Finally, Spring. I feel movement and a cautious release into new beginnings. Do you feel it? I’m thrilled to announce that Foreword Reviews has chosen Temple Dancer as a finalist in the 2020 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards! You'll find Saraswati's story here in Religious Adult Fiction. Though I wouldn’t call it religious, it IS a novel of spiritual awakening, sacred sexuality and intimate and eternal connection. Temple Dancer is steeped in yoga philosophy and spirituality. What do you think? Does that make it religious? Whether religious, sacrilegious or a mystery enveloped in magic realism, I’m proud to be a finalist. The Finalists were determined by Foreword’s editorial team. Winners are now being decided by teams of librarian and bookseller judges from across [...]

I admit that when I first read Becoming Safely Embodied in manuscript, I had just upgraded to Windows 10, and I didn’t realize it was doing battle with my Adobe Reader program. Through no fault of the PDF Deirdre had sent me, it was hard to read the manuscript in full. So when it became available last week, I downloaded the book. Reading Deirdre Fay’s work in its entirety, tenderly uncoiled old feelings of unworthiness in a young silent part that still tightened my belly when I made a mistake. This is a beautifully written and thoughtful book that I recommend for self-care and healing, whether you have a history of trauma or not. Paraphrasing a question Fay asks in the introduction gives you [...]

Tucson's feminist radio show “Broad Perspectives” is excellent. Have a listen! I want to share with you one of those interviews that just seemed to click. The interviewer, Aspen Green, asked the probing personal questions that allowed me to share my passions. In under thirty minutes (because they also let me pick a favorite song—Chris Williamson’s “Song of the Soul”) we talked about creativity, my journey from depression to published fiction (my new novel Temple Dancer) and the benefits of yoga for optimum mental health. I feel grateful to Aspen and to Kathleen Harris, the co-hosts, of “Broad Perspectives” on KXCI for offering me this opportunity.  After you’ve listened, I hope you feel grateful to them too!   [...]

Rounding December 2020- incredible. I'm excited for new possibilities, and to farewell this remarkable year, I’ll be posting 15 ways to open the portal to creative flow to welcome in 2021, so grab a pen... As a writer, I thrive on connection to the source of creativity and love, and I know I'm not alone (despite these recent events!) Join me here each day, December 17-31, for a prompt, an inquiry, or a practice. Whether you’re a poet, an artist, a dancer, a chef, a gardener or you just want to infuse your daily life with more creativity, follow along with me for 15 days. Please share and let's "Open the Portal" to nourish creativity for the New Year! 12/17/20 [...]

Dear Ones, We’re heading into the holidays—Hanukkah first this year and then Christmas and Kwanzaa. This season can be a time of great joy and also great loneliness, especially amplified in 2020. Like everything in life, the upsides and the downsides. Can we extend our arms to embrace it all, without feeling overwhelmed or numbing out? That’s where a practice can help us stay balanced. Click >> the image for a simple practice to ride the waves of emotion and thought that I hope will help you navigate the ups and downs of the holidays. On Facebook, I see the amazing faces of the babies born and growing up in a Pandemic. I imagine the stresses and strains on their [...]

Surviving uncertainty. Dear ones, these times are confusing for all of us. We now know that we have a POTUS and a LOTUS. (Kamala in Sanskrit means lotus). Even so, with the concerns about the transition and the fears about the growing numbers of COVID cases, uncertainty seems to be a steady state of being. Even as we pledge (and hope our leaders do too) to find ways to reach across the barriers that have divided us for the last four years, uncertainty persists. This is our time to cultivate our compassion and understanding of our neighbors’ and our own emotional dysregulation. Uncertainty is an obstacle that we need to address because it makes everything feel worse than it actually [...]

After my return from India, I researched devadasi ritual and culture and discovered a league of auspicious, empowered women. For over 1,200 years, temple dancers, or devadasis, were educated and revered. Their sacred temple duties brought them honor and status. Devadasis maintained community life cycle rituals: they tied the sacred gold thread, the tali, around the bride’s neck; they led religious processions. Within the temple, they cared for the statues of the deities, and as devotees they often lived on the temple grounds. They studied for many years, learning the intricate dances, the sacred mudras and the accompanying Sanskrit songs. Later, they were disgraced and legally outlawed. Honored? Unchaste? Devadasi were honored yet unchaste. When they reached puberty they were [...]