Pollinate Journal

03/04/2021

Hi friends! I'm teaching a workshop!

Next Saturday, 4/10 ~ Join me in a welcoming, safe community space to learn the system of astrology and how to read your full natal chart 🌝☀️💫.

In this interactive workshop, we’ll be covering:

✨ The difference between horoscopes and natal chart readings.

✨ How to use astrology to facilitate self-awareness, self-compassion and personal growth.

✨The role of the elements (earth, air, fire, water) in astrology.

✨Detailed qualities of all the signs, planets and houses.

✨ What your chart means for YOU!

More info at the link below. Email [email protected] to register. I would love to see you there.

Hope everyone is taking care as best you’re able in the continually intense energy and circumstances of these times ❤️.

https://www.pollinatejournal.com/.../2021/10/4/astrology-101

19/06/2020

We built this nation on the blood of Africans and then called it a “meritocracy,” weaving into the cultural narrative the myths of equal access and equal opportunity, so now when black Americans are unjustly and disproportionately killed or imprisoned and grossly underrepresented in all facets of politics, business and culture we can shrug and say the system isn’t against them, they just didn’t try hard enough.
Undoing systemic racism is difficult work because it is so interwoven into the fabric of our institutions and everyday culture that it seems both invisible and ungraspable (to us white people, who do not suffer at the hands of it). This is why actively seeking out and listening to black stories and perspectives is absolutely vital to our education and ability to support black lives.
The fact that I, a highly educated white person, had never before this week heard of Juneteenth—the celebration of the abolition of slavery, which has been celebrated annually on June 19th since *1866*—is only one small example of the way that whiteness dictates the formation of both American culture and history.
We white folks who are committing to an actively antiracist life (myself included here) must remember that this is long haul work. As such, we must be patient and kind with ourselves in our process. We are likely to feel guilty, frustrated, overwhelmed, incensed, activated, exhausted on any given day. I find that having a community of other white folks to discuss what you’re learning and how you’re reckoning with it all is deeply valuable in doing this work.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by resources and unsure if you’re doing enough, I recommend this article by : https://medium.com//are-you-doing-enough-b1e92fbfd87d.
Black lives matter. It’s time for reparations. No healing is possible without uncompromised honesty about and accountability for the past.
📸: poem. from ‘salt’. by .waheed

31/10/2019

New essay up on the blog! Thoughts on honoring ancestry, the power of attention, and the disarmingly vital question: What do you worship? Apropos for All Hallows Eve but necessary for always.

Last night, I dreamt that someone wove their way through a sea of people at a party to hand me a landline telephone. “Hello?” I asked. My grandmother was on the other end of the line. I knew it was her, even though my repeated “Hello?”s were met mostly with silence. Eventually, she tentative...

23/10/2019

*New recipe on the blog*! Perfect for early autumn, when late summer produce can still be found and it finally isn't too hot out to turn our ovens on :D. Enjoy!

Zucchini Noodle Lasagna with oyster mushrooms, basil and chard — plant-based, grain-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, paleo, keto & ridiculously delicious.

29/09/2019

“My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird -
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.”

-Mary Oliver, “My Work is Loving the World”.
One of my greatest teachers speaks of time moving not in circles, but in spirals. That we return to seasons, rituals, life lessons that we thought we had outgrown yet can’t seem to shake - but the returns are always shifted, too. Patterns repeated but not without evolution peppered in.
And so we return to the new year. Bake challah in a round to remind us of this cycle of life. Take apples from this harvest season and dip them in honey as both an offering and wish for sweetness in our lives.
This year, on Rosh Hashanah, I am noticing how truly synchronistic with nature this holiday is. How appropriate it feels to have the new year fall just after the equinox, the initiation of autumn, when we reap the bounties of our literal and figurative harvests and begin to release that which is weighing us, too. There is so much abundance springing forth from the earth, now. So much gratitude to express. So many opportunities to stand still and be astonished.
Shana tova to all my dear tribe spirits who are celebrating today. May we usher in this autumn and new year choosing abundance. Choosing presence. Choosing awe. Choosing to forgive and be forgiven. Choosing ourselves. And ever and always, choosing love.

