Visiting a Friend’s House

Small boxes
made of woven parts
hold lives
separate from each other
Fences and yards
keep us bounded
in our spaces,
holding place
as individuals
Our context 
is our environment,
our interests,
our delights — 
we're products
of homes, dogs,
parents, families,
books, music —
all we know is
what we've encountered,
so keep on living.

Getting Ready to Go Out

Getting ready
to go out —
washing,
primping,
dressing,
refining —
wondering
who I am
and who'll
be there tonight,
and if any
trace of
who I was
is part of
who I will be
Probably I'll
know more
by tomorrow.

Playing Improvisational Music in a Garden for a Friend’s Birthday

The beat begins
and a note rises —
the alchemy of
awesomeness
manifests through
our hearts, hands,
and heads
Feet tap,
breathing circles
through a 
digeridoo or three,
chords strum
as the beat goes on
and circles the
melody, partial,
whole,
stitched into time
for only this 
moment, only
this place.

Artist’s Note: Writing a poem a day this year seems to make my poesie more contextual, more patterned by immediate circumstances. (For posterity, the poems above were written on May 13, May 21, and May 25.) Happily, I’m able to experience various situations in the course of daily life. When any fixed identity we might have is an illusion, what yet might hold true internally across contexts?

The night follows
the day as a
trail follows a track

We put ourselves
into first gear
only to get going

These traces go to show
we're still on the
case, the scent clear
as a clarion call

No going back now. 

Return

Spring, summer, fall,
and winter — the years
turn on seasons
then tumble across
decades, the wheel
moving on, moving
on to new stories

Resurrect a dream —
return to visions
nearly faded to nothing
yet alive in the ether,
ready to substantiate
the potential — the hope
of holding this moment
forever solid.

Recollection

Sudden start of
remembrance —
where did the thought
reside before it arrived?
Are we but antennae,
our brains receptors
of what floats through
the evanescent aether?
And weak ones, at that,
prone to distraction,
bursts of static,
dropped packets,
half-considered "logic" —
leaving us scratching
our heads, idly
rubbing our bellies,
already on to the
next thing we'll forget.

Luxury

How many
brilliant ideas
were lost
to inertia,
or to the
lack of a pencil
after a shower,
or the need
to do the dishes
or pick up 
the kids?

Paying attention
to the sparks
of concepts,
blowing on them
until they
ignite,
is the province
of luxury in
every day 
and age.

Artist’s Note: Some fruits of my effort to write a poem each day in 2026, looking back to April 3, April 5, April 11, and May 1st. I do feel this kind of exercise clears some of the gunk from the wires, reconnecting circuits between myself and my muse, and building trust in the sounds that arrive from the zero-point field. Grateful for language, for expression, for the opportunity to share in this experience of life with you here.

A logjam
in the river
is pushed
asunder

the flow
roars in
triumph

the banks 
sigh in 
relief

the salmon
leap with
new energy

and from
mountain to
sea, trees
sing in 
ecstasy

Artist’s Note: I wrote this poem on April 6, 2026, three days after my final day at my last corporate job. Freedom is the most wonderful feeling. What makes you feel free?

Recently, though, I both celebrated a birthday and launched a new wellness practice. In this moment of personal reinvention, I am reconsidering how I show up in the world as it stands today. I feel it’s time to speak my truth through the lens of my life story…. And today, the story I want to share is how I became a sound & energy therapist.

Choosing where to start a story is often the hardest part, but I’ve determined this story shall begin with Find Wellness.

The journey of Find Wellness

In mid-2012, I’d just been laid off from my first role as a Product Manager, thanks to an ignorant executive with a downsizing mandate and being the member of our team with the least seniority. While I was still deeply passionate about practicing the craft of product in the health domain, I felt disgusted by the short-sightedness of the corporate world (quite the recurring theme for my career, haha). So I decided I would start my own business, and tackle one of the many, many opportunities in healthcare.

