Inspiration

So many teachers and their books inspire me and influence my work. 

Tema Okun and all the people with whom she collaborates in the work on White Supremacy Culture push me to dismantle the white supremacy that lives in me. 

How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram Kendi is another book I return to again and again as I break down the racism in myself. 

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem. These practices are woven into almost all my work and workshops. Racism lives in our histories and bodies and can't be deconstructed in our minds or conversations. We have to identify it in our lineage and move it out of our bodies. 

Wounded into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma by Rabbi Tirzah Firestone. I've attended Tirzah's ancestral healing workshop in person and am grateful for her healing presence in my life. 

Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing​​ by Daniel Foor. This book was my companion on one ancestral pilgrimage. Since then, my processes have shifted, but I'm grateful for Daniel's good work on this important subject. 

Scholar and shamanic practitioner, Sharon Paice MacLeod, is my teacher currently as I participate in her two-year program based on her book Celtic Myth and Religion.

Tom Cowan and his books are a foundation for my core shamanic practice and the ways they were used by my Celtic ancestors.  

Plants That Speak, Souls That Sing: Transform Your Life with the Spirit of Plants by Fay Johnstone. I consider Fay a teacher and have taken a variety of her courses. Her work supports me in so many aspects of my journey - nature, Reiki, Celtic, and core shamanic practice.  

If Women Rose Rooted by Sharon Blackie. All of Sharon's work inspires me and makes me feel like I've come home to my Celtic roots. 

John O'Donohue. Balm for the soul. Pure and simple.

To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger. It seems like she speaks to me in a language I'd forgotten I had. 

John Philip Newell is the one who opened my eyes and heart to the Christianity that lives beyond Rome, original sin and a denouncement of nature. I've been in numerous in-person workshops with him and love him to pieces.  

Thoreau and the Language of Trees by Richard Higgins and Robert D. Richardson. The Transcendentalists are my Unitarian Universalist spiritual ancestors.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer was a game changer for me that led me deeper and deeper into the wild. 

​Energetic Awakening: Living a Guided Life by Annmarie Early and Annie Browning. Their practice, Common Awakening, helped me move to a deeper spiritual awakening at just the right time in my life. 

The Heart of Centering Prayer: Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice by Cynthia Bourgeault.  This form of prayer feels so much like my husband's Buddhist meditation. We (my husband and I) love to meditate together, each doing our own thing.

Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried  Yet by Meggan Watterson.  Mary Magdalene will not leave me alone. That fierce apostle nearly gets channeled by Watterson here.

Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics by Mirabai Starr. All of Mirabai's work makes me smile and drop to my knees in praise of the Divine.