Going Forward

by Celia Coates This week I am publishing a post from 2018 again because in America we need to renew our struggle for the common good and to reclaim human freedoms fought for and gained in the past. Here is that old post: A few weeks ago a dear friend told me a story he’d…

Age

By Celia Coates This is a time when how old you are has become a big question. A few days ago my friend Katy, a storyteller and author who was born the same year I was, sent  this email: Here is a conversation I had with a young person recently. He is perhaps five years…

The Power of Community

By Celia Coates My sister Judy, who has a fine sense of humor, sent me a gift subscription to HARPER’S BAZAAR, a very glossy women’s fashion magazine. High fashion is near the bottom of my list of interests, although this banner statement on one of the articles did catch my eye, “Spring’s BOLDEST LOOKS play…

Facing Fear

by Celia Coates “Vehemently disturbed” – that was the woman’s immediate answer this week when the reporter asked her how she was feeling about what’s happening in this country. Her words caught my attention. She was not just mentioning feeling fear about the current state of things (a feeling that is painfully common these days)…

Love and Fear, Community and Cult

by Celia Coates A few weeks ago, I headed for my favorite grocery store and I was not feeling peaceful – I was a little edgy. As I wandered down the well-stocked aisles, one of the cheerful staff approached and asked me what I was looking for. Flippantly I answered, “The meaning of life.” Without…

Becoming Beacons of Light

By Gretchen Krivoshia It has always been the time to cultivate loving kindness but given the turmoil in our world, it is needed now more than ever. We need to do what we can to increase compassion and caring – for ourselves and others – to become the beacons of light that we are capable…

Listening

By Celia Coates This will be a short WINN – just a small story and an opinion. The story involves something that has been happening for years, something that I now call listening to downloads. In the early quiet of the morning when I go from sleep to waking, there are times when words or…

Lessons From Dr. Gladys

By Celia Coates If an author chooses to honor a special person or to dedicate their book to those who have supported their work, there are several ways this can be done. Sometimes it’s just by adding a set of initials after the word “For” on one of the first pages. Sometimes it’s a long…

Caring About Kindness

by Celia Coates Once upon a time (which means that I can’t remember the year this true story happened) I had a dream so real and vivid that it woke me up. It was clear, direct, and unusual. I could hear the voice of the speaker and my own voice and see the scene as…

A Life of Creativity, Curiosity, and Love

by Celia Coates Marilyn Hughey Phillis (1927 – 2022) had a long and wonderful life filled with creativity, curiosity, and love. She studied bacteriology and chemistry at Ohio State University and after graduating in 1949, worked as an analytic chemist on national defense projects. But her great work was as an artist. She won national…

The Opposite of Fear

By Celia Coates How are you feeling these days? What kind of mood have you been in? When I asked myself these questions, I couldn’t answer right away, but then discovered I was feeling an edge-y restlessness that was really a form of fear. There are so many things to be alarmed about – the…

Experiencing Reality

By Jack Stucki (From Celia: This post began with a conversation about Jack’s walks in the national forest near his home in Colorado, walks that often include visiting the Grandmother Tree seen in the photograph at the top of the page. Jack Stucki is a healing energies pioneer who continues to explore the nature of…