I was considering standing up a digital health insurance marketplace, one which could differentiate itself by being a desirable place for insurers to sell their health plans because we’d attract consumers who were healthier than the average person. (This timeframe is right about when Obamacare was launched, and Healthcare.gov didn’t exist yet.) Naturally, I asked myself, what is it that differentiates healthier people? And I answered myself with this insight: they make an effort for their own wellness in various ways — they might go to the gym, or get massages, or see an acupuncturist, or have a coach, or get chiropractic care. Then I paused and thought to myself: all right, cool, and who’s helping people with their pursuit of wellness? <CRICKETS>

I’d landed on my big idea: I was going to shine a light on all the modalities outside of the mainstream American healthcare system that people are using to become and stay healthy. The truth is, we don’t really have a “healthcare” system in the States — it’s really just a sickcare system. People who make the effort to prevent themselves from becoming sick or diseased have to be internally motivated. And, it’s typically only through word of mouth or random media coverage that people learn about the many effective holistic healing modalities available today.

The germ of this concept grew into Find Wellness. Across the span of two and a half years, leading a small but mighty team, I bootstrapped our way to creating a business offering a digital marketplace where alternative and complementary care providers had profiles and testimonials, and where consumers could find help with their issues by using our innovative natural-language search engine. For example, somebody could type “joint pain” into the search field, and our proprietary algorithm would parse that and map it into a care category that we’d determined would benefit from musculoskeletal-oriented modalities.

As I built the business, I held live events in Portland and personally helped onboard many wonderful alternative practitioners to the platform. Those who first gravitated to the platform included many less well-known modalities — we attracted acupuncturists and chiropractors and nutritionists, but also a wide variety of energy therapists. It was an awesome education for me, learning about the existence of Reiki healing, and craniosacral therapy, and reflexology, and on and on.

We were rocking our ambitious roadmap aiming to transform the American healthcare industry when a potential buyer came knocking in 2014. Looking seriously at our goals and capacities, I decided that selling Find Wellness to this party with deep strengths in consumer marketing made good sense. And so the paperwork was signed, the business transitioned to new hands, and I moved on to my next role in healthtech.1

The inspired birthday gift

I’d been able to build Find Wellness in part because I had a wonderful partner at the time by the name of Jeffrey Hunt; his unflagging support smoothed over the rough patches of entrepreneurship, both pragmatically and emotionally.

Fast forward to 2016. I’m working a corporate job and, once again, getting rather fed up with it. My birthday rolls around in June, and Jeffrey knocks my socks off with his present: a trap drum kit! Now bear in mind, at this point I hadn’t played music with any seriousness for something like twenty years. And I’d never contemplated playing the drums! How this genius man knew that a drum kit was something I’d love is impossible for me to fathom. And love it I did — I’d sit down at this little kit and bang my heart out along with my favorite songs. I hated the sound of the cheap-ass snare, but no matter!

Late that summer, I was recruited for an exciting product leadership role based in Sydney, Australia. Jeffrey grinned from ear to ear and said we should totally go for it. So, we put our belongings in storage, rented out our house, and flew off to have a big new adventure. That time is of course its own story, but the relevant bit for today is that tragically, Jeffrey became deeply, deeply depressed in Australia. He was unmoored, lonely, and suicidal. I honestly thought almost every day I might lose him. So, we reversed our tracks. He went back home to Portland first, while I finished out a couple more months in my role and returned in November 2017. We put our things back where they had been, and began moving on with our lives.

The systemic shock

And then, Christmas Eve 2017 found me taking Jeffrey to the emergency room for an acute issue, where a conscientious doctor detected a concerning sound in his lungs. An x-ray showed a mass. Turns out, he had adenocarcinoma, the non-smoker’s lung cancer. An MRI showed mets throughout his brain, indicating he was at Stage 4 and there was nothing to be done except manage the worst of his symptoms.

The bottom fell out of our world.

After that crushing diagnosis, Jeffrey moved quickly into a hospice situation at home. His suicidal ideation evaporated as he vowed to enjoy the life he had left. I remember the joy he took in being read to by his family and friends. He loved Edgar Allen Poe, and John Muir, and Tom Waits. I remember the relief he felt when the music therapist came by and serenaded him with gentle songs. And I will always remember the awful moment he stopped breathing, and his spirit slipped free of this mortal coil on March 4, 2018.

