Ritual

Writ in Water: Remembering John Keats and My Friend Susan

And then there is the date that we don’t yet know. The last date—a meaningless number on a calendar until it isn’t.

Feb 23, 2021
A Year Without an Ending

Is it strange, in a vortex of absence, to cherish endings? Only if loss and endings are the same.

Dec 18, 2020
How Wild Swimming Keeps My Mental Health Afloat

Ironically, the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown gave me the time to embrace wild swimming—just when I needed my lifeline most.

Nov 23, 2020
Why We Open Our Doors on Halloween (Even If We Can’t This Year)

Our Halloween traditions hearken back to rituals of dispelling threats through communal acts of giving and receiving.

Oct 27, 2020
It Comes in Threes: Superstition, Ritual, and Action in 2020

If you feel more spiritual or superstitious than usual, it’s because you are.

Sep 29, 2020
It Took Me Ten Years and a Church Hall to Love Dance Again

It was never about exercise, nor changing my body. It was about doing something my body felt comfortable with.

May 13, 2020
How My Fear of Loss Became a Fear of Fire

On some level, we all know: Everyone who is etched into our being will one day vanish.

Jan 13, 2020
Finding My Inner Piece: How Puzzles Ease My Anxiety

It’s very calming, very methodical, very good if, say, someone you love has died, but you know the world cannot stop, and you can’t either.

Nov 13, 2019
Pleasures of The Highest Sense

Techno music is seldom experienced as technological, but as a modern gateway to hedonism and transcendence.

Jun 26, 2018
The Cactus Mother: Nine Plants, Zero Kids

I used to tell people I needed to write a novel before I could consider offspring. I have written one novel. I am considering purchasing a fern.