Blog

As I write, the sun is shining in a very un-Devon-like way. Its bright and hot, dry and wall to wall blue. Amazing, and 10 degrees C above the norm this time of year. And everything is bursting with...

In Devon England, where I call home, in these green breasty hills, Autumn is glowing. This is partly to do with the unbelievable quantities of rainfall that we have here and just the fact that it’s...

“ The parallels between foraging for wild food and the message of the documentary film In Your Own Skin are striking. ” — Katheryn M. Trenshaw Foraging for wild food is a magical experience that...

“ We have to help heal each other’s pain. ” — Dr Vivek Murty We are a WE. Yes, there is an ‘I’ and a ‘you’ and ‘me’. But importantly also a WE. And as this WE, what is our responsibility to each...

In Devon England, where I call home, in these green breasty hills, Spring is glowing. This is partly to do with the unbelievable quantities of rainfall that we have here and just the fact that it’s...

“ Having abandoned the flimsy fantasy of certainty, I decided to wander. ” — Kameela Janan Rasheed Life is change. All the time. Guaranteed. So how strange we tend to hold on so tightly to...

Increasingly I am enjoying being a bit bolder and more true in my life. Not in an, “I’ve got something to prove” kind of way. More the opposite. More tender and true. More vulnerable and connected....

Here we are and it is Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a time of reflection, integration and most of all balance. Goodness knows we are all much more aware of the need for balance....

Against what seemed impossible odds: It is with such great joy and with sweet salty tears in my eyes that I am sharing this to announce that we are having a celebration at long last of the In Your...

“Let yourself listen to the spaces in between.” -Katheryn M. Trenshaw Here we are. It is spring and a global pandemic is happening. There is a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty in our lives as...

It’s winter. It feels like there is more space to revel in the morning doves with their touching songs, the thick low hanging skies, and 3-D frost covering all the low plants in the orchard. The...

What is on your Radical Well-being Menu right now in your life? On Saturday night, I had the honour of standing up in the breathtaking art strewn dining room of Rancho la Puerta and introduce the...

“Let’s be curious and creative and fall in love with awkward, uncomfortable, the reality of every day grief and embracing not knowing what to do.” -Katheryn M. Trenshaw Welcome to Radical Well-Being...

I recently have come to peace and acceptance about some simple things about myself. I have always been and always will be an educator, particularly in dealing with shadow material. I love how we are...

“I’m no longer searching, I'm just opening.” -MARK NEPO Connecting in apples trees at Hollyhock. © Darshan Alexander This week, I've been out in the early autumn sun harvesting squash blossoms,...

Living Awake is a simple invitation to freedom. This is an invitation to this moment right now, as it is. Simple… not always easy… but definitely worth it. Habits of a lifetime take time and space to...

“ The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately. ” — SENECA We are taught to be anxious about things - future and past. And generally are inclined to spend far too great a percentage of our...

“ Release your grip, and then you slip, into reality. ” — Leonard Cohen This is a simple post to reach out, connect and perhaps even touch your curiosity and your heart. For me, I appreciate...

My toddler son and my husband had all just come off of a long and wonderful camp we ran together on dartmoor in England for 12 years in wild spaces off grid for about 100 hearty folks to celebrate...

Don’t Forget, You don’t want to miss … Juliet Russell at the Barrelhouse THIS SUNDAY! Katheryn Trenshaw’s In Your Own Skin project bring you a fantastic evening on the 31st of May that you will not...

This is one of the most magical places on the planet for me. Bright pink and green carpets of heather flow over the land while pungent earthy peat and coconut scented Gorse fill the air. Stone...

Been playing, gardening, working and cycling in the glorious sunshine this week. Amazing! Wondrous! Delicious! Feels like Spring has sprung. The sparkling frog spawn is adorning the pond plants and...

Back and forth. Up and down. In and out. I cherish my capacity to be multi-faceted and flexible. I love the improvisation and creativity that comes with this practice. Perhaps it is just me asserting...

My childhood bedroom was covered in colorful murals that I painted when I was 9. The images were basically a wetland scene full of a giant pond bursting with iridescent green dragonflies, fat cat...

This little clip turns me on!…and wanted to share it with you… I love the idea of freedom in tight places.. of all sorts. Plus I love to dance and this is really a great short sweet example of what...

A friend of mine spotted a car bumper sticker recently saying: “if you lived in your heart, you’d be home right now”. This makes me grin from ear to ear. Always good to have humour AND consciousness!...

One of the things that has made the biggest impact on my life and sanity has been an ongoing practice as a maker. This could be sewing or straw-bale building as well as cooking delicious meals,...

Life is a messy business full of forgetting and “failures” of a thousand kinds. And yet…there is a sovereignty that is often forgotten that I want to remind you of. There is a wildness, that has been...

Life is too short to… Be in a hurry. I am reminded of a quote I saw recently in a spa in Germany. It translated something like: “ Life is too short to be in a hurry ” — Schubert I could not agree...

The season has officially changed. The air feels different. And over the last few mornings, the hedge along the left side of my back garden is covered in hundreds of beautiful spider webs revealed by...

I was listening to what was for a time a wonderful and informative talk on retirement the other day on NPR. I was interested in most bows and hours visiting of what the speaker had to say. And then...

Traveling has always been an amazing combination of feelings and experiences for me. But for the most part, I find traveling outside of my day to day situation incredibly re-vivifying. There’s...

We have just arrived in the USA for nearly 6 weeks ( NY 1 week, MI 10 days, WA 1 week, CA 2 weeks) for a delicious trip to see family and friends and to grow and share my beloved IN Your Own Skin...

