Author Archives: janishaag

I found a stash of your rose quartz heartsin the top drawer of what had oncebeen my childhood dresser. You, like me, a collector of stones,perhaps using them in your healing work.Me carrying cool talismans in my pockets along with … Continue reading →

Now comes the restingas the spiritual and corporeal worldscome together beneath the big treeof stillness and silence. The boundary between worldshas fallen away, dark and lightholding hands, and, in this interlude,you easily slip into the then. You may pause here … Continue reading →

The once-upon-a-time, the long-ago-but-not-forgotten. The one who taught me how to kiss and sing harmony to his melody as he played the guitar. The one who really taught me how to kiss and quite a bit more, and whose young … Continue reading →

Oak trees arcing to the sky. Little girls learning to climb them.No sidewalks to roller skate on. Across the road a path leadingto the big lake called Folsom made from a river called American.Our swimming spot: Granite Bay. Fool’s gold … Continue reading →

Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day’s chalking.—Frederick Buechner, “The Alphabet of Grace“ ••• What if, overnight, someone leavessome big, fat sticks … Continue reading →

First, no one in the throes of devastationknows how to do this. Stand amid the ash,the blown-apart detritus of your life and cry.Sob hard. You must empty the contents of your soulonto the ground where you once lived and loved,where … Continue reading →

The ones who have vanishedor seem to have. Or I lovethose who are easy to love—often the four-footed, furry oneswho seem to adore us forno good reason. I often love best the words thatothers have put on the page morethan … Continue reading →

though you were mostly gone,every breath a great labor, I thought of others who,before liftoff, with great effort, forced their parched lips to sayto those assembled: I love you. You mean the worldto me. Thank you for being here. You … Continue reading →

Winter sunshine deceives usinto thinking that spring has arrivedin January, along with the narcissus arrowing upward from cold earth,blooming their fool heads off whenthey have no business doing so. But they do, I remind myself.This is what gives us hopein … Continue reading →

Grief takes funny forms,as we know, and when a link arrived to a Peter Yarrowvideo singing new lyrics to his famous tune about howthe song of Puff came to be (before, Yarrow says, he knewabout marijuana, so no, it’s not … Continue reading →