Adding more misery to this terrible time, my beloved father also passed away on January 16, 2018, after decades of dealing with very serious, chronic health issues. I was unable to be present at his bedside due to supporting Jeffrey’s oncology appointments. Nevertheless, my dad knew how much I loved him, always and forever.

I lost the two most important men in my life in rapid succession. Nobody and nothing can prepare one for feeling grief of this magnitude. There’s really no roadmap to navigating it, beside that “stages of grief” map which is woefully inadequate to the experience. Fortunately, I was surrounded by loved ones who supported me, although they were also hurting, of course.

Wandering our house in my misery, I found myself sitting down at that drum kit again. Hitting the toms and smashing the cymbals brought me into the present moment. They gave me a form of agency and a new, percussive language to express myself with. A musician friend gently pointed out that I could take drum lessons — and buy myself a decent snare drum.

The drumming journey

Those surprise-gifted drums helped save my soul. No question about it. Making music is one of the finest and best therapies on this beautiful planet. Accessible to us all, it doesn’t matter whether we feel “talented” or not — and I certainly didn’t! With diligent practice, care, and attention, though, we can all learn and improve.

And so my confounding, enormous grief was gradually tempered by the bass and the hihat, by sitting down on the drum throne and practicing drum rudiments. And it made me feel close to Jeffrey, too, knowing how tickled he’d been to give me such a stunning gift and how much he admired musicians of all stripes. I worked with an awesome drum teacher (who’s played for famous bands you might know!) for the next few years. I set aside my shyness and shared videos of myself practicing. Cringeworthy? Certainly. Do I regret it? No. Climbing the mountain of learning to play music, we all have to start somewhere. Joyfully, there is truly no end to where we can go in our musical skill development.

The turn towards healing arts

Drumming is a percussive art. It’s about rhythm and pattern. There’s a whole grid system underneath music, a shared architecture of how we place notes and organize them in time. I touched deep truths in the flow of playing, even just by myself in my music room. Then I started making music with other people, and the fantastic, essential dimension of sound as a shared language emerged. I got on stage backing my friend Sam who plays guitar and sings, and we performed a few times in friendly, low-pressure venues. My whole life, I have adored seeing live music and always considered myself to be a consummate audience member — deeply engaged, wholly present, emotionally connected. On stage myself, I understood better how musical dialog travels in both directions, from performer to audience and back.

And somewhere along the way, I began to get intrigued by “sound healing.” Naturally, I remained a big proponent of alternative healing modalities after running Find Wellness, and I simply love learning new things. Facebook targeted me with an online Sound Healing class, steeply discounted of course, and impulsively I signed up. Then I learned a friend had signed up too, and we went to a store to look at crystal singing bowls. Shocked that day by the prices (we’re talking, like, over $300 for a single bowl!) I only acquired a 528 hz weighted tuning fork. Still, I went ahead and completed the class to become a Certified Sound Healer. Among other things, I learned about how deeply embedded sound therapy is in many cultures, if not all of them in some fashion!

Just as I believe poetry is the original form of philosophy in human culture, I believe drumming (and chanting) are the original forms of music.

Music therapy has a well-respected place in the pantheon of healing arts. At this time, various focused forms of sound therapy have emerged. Over the past 30+ years, innovative practitioners created the sound bath experience, which is perhaps the best known and most widely available today. In a sound bath, participants lie down and relax while they receive the benefits of being washed by acoustic sounds generated with healing intent.2 What no longer serves you can be cleansed away energetically, and you can feel rejuvenated with an inflow of positive energy. I remember an incredibly potent sound bath I received in 2019 from Viola Rose, a beautiful soul who now practices her healing arts in Sedona, Arizona. It’s quite astonishing what can happen internally when you’re open to transformation….

