My tarot card for last year was the Two of Pentacles from the Wild Unknown deck (Carrie Mallon's interpretations are my fave). I drew the card and reflected on it and then didn't really return to it until now. The card indicates balance and change. The suit of pentacles, according to the book for The Wild Unknown deck, relates … Continue reading The Life-Giving Force of Gratitude
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The World You Long For
When I begin to make lists again I know I've returned, at least in part, to my previous life. During her nap, the baby sleeps in a wind tunnel of fabricated white noise; she swings in the darkened bedroom above a humidifier. She is wrapped in blankets, snuggled and steadied. I am in the next … Continue reading The World You Long For
Write With Me
In the new year we reflect on our goals. It's a time when we consider what we might set in motion, complete, or resurrect as writers. It's time when I am reminded of a simple word that feels all-powerful: begin. Now is the time to hone your practice and find your seat at the table, … Continue reading Write With Me
Embracing the Darkness: Francis Weller and the sacred life of grief
There are 20 days until the Winter Solstice, which means 20 more days of moving into the darkness before the light begins its slow return. The solstice makes a threshold between the waning and waxing of daylight, and is perhaps the most sacred day of the year for me, as I am one who has … Continue reading Embracing the Darkness: Francis Weller and the sacred life of grief
A Field Guide to Writing About Nature & Place:
landscape with milkweed This Saturday is the first of two writing workshops I'm facilitating on nature and place at the Orwell Free Library from 10am - noon. I have been listening to Braiding Sweetgrass during my walks and around the house and thinking about my relationship with the land, nature, and place. In her book, … Continue reading A Field Guide to Writing About Nature & Place:
Ghosts of the Coming World
photo by Mihály Köles Last night we sat under the almost full moon between the apple trees and garden in a friend's backyard. I have been lonely in all of the usual pandemic ways. Underwater swimming upstream. How are you? I have taken to sketching birds during Zoom meetings--there are so many. Sometimes I walk … Continue reading Ghosts of the Coming World
How We Live Our Lives
There are two Canada geese nesting on the pond, but only one mate. My son and I go out in the kayak in the middle of May. The frogs are mating. Guttural and loud, the sound echoes from the shore of the pond. We watch them in the shallow water laying on each other. There … Continue reading How We Live Our Lives
My American Icon
John Prine Last night as I was laying in bed scrolling I got the terrible news that John Prine had passed away from Covid19. He had been in intensive care for at least a week and his wife Fiona had posted that he was in critical condition on March 29th. He died on April 7th … Continue reading My American Icon
Interview with Fiction Points: The blog of the alcohol and drug history society
Two nuns and a penguin approach you at a bar, and you tell them you’re a writer. When they ask you what you write about, how do you answer? Holiness and death. Everyone has something sacred and something to which they devote themselves, whether it be spiritual or just an iPhone, or self-improvement which I … Continue reading Interview with Fiction Points: The blog of the alcohol and drug history society
Good-bye January, my not so dear friend: My go to strategies for surviving Winter…
I want to believe in winter's magic, I really do, but it isn't always magical for me. Yes, the frosted branches of morning trees present a certain mysticism that can get quickly squashed by the idea that pops with a robotic ding into my head: I should take a picture of that. The sliver of … Continue reading Good-bye January, my not so dear friend: My go to strategies for surviving Winter…
Emily Arnason Casey 