cherry blossoms, passing

In Japan the blossoms of the cherry tree represent the ultimate beauty, but because they bloom and fall so quickly, they also represent the brevity of life. wonder | wander | women always feel a sense of loss when we see the clouds of pink thin out and begin to show more new green leaves.

Painting of the cherry tree in Tavistock Square

equinox time

It's March 20 and the equinox is here! We call to our own awakening as Nature wakes from her winter sleep and sloughs off her mantle for yet another seasonal change.  

In the Northern Hemisphere, this day signals the long-awaited end of winter. While in the Southern Hemisphere, it marks the arrival of autumn. 

What exactly is an equinox? How is it connected with the seasons? How ae we all affected? 

Fonab Castle and Pitlochry Dam, Scotland

In late July wonder | wander | women enjoyed a visit from family - my nephew had turned 14 earlier in the year and we were celebrating. As a present, my aunt took him and my cousin to the UK. 

Fonab Castle, with dining pod

I was excited to meet them in London and ride up with them to Scotland, where we walked our happy feet off through Edinburgh's most famous castles. 

As an extra treat, we went with some dear friends up into the beautiful and ancient Cairngorms area of the Scottish Highlands. We stayed at the Fonab Castle Hotel, a gorgeous Victorian castle with phenomenal views.

the heART of Spring

It has been a hard winter and a cold, wet spring. Despite the joyful work we do on our lives every day, there are times when we feel a little resentful, heartsick and lonely.

Robin in diary

writes of spring

The skies go grey, then bright, then grey again - British spring is not so much a season as a series of false starts. This week we're going through another cold dip after the brief period of warmth in March that is meant to get a Londoner's hopes up before the April windstorms drench our spirit again.

"real" British seasons, from Reddit

transformation & transmutation

"Transformation comes when I'm not in charge, when I don't know what's coming next, when I can't assume I am bigger than everything around me." ~ Pico Iyer, TED Talk, 26 Feb 2023

After a recent sonic immersion - as we sat around the table to break bread together before heading off - our conversation steered toward what we carry within. In our muscle and sinew, blood and bones, DNA and cells, ancestry and history.

Prayers for Turtle Island © Dana Wheeles 2020 - We'Moon 2023

Our life is intimately interwoven with ancestors and descendants of past, present, future - gone, current, forever. All our relations - anyone and anything that contribute to our life.

Connecting with our ancestors leads to healing when we are in alignment and collaborate as allies - even when we disagree or misunderstand.

As we learn to make peace with all elements - exploring, absorbing, immersing - we get up close and personal with our ancestors. When we allow space and drop resistance healing possibilities unfold.

It's about time we start conversations that explore the centrality of ancestor work to the collective liberation of humanity. Decolonize ourselves. Declutter our perspectives and processes. We let our soul soar. We set our spirit free.

The social, political, cultural and environmental crises of these times call us to reckon with the legacy of colonization, genocide, slavery and the continued violence against the oppressed.

Our healing requires that we transform intergenerational trauma using the wisdom, perseverance and resilience of our ancestors and lineage.

Once we trust that all that we need is here for us healing can occur - what is transformed is transmuted. By acknowledging all that is, in agreement or not - it is all offered to the sacred fire, good with bad - burned pure and released to the ether purified.

Our ancestors need to be recognized, honored, acknowledged and appreciated for their contributions - whatever those were. After all we would not be where we are were it not for them.

Our ancestral blessing is the knowledge that life is here for us - supporting, loving, co-creating with and rooting for us - that is a tremendous boost that is readily available to each of us.

How we relate in life is how we are in relation with our ancestors and all living beings. All our relations indeed. A'ho!

when is NOW

As 2022 winds down and we approach the holidays it's time to assess the year and plan for 2023. 

A recent post from the Agam Agenda seemed most apt. 

Culture is about how we relate with each other, and with the Earth. It holds our living stories—outside any walls or any conference.

Why rewrite COP27?

