In this episode Sascha and I talk about webs.

We ponder the way they are spun from hunger and instinct. How hope weaves a web, how death works in the weaving. We consider the web from a spider's perspective - how they never see the full scope of their work. We wonder about how we might weave well, where we are. We talk about our mothers and our fathers - the webs they wove for us, the nourishment they offered. We talk about the web from the perspective of the fly.

We end with a story about the ways we might weave webs that bring food for each other, without ever knowing and gratitude for the ones who have woven us into this strange, sparkling strength we're a part of today.

In this episode, Sascha and I try to put our fingers on the ache inside beginnings. We wonder about the way life grows out of death, how joy grows alongside sorrow, and whether anything ever really starts for the first time.

In an act of cunning metaphor, we take a while to get rolling with this episode. Eventually, inside our large meandering, we make a circle that comes round in a way that feels complete to us (and hopefully to you).

In this episode Sascha and I contemplate miracles, reality and how the two things intersect.

We discuss: my father's death and the dog miracles that came in its wake,
the delusion/magic weaving Sascha's mother practiced in her life, what sky diving might teach us about the nature of reality, how one might work at miracles, whether a tendency toward miracles can me spread, caught or learned and what to do with mysterious luck.

In the end, we feel (as always) grateful for the miracle of each other and all of you.

In this episode Sascha and I talk with Poet (And Grief House board member and collaborator) Krystle May Statler about her brother BJ and her life with and without him since his murder in 2019 by the Inglewood police.

We consider what it means to suffer deep injury that can't be explained or relieved, how complicated grief can lead to isolation and the way poetry might help weave a story that can't be forced into linear narrative into something true that can be held and shared.
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Krystle May Statler (she/her) is a Black-multiracial artist living in Portland, OR and is the author of Prayer for Relief (2024). Her poems are featured in Poetry South, Epiphany Magazine, Fugue, Sixfold, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Poetry From Instructions, poetry.onl, 1455’s Movable Type, and Cultural Weekly. When she’s not artisting or designing books, Krystle can be found volunteering with The Grief House as the Fundraising Board Chair and Epiphany Magazine as a poetry reader, working as the Director of Operations at The Pathfinder Network, or nurturing life in Portland with her partner Kevin, their plant babies, and oodles of loved ones.

You can follow Krystle’s work online at krystlemaystatler.com and/or on Instagram at @2kay1. You can order her collection of poems, Prayer for Relief, here.

In this special episode Sascha sits down and talks with Jojo Donovan about trust and invitations. Jojo is good and wise and kind and perfect, as we find her always. Sascha (who is also good and kind and wise and perfect) feels lucky to be in a circle with jojo and the magic she pulls.

You can follow Jojo's work online at sevenstonestarot.com; on Substack at sevenstonestarot.substack.com; and on Instagram @sevenstonestarot. You can book a Wayfinding session here.

Referenced during the podcast:

"Summons" by Aurora Levins Morales

"Ready," song by Ahlay Blakely. You can learn about Ahlay's offerings at healingattheroots.com

In this episode Sascha and I talk about how it feels to extend and be offered open invitations. We agree that, from both directions, it is simply the best. We try to figure out what makes it possible to do this glorious, simple thing; consider examples from our lives, discuss our siblings, our recent trip to see my family in Mexico, my remarkable Aunt Pipis, and the difficult politics of our country.

As always, we feel lucky to have each other to practice open, endless, unconditional welcoming.

In this episode Sascha and I talk with Heather Dorfman about love, grief, and interconnection. Heather tells us how standing trees send water and nutrients to their fallen family and what that might look like in a thriving human ecosystem. Sascha and I feel amazed at this news, and overjoyed. We reflect on motherhood, mycelium, and how networks of all kinds grow and grieve and grow.

In this episode Sascha and I discuss long-term relationships, letting go and staying connected, distance and persistence. We explore the idea of our selves as stacking dolls and strata of earth, contemplate forever, and devote ourselves to notebooks filled with unsolved equations where love is a known that can't be zeroed out.