On the eve of a full moon, WholeHeart launched its newest program series, Poetry As Portal, featuring Julie Cadwallader Staub, a poet from South Burlington, Vt. More than 40 participants gathered on Zoom, March 25th, to participate in the event, part-poetry reading, part-conversation with the poet, and part-listening exercise for attendees to reflect upon their own lives.
What does it mean to live one’s life like a prayer? Heather Omand, of Huntington, Vt., is pioneering a different human way of being in the world as a Queer person, mother, partner, and caretaker of agricultural lands. Read about their insightful journey. Listen to their prose, “What Queerness Means to Me.”
What does it mean to be in deeper relationship with the land where one lives? Three friends spent last summer wandering in the mountains of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, coming to know the plants/medicines growing on the land, preparing meals with the foods harvested, and learning to navigate the wind and waves off the coast of Maine. This story encapsulates some of their heartfelt insights gained.
Marianne Mullen, of Middlesex, is a Vermont artist who draws inspiration from the complexities of being human. One of her paintings is the featured artwork for this year’s Valentines of Gratitude, WholeHeart’s January-February scholarship fundraiser. Learn more about how this WholeHeart community member uses her art creation as a spiritual practice.
We were warmed by the community of 50 friends who gathered online, December 11th, to celebrate WholeHeart's actual 10th birthday! Like radiant candlelights each of us, we relaxed into the gorgeous poetry of Vermont poet James Crews for just over an hour. We’ve included a brief recap here, as well as sharing some of the poetry that James featured during the celebration.
I’ve participated in small protests before, but nothing on the magnitude of the Women’s March on Washington. Shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of thousands of people on Jan. 21, it occurred to me: this is what courage looks like.
As I stood on the National Mall breathing in the view, women, men and children with placards paraded in from every direction. A bundled senior citizen in her wheelchair held a sign, “100-year-old for women’s rights.”
On the eve of the day to give thanks, I am imagining all the people across the country turning their attention to coming together for this holiday, with love and gratitude as well as wounds and divides. Part of me wants to bundle up my heart in protection, part of me wants to find sanctuary with others who are like minded. WholeHeart has been teaching me that love is not easy. Opening one’s heart lets in the joys and the sorrows, the connections and the longings. The wounds and the worries can be loud, but I do believe that love is louder and softer, gentle and fierce.
WholeHeart makes a bold claim in “envisioning a world with a global operating system based on love.” Love you say? What do you mean by that? What can one organization do? What can one individual do, to stand in what Parker J. Palmer refers to as “The Tragic Gap”-- that divide between reality and a life that we know to be possible? The answer is that we have to be willing to make our hearts more supple so that when they do break, they break open and not into shards.
In the fall of 2015, one of our board members, Tara Reynolds, traveled to Minnesota for a Courage & Renewal global gathering. There she met up with Judy Sorum Brown, poet extraordinaire, who penned the beautiful poem, "Fire." We use this poem frequently in our WholeHeart classes and workshops so it was fun to spend time with the poet herself!