I started researching further and meeting up with friends with healing instruments while building up my own set of tools. (Music-making does reward those of us who are gearheads!) One lovely friend gifted me a beautiful, large wind gong because she never used it. I scored a screaming deal on eBay for a set of seven crystal singing bowls. I got myself a flow chime. I played all my instruments as much as I could, and watched other practitioners to learn from them. I treated a couple of friends with adjacent birthdays to a mini sound bath in my house. With another cool friend, I co-led a huge sound bath experience at SOAK, the regional Burning Man event.

And in the summer of 2024, after attending a fabulous yoga session in the park led by my friend Pamela Sery, I approached her to ask if she might like to collaborate on a yoga + sound bath event. She excitedly agreed, and our fruitful collaboration was born. We held Full Moon Yin Yoga + Sound Bath events throughout the rest of 2024, 2025, and have two more seasonal events left this year. (Our next one is a garden event in Portland on Sunday June 28th if you’d like to attend!)

The path of Reiki and Biofield Tuning

One of the other things that kept me grounded and moving forward during the time of my deepest grief was meditation. The Insight Timer app is full of wonderful guided meditations, and one day I came across a Reiki drum journey. While I knew about Reiki intellectually, this drum journey provided a deep, healing experience that left me deeply intrigued to learn more about Reiki, more experientially. In Portland, I was fortunate to find Reiki Master Teacher Sarah Rayne of Firebird Healing Arts. Under her tutelage, I’m now in the final stages of her Reiki Mastership program; at the end of this summer, I’ll be a Reiki Master Teacher myself in the Usui Reiki lineage.

Reiki is an insanely awesome energy therapy. Tracing its roots back to Japan in the early 1920s, Reiki founder Sensei Usui discovered how to access the life force energy field that surrounds us all and channel it through his hands for healing purposes. This powerful force of qi/ki, which is the vital spirit that animates every living body, can do no harm — it can only do good. For skilled practitioners, channeling Reiki is like breathing, taking no concentration or exertion, while the recipient is innately able to use this channeled life force energy towards whatever healing may be needed. Reiki’s therapeutic effects have been scientifically validated to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve pain symptoms and overall quality of life.3

Reiki is a powerful force in the practitioner’s life, and many have stories of how their life changed once they began to practice this healing modality. I was very touched emotionally and mentally by the experiences I had in providing Reiki to my friends, as well as receiving Reiki from fellow practitioners.

Since I’m inclined towards learning and growing (can you tell?), I picked up various books on sound therapy to learn more about the ways it’s being practiced. John Beaulieu’s book “Human Tuning” was one of the most interesting reads, as he shares his early efforts to establish the science of energy healing and explore the application of tuning forks to heal the human body. In 2001, he managed to engage reluctant biochemists at the State University of New York lab to study the effects of tuning forks; the scientists thought it was a fool’s errand, yet within seconds they had established that tuning forks generate a spike of nitric oxide in our cells — and nitric oxide is one of the core pain-fighting chemicals in our bodies!

Even better, though, is Eileen McKusick’s “Tuning the Human Biofield,” a book with significant impact on this new arc of my life path. Biofield Tuning is the sound therapy modality Eileen McKusick developed over the past thirty years of her work applying tuning forks to the human body and the human biofield. Note that “biofield” is the term preferred by scientists and practitioners for what folks have tended to call our aura or personal energy field. Each of us has a biofield which is a torus-shaped electromagnetic structure extending multiple feet in all directions from our central channel, the spinal column; the existence of the biofield has been confirmed and measured by an advanced device called the Superconducting Quantum Interferometer Device.

Eileen McKusick learned through her direct practice and associated research activities that our biofields are impacted by everything we experience in our lives. When we have a trauma of some sort, it can leave a lasting imprint in our biofield — just like over-exertion can make a knot in our muscles, or an injury can leave a scar on our skin. Also, crucially, she realized that our biofield fills up with experiences as we go through life, with imprints from our younger ages held toward the edge of the field and our recent history closer to our bodies. Using a high-quality tuning fork, we can first detect these places of incoherent, tangled energy, and then “comb” them out by applying the sustained harmonic vibration of the tuning fork to that area. When that knot of stuck energy is restored to its natural state of balance and flow, we’re able to lighten our system’s load and achieve states of greater internal coherence.

