Rattling the Bones

Jennifer Leigh Johnson: I guess I'd like to know how you and your husband incorporated Shamanism and the Solstice with Christmas traditions (if you do Christmas) while raising your kids. **** I’ll be honest: I never liked Christmas. When growing up, I always found there was a huge inconsistency between the holiday movies or television shows and what was actually going on at home. It seemed passive/aggressive behaviors, addictions, regrets and jealousy were always more predominant during the holidays. Whatever was left unresolved all year through was sure to be triggered during the family festivities. No matter how much we hoped for the perfect Bing Crosby white Christmas, we always ended up with something more like Roseanne Barr’s dysfunctional Christmas. Lets face it the New Year just wasn’t a New Year if we didn’t have something to apologize for. I learnt real young there was no such thing as “being able to handle one’s liquor.” No matter how nice we decorated our hom

When my kids were growing up I often wrote stories for them. The stories were meant to inspire them to write; but also to teach them about traditional ways. Story telling has always been an important part of our ancestors learning and healing. It seemed important as my children were growing up to teach them about the power of story telling. Since I home schooled my children during the late years of elementary, I decided to choose story telling as a focus to their education. They created their own newspaper where they shared stories with their friends. CT came up with the most creative tales of heroes and villains. KT loved poetry. Story telling helped both my children to connect to their inner worlds and often, it was their own stories which provided the solutions to their personal dramas. I would like to share with you in this blog entry -- one of the stories I wrote for my children when they were around 9 or 10 years old. This story was actually inspired by the "dandelion

I recently asked the Medicine Wheel and Indigenous Dreaming group on Facebook to suggest blog topics. Kate’s suggestion was: “Lisa, wondered if you would write something on intimacy. What is intimacy? Where does it "live.” I have approached it mentally, as in, I let you "know" me or I "know" you. But what is it beyond physical or mental? Magic/Mystery? I am discovering in myself, my avoidance of intimacy. I guess what I always "thought" (mental again) it was -- really isn't the case.” If you look through my blog archive you’ll notice I try to write on the topic of essential, sensual, healing or sacred touch at least once every few months. Sacred Sexuality as far as I’m concerned is a crucial part of Shamanism. Amongst Westerners sexuality is often a dirty word or a taboo. It’s used to shock or meant to hide. If sexuality isn’t about guilt, fear or shame; it’s used for entertainment. Ironically, I’m not more comfortable in circles where touc