05/09/2019

Hey, all! After many months of quiet on the blog, I am thrilled to invite you to Pollinate Journal 2.0! Redesigned, refreshed, and newly iterated with a structure that underpins what it has become: a place for reflection and heart work as much as a place for creating and celebrating delicious, healthy food.
Complete with a new homepage, new "About" page, and new indexes that highlight the recipes and writings as separate entities, I hope you find this new iteration helpful in focusing your attention on what brings you there.
Head to the link below for an essay about supporting creative growth, the evolution of Pollinate and my top five favorite recipes and writings to date.

It’s necessary to take a step back sometimes. To pause and review, reflect, adopt a bird’s eye view. To notice the ways in which evolution has occurred. To question whether your present approaches, structures or habits are working. To be thoughtful about what you might be able to shift to help y...

30/06/2019

“What we need to do is look for the everlasting in the ephemeral.” - D. W. Winnicott
These words were a gift, penned to paper and delivered by post some seven years ago by a dear friend. Apropos of nothing then, they have offered great perspective as the days, months, years wore on—especially as someone whose life is consistently characterized by forging deep connections with people and places and having to let them go.
To all my new, beautiful sisters from this week: thank you. Thank you for being such powerful teachers and giving your most precious gifts. Your time. Your attention. Your presence. For showing up in all your divine vulnerability and your light.
We have changed each other and we have changed ourselves. What a wild, crazy gift in this wild, crazy life. Something everlasting. 💓🌴🦀🌮🌊🌘✨
@ Xinalani

30/05/2019

Spent the long weekend with some of the best people I know at our 10 year (!!!) college reunion. Laughing, dancing, eating, exploring, reminiscing, reflecting, connecting. Devoting ourselves to some of the simplest things that make life worth living 🌲🤪👯‍♀️.
So what has 10 years of official adulting taught me? If only we had all day 😂. But hey, we don’t, so let’s do 10 for 10:
1. Nothing in life happens the way you expect it to. Breathe. It will be okay.
2. Playfulness is paramount. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
3. Comparison is the thief of joy.
4. Your body likes to move; gift it that.
5. Eating vegetables is actually legitimately very important.
6. Try not to take things personally. Everyone has an entire world within themselves that they are operating from and contending with. Most often, it’s not about you.
7. Recharging is as important as doing. Be still. Commune with nature. Breathe deeply. There truly is no substitute.
8. The world exists in both/and, not either/or. Nothing is black and white. Learn to be comfortable with the grey area. Uncertainty included.
9. Learning is lifelong. It is not contingent upon any institution’s four walls and life is much richer if you pursue it—whatever that looks like for you.
10. Attitude is everything. Gratitude works wonders. Forgiveness is freeing. And we can absolutely make magic.
What is some of the most important wisdom you’ve gleaned as you’ve moved through life and grown more fully into yourself?? Please tell me. I legit want to know 💓🤷‍♀️🙏 .
@ Bard College

08/04/2019

Hi all, happy spring! New on the blog - a recipe for a super green, herbaceous, handheld salad, plus thoughts on turning to this seasonal shift to glean wisdom about how we can show up for our own selves during difficult transitions with presence and grace.

Confession: I have spent a disproportionate amount of time tethered to my bed lately. Zoned out in front of my computer screen, binge watching the show UnREAL (which is this truly miraculous combination of wry feminist commentary on professional power dynamics/female relationships and unabashed so

12/11/2018

Hey, how are you doing? Are you taking time to slow down, to process this s**t show of a world we're currently living in, to (re)connect with yourself?

New post up on the blog on why it is paramount—always but *especially* right now—that you give yourself permission to take care of yourself. Plus a super simple recipe that tastes as good in your lunchbox as it does on the holiday dinner table.

Goodness, what a week. What weeks. What a lot we have to process. Fires raging throughout California . Evacuations. Homes, community centers, businesses burnt to the ground. Lives taken. Thousands of acres of natural landscape scorched. And the fu***ng relentless, hate-fueled shootings. The mass sh