In my practice to date, I’ve found this modality to be about as magical as it sounds. In some future article, I aim to share some of the remarkable healing experiences I’ve had the privilege to facilitate….

The importance of listening

One of the main ways I’ve enjoyed playing drums over these past couple of years is with a lovely group of mostly amateur musicians who convene irregularly for improvisational jams. We call ourselves Improvistas. When creating music with a group of people, it’s crucial we are always listening to each other. Music-making at its best is a conversation at many levels — between a musician and their instrument, between musicians and their audience, as well as between musicians.

What I’ve found is that both Reiki and Biofield Tuning require deep inner listening and awareness, so that I may apply tune my healing energies, intentions, and inputs most beneficially for the matter at hand.

The nature of healing

In an effort to conclude this dreadfully long article, I want to clearly state my current viewpoint: I believe that my sound and energy therapy practices are primarily a catalyst for people to achieve their own inner healing. For comparison, think of how talk therapy does little good for patients unless they actively engage in meaningful dialog with their therapist, and thoughtfully perform the kind of internal reflection that’s called for. Similarly, when I channel Reiki, facilitate a sound bath, or tune out tangles in the biofield, I’m essentially opening the door to and/or removing obstacles from people’s own, inner healing processes.

A quote from Eileen McKusick’s “Tuning the Human Biofield” expresses this view powerfully:

My winding journey engaging with sound has delivered immense personal healing. I reclaimed power over grief by sitting at the drums and playing music. And I have come to know more freedom in my life by learning and practicing the art and science of sound and energy therapy.

Our minds, bodies, and souls have deep innate wisdom and power. With positive, directed intentions — plus the right nudge from a trained therapist — each of us is able find more wellness and greater ease, no matter what kind of challenges we’re facing. Isn’t that incredibly cool?

Author’s note: If you have read this far, color me amazed (and grateful)! Now, I’d dearly love to hear about your own views on finding wellness. What paths toward healing have you explored? Which ones have benefitted you? What do you think about sound & energy therapies? What kind of reflections or questions does my tale spark for you? Comment below, or simply reply by email…

The iris leapt
into bloom,
deep deep violet
frilled with
dark blue,
a haunting
pattern
filled with
potential,
now manifest
in layers 
and spurts
of flat green
Grateful for
botanical
reminders 
of love,
love, love

Artist’s Note: Do you also watch and remember the blooms changing throughout the seasons? Here in Portland, the iris begin making their beautiful displays in May. They’re already gone by now…. I eagerly await and honor their arrival every year, and none more so than this variety in my yard that my late husband planted. Ah, memories….

I am deeply grateful to be able to provide this relaxing sound bath to you here. (A note for the audiophiles: the obnoxious clipping of the gong sound in those first few seconds thankfully doesn’t happen again in the recording.)

Some more context is in order, too! For the past three years, I’ve been diving into sound therapy by facilitating group sound baths, often at the Full Moon in collaboration with the wonderful Pamela Sery, who’s a gifted Yin Yoga teacher. Sound baths provide a relaxing experience and offer the potential for people to reach deeply restorative states of mind, body, and soul.

A couple years ago, I started to learn and practice Reiki, an energy healing modality; I’m now in a Mastership program to become a Reiki Master Teacher, while presently holding down a Level 3 Usui Reiki certification. Reiki involves channeling the life force energy of the universe to provide healing. Its beneficial outcomes are increasingly supported with scientific studies demonstrating clear reductions in pain, anxiety, and improved quality of life.

I also recently completed the Foundations in Biofield Tuning class to learn this extraordinarily awesome sound therapy modality, and I will be getting my formal practitioner certification in August. The outcomes from this treatment don’t have as much science behind them yet, since it’s truly cutting-edge.

Then because apparently I’m a glutton for learning, I’m also pursuing formal certifications in Meditation Coaching & Facilitation as well as Sylvotherapy, better known as forest bathing.

