JenWReeve

Today is Imbolc (pronounced I-MOLK), the ancient Celtic celebration that marks the midway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. The festival centered around the goddess, Brigid, who was the goddess of healers, poets, childbirth, fire and hearth. Celebrations included all households burning a fire in the hearth overnight, as well as other customs and rituals to welcome the spring and say farewell to winter. With the advent of Christianity, Brigid became St. Brigid, and for Christians, Imbolc became St. Brigid’s Day. I have an Irish friend who tells me some Irish folk still set out a dish of milk overnight […]

Over the weekend, I started a novel called Midwives which has caused me to reminisce about my own pregnancy 20 years ago. I so clearly recall the fullness of being at the precipice of an irreversible change and the effort it took to hold the opposite emotions of hope and fear.  I feel pregnant with hope and fear today because of the impending birth of a new world. And still, I struggle to hold both feelings. On the one hand I am brimming with excitement that we are moving toward a time where we honor the sacredness of all beings and lead […]

Last night, my daughter and I were watching the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them when I heard this line: “When the No-Maj (people without magical powers) are afraid, they fight.” So incredibly true. They also flee, and sometimes they become paralyzed. We may have had any or all of these reactions last week when we witnessed the unimaginable, despicable, criminal actions at our nation’s capital. We most certainly should never, ever tolerate such behavior. But whatever response we had at the moment doesn’t have to be the place we live.  After my initial shock and horror, I started thinking […]

Dear 2020, As you draw to a close, allow me to express to you my deepest gratitude. You have offered me the opportunity to grow in ways I had never imagined. You have revealed the mystery of stillness, how the chrysalis appears to be dormant, yet all the while it is busily becoming a butterfly.  You have tuned me to the rhythm of the seasons, the grace of the moon phases, and the ebb and flow of weather patterns so that now I better understand the complete wisdom of cycles. You have taught me, not easily, but taught me nonetheless, […]

We were about six and eight, my brother and I, when we snuck into the cabinet of the built-in bookshelf to look for my parents’ sex manual. As we were pawing around in there, I became captivated by something equally mysterious–the Age of Aquarius album by The 5th Dimension. Tucked in with Sergio Mendes and Engelbert Humperdinck was the smartly dressed group of five inside a mystifying wheel, the middle guy’s hands doing some sort of hocus pocus. I was awestruck! And today, I can’t get the lyrics out of my head. Sing along with me if you know them: When […]

Last summer when my daughter had Covid, I was afraid, so I drew this picture. Many years ago, when I was grieving the death of my husband, I was lonely, so I wrote poetry. And on the countless days when I feel insecure, unmoored, exhausted, unloved or even hopeless, I dance. Creative expression is a tool to guide us through the darkness. It connects us with the Divine light within. I practiced this idea Monday on the New Moon and Solar Eclipse one week before Winter Solstice, quite literally a dark day. In a virtual circle with a group of […]