Eliza Daley is a fiction. She is the part of me that is confident and wise, knowledgable and skilled. She is the voice that wants to be heard in this old woman who more often prefers her solitary and silent hearth. She has all my experience — as mother, musician, geologist and logician; book-seller, business-woman, and home-maker; baker, gardener, and chief bottle-washer; historian, anthropologist, philosopher, and over it all, writer. But she has not lived, is not encumbered with all the mess and emotion, and therefore she has a wonderfully fresh perspective on my life. I rather like knowing her. I do think you will as well.
Groundhog Day
I can only imagine how wonderfully restorative it would be if I could always get home before dark… and be asleep through all the long hours of darkness. Then, by Imbolg, I would truly be ready for spring!
February 5, 2026
The center cannot hold…
And while the center burns itself to ash, life goes on. Pretty much as it always has. With bad and good, joy and grief, pain and beauty and such wonder. Give attention to that, to the reality of your life, because that’s the best medicine for bewilderment. And it’s also… just life…
January 16, 2026
Winter Solstice 2025
I have seen many people, usually those under the influence of a belief in modern exceptionalism, claim that our ancestors were frightened of this time of darkness, that sacrifices were offered to sky gods so that the sun would rise again after the longest night of the year. To that I say: Nonsense!
December 22, 2025
Fear of spending (and those darn electricity costs!)
It’s worrying about the electric bill with all those lights on. It’s having a light strand die and not wanting to spend money to replace it. A lot of money… It’s maybe even a bit of disengagement with this holiday season. Why bother making a fuss over it…
December 15, 2025
Making Home in the Holidays
I want all the outraged folks to learn from this. Walk away now. In fact, run. Do whatever you can within your community to pull all your needs within that small boundary. This benefits your community as well as you, building strength and resilience in your place and creating networks of reciprocity
December 10, 2025
Reflections on gratitude
I do think we need this feast to return to its roots, as a potlatch, a bonding redistribution of wealth and full bellies, a rapprochement across the great divides, and a coming together in joy to feed each other. We need something that draws us into community, that builds ties, that creates relationship and memories.
December 3, 2025
