Just this spring, I formally left my corporate job behind. Going forward, I’ll be answering the call to pursue the healing arts. From a business perspective, I have founded Musement Wellness to offer sound & energy therapy to individuals and groups. If you’re ever so inclined, you can book a free consultation and then schedule a session with me. For the rest of this summer, I’ll be providing half-price energy & sound therapy for individuals to help get my practice off the ground — so just $65 for a full sound balancing and/or Reiki and/or guided meditation session. Happily, these services can be provided remotely, no matter where you are in the world!

And coming this fall, I’m hatching plans to help move the needle on getting more people activated and aware of the many truly astounding natural health & wellness modalities available on this beautiful planet. This endeavor will be called the Musement Frequency: so stay tuned! (Pun intended, haha.) All of this work is a culmination of many formerly disparate threads of my life, and I could hardly be more excited about all this coming together!

Artist’s Note: Despite the very many awful things happening on this planet, we do have unprecedented access to finding wellness in so many ways and forms. The first major step is accepting that as individuals, we need to take charge of our own health and pursue our unique path towards healing what ails us. I do wish this path were clearer and more direct, with better guides and support along the way…so that’s part of what I aim to change. I’m curious what kind of questions you might have about the healing arts?

Songs of experience
are heavy with meaning,
full of complex chords,
stuttering beats, and a 
bridge to end all bridges.

Songs of innocence
are harder to measure:
fresh, light, sparkling
with odd effervescence.

The challenge of middle age
is writing songs of
innocence when the
experiences have piled up.

Excavate the layers;
rediscover harmony;
simply tap out a rhythm;
and pick up your feet to dance.

Artist’s note: Keeping a heartset of innocence alive in this chaotic world is a noteworthy feat. Ecstatic dancing is a good shortcut and divine folly! Where do you find a measure of innocence that inspires?

A tree stands
rooted in earth,
giving shelter
to many beings —
the birds, the
squirrels, the sloths,
koalas and insects 
and us —
yet nothing
shelters the tree.

The sky above
filled with storm 
or lightning strike
rains reality
down on a tree's
noble crown.

What has humanity 
done for the tree?
How have we
nurtured or
supported this
noble being, this
divine representation
of sun, earth, water,
a pulsing living
manifestation
of the universe?

Past time we reckon
with misdeeds and
return to right ways,
where what we do
succors the sap
and strengthens
the core of the
almighty trees. 

Artist’s note: This poem dates to March 13, 2026. I’ll ever be focused on trees…they keep my eyes lifting upwards. What helps you be your best self?

Gathering in a place
to sing devotional songs
in community — even though
half the group are strangers —
we raise our voices as one

Led by harmonium and guitar,
a powerful voice chants
the Sanskrit words of prayer
for ourselves, for all beings,
for our inner selves to transcend
the language of every day,
these tribulations of stumbling
around a world gone haywire —

We unite in vibrations,
our throats open, our lungs alive,
our bellies expanding as our minds
are raised and rallied in joy.  

Govinda Jaya Jaya is a song whose mantra invokes Krishna’s protection of all beings

Artist’s Note: The recording is from joining some lovely women friends at a Kirtan led by Kristi Ha at Divine Connection Healing Arts in the town of Amboy, Washington. Droning in song is so energizing and grounding. Have you participated in a kirtan? Would you?

Feb 23, 2026

Folded up
like a paper
airplane
Will I fly
when you
set me free?
Or will 
gravity assert
herself yet
again:
humorless,
moribund?
Women are
less than human
to a swathe 
of this wretched 
world
All the pink pussy
hats
didn't make a
dent.

February 28, 2026

We woke up to war,
waging brutality
on a country
battling its own demons
of religious autocracy,
mass murder of rebels
Desperate for the end 
of battles lost
on the iron cross
of endless fighting,
women scream for justice
and rail at reality
falling apart in our faces
We cry at the
dining room table,
beyond done with the
patriarchy driving its
sword through our hearts —
it's our husbands and our 
sons and some of our 
sisters who will pay the
price of World War 3,
while the demagogues
spend our social security
on drones and artillery
to feed their pathetic egos —
may those hungry ghosts
gag on their filthy spoils!

When will we wake up
to another way of being? 