We have grown too attached to our habits and creature comforts and because most of us live in crowded bustling urban centers - we are sadly remotely distanced from nature and natural cycles - hardly conscious of subtle shifts and central cycles. 

The tendency is to constantly disrupt or make demands on our environment and relationships. To have these adjust to our needs and wants rather than closely monitoring and collaborating among each other. 

dimensional flow

Every year since 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) has organized a global campaign for World Mental Health Day on October 10. The World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) announced the theme for World Mental Health Day 2022 is ‘Make mental health for all a global priority”. 

Aphrodite/ Venus Urania, Queen of Heaven

A day for all races not just for Columbus and other colonizers to blast their way through nature and what is natural. The Columbian Exchange embodies both the best and the worst of environmental and health results of contact, as well as the cultural shifts produced and its exponential results. 

The gift that keeps on giving to this very day - in the best and worst ways possible - in all its increments in between.

Columbus' large scale colonization & exploitation project

the merry and magical magpie

There are magpies in the neighbourhood! 

This little scavenger of the corvid family has populated the imagination of humans since we noticed its beautiful black-and-white pattern and its chattering, cheeky nature.

blooms & colors redux

wonder | wander | women feel good to get back to regular sunny walks around the neighborhood, even if it's been slow and erratic to warm up. A year of lock down and sheltering in place has made the winter seem colder and gloomier than usual. 

at the corner of Gregory & Highpoint, Union City NJ

Passing through home gardens or viewing landscapes online - checking out all the current blooms of the season remains an ongoing joy. Even pesky allergies cannot dampen the excitement of being immersed in their sweet scents and riot of colors. 

at the New York Botanical Garden, 2021

small things: healing through walking

“Exploring the world is one of the best ways of exploring the mind and walking travels both terrains.” 

― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

to the river charles

River! that in silence windest

Through the meadows, bright and free,

Till at length thy rest thou findest

In the bosom of the sea! 

George Washington Bridge & NYC across the Hudson River

Four long years of mingled feeling,

Half in rest, and half in strife,

I have seen thy waters stealing

Onward, like the stream of life. 

wet & wild weather

As Spring moves to Summer this Memorial Day weekend, wonder | wander | women tumble like dandelion fluff through weird weather fluctuations.

room with a view - on a blue vs a gray day

Sudden thunderstorms have us panting in greenhouse tropical heat and humidity one minute. The next moment we are chilled and clammy, shivering as temperatures drop drastically.

silence

Our lives are full of 'one more thing'. We're always chasing something, catching up, keeping busy, keeping up. Where is the pause?

St. Pancras Old Church and Gardens

nature in the city: beloved garden birds

Every day back in our room in the Philippines, wonder | wander | women would look out our first floor window at the bamboo thicket and foxtail palms outside, and there would always be at least one or two birds in the branches. 

Chihuly : far from gray

The New York Botanical Garden has scheduled a series of evening openings called Chihuly Nights that runs from April 22 to October 29.

Meander leisurely through the Conservatory Lawn where blown glass art works by world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly are now on view and let world-class musicians serenade you at this live jazz concert series.

urban refuge: Camley Street Natural Park

A secret nature sanctuary nestles on the site of old coal yards, just beside one of the busiest urban developments in London Kings Cross. Camley Street Natural Park was supposed to be turned into a parking lot for trucks servicing the station, but plant life had overgrown the area and local birds and animals had made their home there. The London Wildlife Trust lobbied for the partially-reclaimed wetlands to be turned into a nature reserve.

girrrl power : SHE rah! our HERoes

As the world seems to have gone to hell in a hand basket, wonder | wander | women choose to celebrate all girls and women all over the world!

Jean Bellegambe, Saint Anne conceiving the Virgin Mary

Here's to the death of patriarchy and the return and rise of a saner, kinder, gentler, more nourishing and nurturing matriarchal world.

quiet time, green spaces too

One half of us is back in London and the Wonder Wander Women are missing each other! 

When we are in one place we always manage to find some quiet time to spend together, but once us time is over and we go back to our separate routines it's not as easy to keep doing.