You know those things that niggle at you that you say you want to do?: One day. Next year. Before I die. I have this idea that as we are ALL dying and we really do not know when…its best to be...

Ah! beginning again and again each day. Forgetting more often than I would like to admit… even to myself. Breathing. And starting with the next moment. What a funny creature I can be sometimes… but...

To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance I am feeling humbled and moved this fine day… by the fragility of my life and my body sometimes and by the love of friends. In my...

“ The doorway to a radical, numinous, simplicity, seems to be reached by the long and difficult path of generosity. ” — David Whyte Got to cycle around loads to meetings this week in actual...

Living this wild and precious life is a commitment. I am more and more aware that we HAVE to be courageous on a daily basis in a hundred small ways… starting with forgiving ourselves and being brave...

by Jewel Mathieson We have come to be danced not the pretty dance not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance but the claw our way back into the belly of the sacred, sensual animal dance the...

Being here now calls me home to myself. Simple always. And not always easy. More and more, the things that are truly satisfying and create joy in my life and my heart are simple. Increasingly I am...

There is nothing like a great poem that moves you AND makes you laugh. Today, my brother reminded me again of this favorite poem of mine… and the lanyards that we wove with the woman who I suspect...

Contemplating grief and how it serves and opens our hearts today, I was reminded of the work of Miriam Greenspan today in a reference to the wonderful Sun Magazine article on Dark Emotions. She...

In silence we can communicate volumes of heart-full truth and simplify a moment, this moment now, to the essential. The practice which many refer to as “gazing” that traverses the globe in many forms...

When you make something with your hands…it is beautiful. Monday night at the Transition Town Totnes Artist Network (TTTAN) Creative Salon eve we were inspired by the hand-work, creativity and...

I got the most interesting email this morning. It was from one of my very first boyfriends from when I was 12 or 13. He was writing to me with an apology from back then. 36 years or so ago. It was so...

Have you ever met someone amazing by chance in a public place or on a train, for instance, that changed your life forever? I love chance encounters of the wholehearted kind. I love that I get to do...

“ There are times when we stop. We sit still…We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper. ” — James Carroll Devon under a soft blanket of snow, 2013 Bliss! It’s that time of year...

“ People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. ” — Thich Nhat Hanh How DO we...

“ There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story. ” — Linda Hogan Most of the time we are simply...

There is masses of research in the wonderful field of Psychology of Happiness, Neurobiology and more [1] that proves something we all knew all along deep in our hearts: that when we give to others we...

“ Unpredictable as life itself, the practice of listening is one of the most mysterious, luminous, and challenging art forms on earth. ” — Mark Nepo As an artist, I have what many would consider an...

I walked to work today. Because I work at home this might seem a bit strange. But because I find the fresh air and exercise so beneficial, I try and walk to work as many days a week as I can. Today I...

I went to visit my friend Pete yesterday who is dying. We all are dying, of course, but for Pete this is more obviously immanent. A year ago this friend was suffering from a toothache that wouldn’t...

Today, I am buzzing around between my office and meetings and errands. Among all of these things which are a part of a normal work day, I am delighted to be scheduling 3 meetings with people along...

“ Creativity is a receptive experience. ” — Jamie Catto The demands on me in my life as writer, a mom, an artist and a teacher amongst many other things are enormous. And, I am always seeking ways to...

Embracing Natural Intelligence “This is a trickster moment in history,” the wonderful Martin Shaw asserts as he contextualizes the role of myth and story in our time. And it HAS been an extreme time...

My dad died just over 18 years ago at this time of year. I realize that qualifies as a lifetime ago. And rather poetically my son managed to be born on exactly the same day that my father died. We...

The Wellcome gallery on Euston road, London has wonderfully curated exhibition of Mexican Votive paintings. At the end of the show, the curators invite viewers to contribute an experience they would...

December 16, 2011 “Nothing lasts forever, no-one lives forever. Keep that in mind and love.” – Rabindranath Tagore Somehow we’ve arrived here again at the doorway to the holiday season. For me, as an...

Having moments of calm in the midst of what seems to be some sort of existential crisis. Missed my yoga practice today AGAIN…Have not done much exercise in these last few challenging weeks… pitifully...

I am eating the most amazing brunch all of which comes from my wonderful garden. Perky miniature fresh salad leaves of about 15 varieties along with chives create an oeuvre of color at the side of my...

I remember lying in bed as a young teenager and deciding to hypnotize myself by saying these words: Be what you are, be what you are, be what you are. I said it hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of...

I don’t know how to explain the joy that these tulips fill me with… but they just do. Heart opening irrepressible joy… Enjoy Spring!

108 beads on a prayer necklace them [1] . 108 beads on a rosary. 108 words. How about simply seeing if I can string together 108 words plus or minus a few as prose, a poem, a blog? Scrap of a...

Today was the day. Today in spite of the “To Do” list longer than my arm, I harvested the Lavender. I have 3 glorious big bushy explosions of this sweet smelling intoxication in my front garden. It...

I have come to see that at my core I am a collage artist. I collage together images and cuttings, sketches and paint, objects on a fireplace and vases in a grouping “just so” on a windowsill. And I...

I have always been fascinated by bees and their community behavior. I am touched by the simplicity of daily acts with clear purpose, ease and focus. What bliss. I would like to spend my day as a bee...

“ You do not need to leave your room… Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to...

I open the back door of my end of terrace home, as I do most mornings, and traipse up bleary eyed to feed the 5 toffee coloured chickens at the back of the garden. There are five hens and they never...