Artist’s Note: A wide and deep swathe of the evil happenings repeating over and over in this world can be traced to the root cause of patriarchy. And it’s a misconception that patriarchy benefits men as a whole, by the way; it really only serves the oligarchs. While all I seemingly have to fight with is my voice, may my actions help shift the tides of this world towards greater justice — in this lifetime, please!

PDX ➔ SFO ➔ SJO

To the wage slave,
vacation is reprieve —
letting go of alarms
and responsibilities
feels like blessed freedom
from the quotidian game

Oh, to fly to sunny places 
and cavort in jungles,
get a sunburn at the beach
and try to avoid falling ill!

Is this the dream
I was meant to harbor?
Are we meant to work
and work and work away
only to steal back life
in 3- and 5-day increments?
Whose invisible hand is
wrapped around our throats?

Ready to call it quits already. 

Paraiso de Cielo Sunset

Plant watering day,
the Thursday, whether
home or away —
tending the garden
is food for the soul,
rewarding with life
bursting from grass and bud,
leaf and branch —
the mariposas flutter by
as the birds visit too,
paying homage as the sun
sets, a chorus of insects
now alight as the sky
darkens, clouds sweeping
down the valley to
course over the bay below...
harmony in myriad sounds
swirls through humid air.

On the Secret Tour

Tidepools keep safe
things of the sea
in little pockets of water
rising and falling
in the surf
Sea slugs move slowly —
crabs scuttle quickly —
fish dart about —
and our feet get wet
as we slip among
the black rocks,
sharp, uneven,
pocked with holes

My dad would have loved
to explore this
particular corner of
nature's bounty...
I hold him in my
heart, as I hold myself
together for another
day in paradise.

Returned

What does it mean
to come home again,
standing in spaces known
to balance the forces
between chapters unfinished
and stories completed?
Will the memories hold
weight beyond the pictures
of sunlight and palms,
green leaves wavering true?
Who shall I become
in the wake of this voyage
awakening the soul
among dreams, fictions,
truths, and new horizons?

I fold up the map,
neatly, and coalesce 
concepts on my brow —
we traveled well,
and quietly, finding something 
to help us grow. 

Artist’s Note: Traveling always kicks up new thoughts. Two weeks of vacation in Costa Rica refilled the well. Or, did it?

Poet laureate
of Colorado
Andrea Gibson
wanted to die
until they learned
cancer had their number
which is much like
my late husband 
Jeffrey Lee Hunt 
who was stalked
by the demons of
depression and
suicidal ideation
until a Stage IV
diagnosis
reared its head
and brought him
relief from
potential death
in the form of
imminent death

If only we could 
feel gratitude
for every damn second
of this wild ride
on the winds of fate
in the form of flesh
before we must face
its temporary nature;
yet, even this
lesson is part and
parcel of what
we're here to learn:
we only know
what we know
once it's known,
however hard it is
to become known

Don't stop seeing
all these truths,
no matter how small
or how large,
how early or
how late. 

Artist’s note: This poem was written on Jan 31st after my friend took me to see “Come See Me in the Good Light,” a documentary about slam poet extraordinaire Andrea Gibson and those who love(d) them. Nominated for an Oscar, it’s available via streaming platforms so you know what to do now. Fear not —you’ll laugh at least as much as you cry.

A touch
a smile
a question
an appreciation —
an action or
a word
make or break
connection

It's not just
the thought
which counts.

Artist’s Note: Poem written on Jan 28, 2026. How are we all hanging in there?

In the winter gray
when you see a yellow rose
it's a gift of life

Artist’s Note: This poem was written on January 15, 2026. Stay strong, friends.

Today, an ICE agent
murdered 
a women posing
no threat,
not a mile from where
police stole 
the last breaths
of George Floyd

Cruelty is the point,
and we are meant
to bow our heads,
turn away and
pretend it's all right

But it's not all right —
not at all right —
it's all wrong!

