Author: Anna Walther

photo by Timothy Krause I’m really good at self-righteousness, and I bet you are, too. It feels GOOD to be right, am I right? Satisfying. Important. Powerful. Like that time when my redneck cousin posted on Facebook that Planned Parenthood and people who support the organization (that’s me, monthly contributor here) are baby murderers. I… Continue reading What I Know about Self-righteousness →

Our view from Austin of the super, blue, blood moon early this morning was clouded over, alas. But once the clouds cleared, I continued my monthly wildcrafted tea practice with cleavers. Here it’s called “sticky weed;” my children and their friends love to pick it and throw it at each other or stick it to… Continue reading January Super Blue Moon Tea: Cleavers →

In winter Central Texas cedar elms lose their leaves, revealing birds’ nests, ball moss, and mistletoe. The white-berried hemiparasite particularly plagues the cedar elm growing just outside our front door. While mistletoe performs some of its own photosynthesis, it draws most of its water and nutrients from the tree hosting it. Mistletoe flowers and produces… Continue reading Burning Last Year’s Mistletoe →

Sitting outside in the bright, yet gentle mid-morning sunlight. Incense lit, second cup of coffee in hand. I’ve watered herbs and refilled the bird feeder. I’m watching my beloved Poe stalk a squirrel and listening to a red-bellied woodpecker knock on the utility pole at the corner of our backyard. So it is, and so… Continue reading Back to Home Base →

At the beginning of a hatha yoga class that I attended, the teacher led a centering exercise. It involved lying supine and progressively relaxing each part of the body, fully surrendering our bodies to gravity, to the floor beneath us. “You are in this body now,” the teacher crooned at the end of the guided… Continue reading This Body Now →

One of my New Year’s intentions is to celebrate each of the full moons of 2018 with a wildcrafted tea ritual. Aligning my spiritual life with moon cycles reminds me of the cyclic, rhythmic nature of life. Wildcrafting gets me outside and compels me to consider my relationship with green bloods and the rest of the… Continue reading January Full Moon Tea: Pine Needle →

The backyard compost pile is easily the most magical place of my family’s suburban home. We alternate layers of kitchen scraps with dry brown leaves, and in about a year the pile transforms our coffee grounds, onion skins, apple cores, and carrot tops into rich, dark brown compost, which I use to fertilize our herb… Continue reading Composting the Old Year →

It’s been a rough year for many in my personal circles, and it’s been a rough year for our larger communities. Some of my friends have struggled with illness, some with loss, some with financial strain. White nationalists have marched openly in our nation’s streets, and an ill, ignorant, unrepentant bully sits supreme in the… Continue reading Season of the Dark Mothers →

We can’t authentically engage with others, unless we’re self-aware, and we can’t truly care for others, if we’re not also caring for ourselves. I occasionally relearn this lesson at work, when I attempt to care for patients for the duration of a twelve-hour shift without drinking enough water, taking a lunch break, or pausing to… Continue reading Why I’m Pagan →

Listed below in alphabetical order by title are ten of my favorite Naturalistic Pagan-friendly picture books. In addition to all of the well-known benefits of reading aloud with the children in your life, the stories and artwork in these books foster wonder, creativity, deep reverence for nature, appreciation of ecological and cultural diversity, and commitment… Continue reading 10 Picture Books for Naturalistic Pagan Families →