenting on each other's blogs and even joining them as followers. Transition can seem beautiful and often it is in the end. However, getting to the new state, going through metamorphosis and change, can be ugly and painful. As many of you know, I have been transitioning from working full time for others to working for myself as a freelance writer and...