We're a country 
full of
immigrants,
a nation of 
peoples 
with a right to life,
liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness

Our very existence
does not require a
justification, and 
we've all got a place
in this tapestry
of a country,
now frayed and torn,
spattered in blood
both old and dry and
fresh and red, for
America never made peace
with our original sins
of colonization and slavery —
and now a wanna-be king
tries to turn our golden plains
into oil-fueled golf courses?

Today, ICE killed
Renee Good,
who was a poet,
our society's conscience,
a poet and a 
mother of three

Now: 
let's take back 
OUR power! 

Artist’s note: One of my 2026 intentions is to write a poem every day, and I aim to share one or two from each week here on Musements. Please, friends — never stop raising your voice, never stop calling out evil. By coming together we have the power to change things. Clearly we have a lot of work to do, from the inside out and the outside in.

I took an omen walk
looking to meet a guardian
of the neighborhood
My feet carried me around
the blocks, over and around...
I approached a large property
surrounded by a tall solid fence;
I thought it might be a monastery
As I walked up the sidewalk,
I saw that it was a Memory Care facility

And then there she was:
a Sequoia Sempervirens, 
the mighty Coast Redwood

I gasped at her red beauty,
approaching with reverence
I removed the glove from my hand
and stepped up to touch her bark,
curled like the swirling waves of the surf

I closed my eyes and breathed in
and was filled with bright red glow,
a fire heating up almost to violet,
even as everything became still 

I opened my eyes and saw a plaque —
this tree was honored to be
Portland Heritage Tree #301
so designated by the City Council
back in 2010; almost sixteen years on,
how old was this grand mama?
(I didn’t ask, but I will…)

I know that her roots hold
more wide than deep,
caring for the memories of the land
we have covered over with asphalt
and houses, gravel and debris

I honor this protector of space
at the center of the center of the earth
enduring and growing,
indestructible and delicate,
a mirror of my own fierce and tender soul.

Artist’s Note: Today was my first and definitely not last encounter with this grand being. Grateful to be here on this day in this land, remembering what I’ve always known.

Artist’s note: This sound bath was a pure improvisation. Hopefully, the recording levels are set appropriately. Ah, technology! Ah, humanity! Onwards & upwards, always. Happiest of holidays to you, dear ones!

Winter sunshine
restores hope
as I meander
through the forest,
filled with thoughts,
incessant thoughts

The trees look on,
tolerant and
waiting for me
to return home,
here and now,
to notice fairy moss
and the faint
knock-knock-knock
of a busy woodpecker

I reach a bridge,
and rushing waters join
the chorus of nature,
ever-patient yet
ever-changing

I look downstream
at what has transpired
then turn,
look upstream to see
what could inspire

Balance is the art
of staying upright
amid all the forces
which otherwise 
might knock us down

Artist’s note: This poem was written on December 13, 2025. I find Tryon Creek State Nature Area a fine place to practice balance. Here’s a moment looking downstream…

and here’s a moment looking upstream…

What does balance mean to you?

I’d suggest using headphones to experience this short sound bath, preferably while lying down or sitting in a most comfortable position. That said, I definitely need to work on my recording techniques; the shaman drum’s deep sound in particular was railing out.

Oh, also: I’ll be providing the closing sound healing experience at the upcoming Ecstatic Dance Portland event on Wednesday November 26th, at The Den — see you there perhaps!?

Artist’s note: This was recorded on November 22nd, playing a subset of my healing instruments. Sound bath are an improvisational space devoted to release, reflection, and uplift. Hope you enjoy!

the branches

with the leaves

and the

trunk with

the roots

are like the

generations

of students

who pass

through this

farm of

knowledge,

these halls

of sandstone

sensations

Bent, whole,

center intact

and ever-expanding,

this tree

is harmony

personified

Artist’s note: At my recent (big number) college reunion, a group of people defined by graduating in the same year mingled under this good-humored Monterey pine tree. Making small talk doesn’t suit me. Instead, I made eyes at this patient giant arching over the trivial chats happening below. Seeking mercy, I excused myself from conversations with humans to go commune with this flirty tree. As I approached it, I found an enormous pine cone waiting for me at its base: a gift from the tree. This poem is a small mark of gratitude for its guardianship and the glorious presence of trees on our planet.