In this mini episode I share a bit about the status of the podcast, some personal information about the importance of the Celtic cross-quarter holiday Imbolc in my life, and how I feel that Snake wisdom will serve us well in this Year of the wood snake. Enjoy!

My guest this week is someone I've known through the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous since 2006, and who has taken the 11th step ("Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God...") to a whole new level with her commitment and devotion to Buddhist teachings and practices: Mary Stancavage.

Mary Stancavage has practiced meditation, yoga, and cultivated a spiritual practice for over 35 years and in 2009 was empowered to teach Buddhadharma. She teaches classes, retreats, coaches and mentors individuals and has facilitated several Year-to-Live groups over the years. She has served as a volunteer hospital chaplain and been involved with leadership in several non-profit organizations over the years both in meditation and in the social justice arena. She is currently a member of the Guiding Teachers Council for Insight Community of the Desert, serves on the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Interfaith Task Force and is a Board Member of both Meditation Coalition and CLUE: Clergy and Laity for Economic Justice. For the last several years, Mary has investigated what it means to live with an undefended heart and more information on this can be found on her website, marystancavage.org. Fun fact: Mary has an MA from UCLA and spent several seasons working as an archaeologist in Syria.

In this episode Mary and I discuss topics such as:

- meditation for nervous system regulation
- the “year to live” practice as a powerful way to shed what’s not important and turn toward what is
- 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows in Buddhism
- election day as just one day in our lives, and cultivating present time awareness
- the importance of resourcing ourselves well
- “Right now, it’s like this.” My favorite Mary quote which just so happens to be tattooed on her arm
- you cannot win a fist fight with reality, so you might as well say hi to it
- the 11th step in alcoholics anonymous talks about seeking through prayer and meditation, and AA was a gateway for Mary to meditation practice
- the practice of “coming back” and “being with”
- The Eightfold Path: foundational Buddhist teaching
- cultivating kindness and friendliness, not only toward others, but also toward ourselves
- the value of replacing “I am” with “this is”
- living life with an underfunded heart
- “You are a part of me that I do not know yet” as a way to help us meet the polarization of our times

following

Undefended Dharma: Living with an Undefended Heart marystancavage.org

Meditation Coalition
Insight Community of the Desert
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice
LA District Attorney Interfaith Advisory Board

morning
which

I’m so excited to be kicking off season two of Thresholders with someone I have admired from afar for years, Centehua Sage.

Centehua is a mother, traditional cook, dancer and embodiment guide.  Born and raised in Mexico City, to artist parents. She currently resides in Northern California near the Yuba river. She shares her musings on Substack and offers a yearly embodiment course on her website at centehuasage.com.

In this episode Centehua and I explore:

- raising a toddler in the midlife years

- the individualism of the wild woman phase that makes way for  cronehood

- Navigating the weirdness of social media

- Schooling versus Unschooling: where do we take a stand and where to we compromise

- Listening to our kids about their needs, and meeting them in the years of letting go

- The importance of peers and outdoor experiences for kids in the pre-school years and beyond

- Curating a child’s education based on their actual needs (rather than our own ideals)

- the letting go years: when to guide and when to surrender

- Centehua’s nutrition journey from veganism, to raw foodie to eating animals from the land (including a hog named Lacey she tended in life and witnessed in harvest)

- Nourishing children

- Not restricting “the cookie”

- The healing power of SOUP!

- Embodying our gift and our life through dance

- And so much more!

Connect with Centehua on Instagram: @centehuasage or on her website: www.centehuasage.com

My guest this week is Olivia Bareham. 

Olivia is a death midwife, interfaith minister, master teacher, and founder of Sacred Crossings: the Institute for Conscious Dying and Alternative Funeral Home in Los Angeles. 

For over 30 years, Olivia has been guiding individuals toward a conscious dying experience and empowering families to care for their loved ones after death with a vigil and funeral at home. She has published the Death Care Directive, which is a planning booklet for one’s funeral and final disposition. 

Olivia is now internationally renowned for her transformative death Doula and Death Midwife training programs. 

In this episode Olivia and I discuss topics such as:

- Why one might consider embarking on a Death Midwifery Training

- the larger umbrella of death midwifery, and finding your unique gift as a death worker

- Midwifing death in the culture, so people can embrace the gifts of death

- People typically die in the manner of their living

- Embracing death, so we can embrace our lives

- How being present to our discomfort can help us to die consciously 

- the importance of a presence practice

- conscious living often equals conscious dying

- similarities and differences between the birth and death experiences

- the importance of befriending the unknown

- choosing our thoughts wisely

- the healing power of sitting vigil for three days

- Making sudden or traumatic deaths sacred to through ritual practices that helped to move our grief

- “Bridging Heaven and Earth” (a deep dive retreat for Olivia’s training graduates 

- and so much more!

You can find Olivia at:

https://sacredcrossings.com/

In this episode I'm speaking with Esi Wildcat.

Esi is a somatic practitioner and ceremonialist, an ordained Priestess of Isis, a Shakta initiate and Yogini in the lineage of Sri Vidya, a certified health practitioner and interdisciplinary healing artist with over 20 years of expertise.

Esi envisions a world where all humans harness the power to intuit and maintain wellness and alive-ness in all areas of their lives. She's passionate about conversations that creat change, and is a space holder for the primal emotions that often have no place in our contemporary world (such as grief, rage, despair, anger).

As a bridge builder to the New Earth, Esi makes waves in the cultural somatic realm, and is injecting the social justice sphere with a much needed human-ness and nuance. Esi seeks to highlight the extraordinary in the ordinary, and how the power of presence in our lives can transform not only how we relate to ourselves, but to the world around us.

In this episode Esi and I discuss topics such as:

-Teaching humans how to human

- Integrating initiatory and transitional experiences

- A unique (and often judged) approach to social justice work

- Earth changes, and leaning into the sacred-ness of Nature

- Deconditioning our beliefs in order to live a life of alignment

- Contrary to popular belief, "We're right on time"

- The strangeness of these technological times

- The medicine of dissonance

- Clean power in the spiritual landscape

- Meeting this global moment with grace and mercy

- And so much more!

You can connect with Esi on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/wildholyhuman or on her website at https://wildholyhuman.com