iZōsh is an emotive and powerful Ethiopian word with no English equivalent. It is said to a woman specifically, and it connotes compassionately coming alongside her. The closest translation means: “I’m there for you; you can do this, and I won’t let you fail.” iZōsh is also the name of an Ann Arbor micro-lending organization that funds third-world women who live in extreme poverty.
On Forest Bathing and the Kindness of Trees
For as long as I can remember, I have been a tree-loving, tree-hugging kind of gal. At 4’11” tall I had a small body and strong arms that made it easy for me to climb trees. For years, I could follow my two children up any tree as high as they could go. But somewhere along the way I gained some weight and fear of heights, and my tree-climbing days were over. Nevertheless, I have never gotten over my deep reverence for trees. It should be obvious to anyone that they are higher life forms.
An Integrative Approach to Women’s Health: An Interview with Holistic Gynecologist Dr. Suman Tewari
A graduate of Wayne State University Medical School, Dr. Suman Tewari is a women’s doctor who has incorporated many aspects of functional medicine and mindset coaching with her allopathic training to bring the best possible care to her patients. I sat down with her at her beautiful office in the Parkway Center to discuss what she means when she says “holistic gynecology” and why women might not feel “empowered to heal.”
Nocturne
One Halloween, the night when barriers are said to dissolve between dimensions, as perhaps they do every night, my friend Marin and I took a ceremonial walk after dark through Bird Hills Nature Area. We stopped to read poetry and tell dreams at places we knew in the forest.
Stepping Into Freedom: A Funny Thing Happened On My Way Out the Door
I was wearing a walking cast on my broken right foot toward the end of my tenure as an administrative assistant at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. At work one day, when I knew I was tendering my resignation but had not yet announced it, I was clunking into our “hub” from my office down the hall. The hub was a room that had multiple functions: mail room, kitchen, copy room, and a place where people touched base, shared a greeting, or had a chat. On this day one of my co-workers walked in at the same time as I and greeted me with, “How long do you have?”
Honoring Our Ancestors
I was 18 years old when the telephone rang. My grandmother had passed. In a moment of stunned disbelief—this was my first experience of death in our family—I was also informed that in two hours my flight would leave for Boston. There was much to be done and very little had to do with processing emotions. I had to arrange for someone to cover a shift at the restaurant where I was waitressing, contact my college about missing class, find someone to care for my cat, and pack a suitcase. I had never been to a funeral, and my only reference was the movies. Yet, somehow, I managed to sort it all out and found myself surrounded by family, all mourning my grandmother.
Cashiering As A Spiritual Practice: Working the Front Lines at a Grocery Store During Covid
I am pretty sure I coined the phrase “cashiering as a spiritual practice.” I don’t know any other job where I could get this much practice to be my best self with scores of unique people every day. Of course, it’s easy and rewarding to serve someone who is competent, friendly, and polite. The actual spiritual practice happens when someone is not blessed with these qualities. How do I feel when a customer is on her cell phone during the entire transaction, never making eye contact, and barely a thank you? What are my thoughts when someone is overtly rude, demanding, or both? What if someone is looking down on me, as they perceive my “station in life” beneath theirs? How about the customer whose eyes are burning a hole in me because she is in a hurry and thinks the long line is my fault? With humility, I realize I’ve been “that impatient customer” before, too. See how many opportunities I have to practice every day?
Growing Older In America: The New Culture Wave
When I was a kid, my grandparents appeared to be permanently ancient in my eyes. Grandma smelled like cookies and mince pies. Grandpa (retired from working on the line at Chrysler at age 65) smelled of gardens and woodworking. The oldest person on TV in 1963 was Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies. She was portrayed as a cross between a beloved spry old chicken and your slightly demented next-door neighbor for whom you shovel the sidewalk each winter. Although this show presented a few progressive plot lines about class conflict, you still could not have made an episode about seniors and bathrooms 30 years ago for TV. Only when us baby boomers began to ride the cultural wave of aging in America did perceptions of what it meant to be an elder start to change.
The Raindrop Technique
Essential oils—they’re everywhere! You can find them in the grocery store, home improvement stores, the mall, and even the gas station. Aromatherapy, with essential oils, is extremely popular right now. As the saying goes, “everything old is new again.” That’s truly the case with essential oils.
Healing Writer's Block Through the Mystery School
The temptation to hang up the phone burnt my fingertips like I had touched a car bumper that had been sitting under a hot sun for hours. I did not call Lynn Andrews—a shaman healer, mystic, and an internationally best-selling author with 20 books to her name—to talk about my childhood as if I was sitting in front of a psychiatrist or a talk show host. I’d hoped that this one-hour phone session could resolve some issues I had been having with my writing career.
Conscious Parenting: Focus on Connection
Parents are under a high degree of stress right now. Racism and its effects, a pandemic, an election year, environmental disasters—all are our backdrop as we surf waves of work and kids’ schooling. Now more than ever, it’s essential to bring ourselves—and our parenting—back to the basics.
Great Tastes in Local Food, Winter 2021
Great Tastes in Local Foods. Support our local restaurants.
Squirrel Sense
They call it birdseed for a reason, but squirrels don’t know that. For those of us who enjoy feeding birds, squirrels can be crafty, and sometimes costly, adversaries. A hungry fox squirrel can chow down a dollar’s worth of sunflower seeds faster than a small flock of finches, which can be annoying. Or it can be entertaining.
Book Review: Being at Your BEST When Your Kids Are at Their Worst By Kim John Payne, M.ED.
Have you ever felt the “red mist” (of frustration) rise in you regarding something one of your children said or did? Did it soon follow with saying or doing something you later regretted? Author Kim John Payne understands this experience from the perspective of a parent, but also as a child that witnessed such behavior.
The Art of Sangchen Tsomo
Born in Indiana, college at University of Michigan, it was not until her mid-20s that Sangchen Tsomo encountered the Tantric Buddhist path as taught at the Tsogyelgar Dharma Center, which has been located for more than two decades on a beautiful piece of farmland a few miles west of Ann Arbor. (See the Crazy Wisdom Community Journal cover story on Tsogyelgar in Issue 64, the Fall 2016 issue, available on our Archive at: crazywisdomjournal.com.)
Kids Book Reviews, Winter 2021
New books for kids, winter 2021
Namaste, Katie...Our Yoga Column
Whether you're a seasoned yogi or getting ready to roll out your mat for the first time, here you'll find a variety of useful tips from local yoga instructor, Katie Hoener.
Don’t Gobble ‘til You Wobble. Save Those Holiday Leftovers and Put Them to Good Use!
More than likely, this wasn’t a typical holiday season for you and your family. Maybe part of your family decided to stay home due to health concerns, or maybe they didn’t like who you voted for. Either way, you’ll probably have some major leftovers. Don’t despair! Put your leftovers to good use! Save yourself some time with meals ready to go in the oven that don’t taste like you’ve already eaten them for three days.
Tea Time With Peggy-- Kombucha Tea
Good Bacteria! Many of us are aware that there is such a thing as good bacteria, however it tends to be killed daily along with the bad bacteria. In a Covid-19 world most products talk about how they kill viruses and bacteria. The overuse of germ, virus, and bacterial fighting products kind of makes me cringe with fear.
Learning the Culture and Heritage of Washtenaw County through Food and Architecture
Prior to Covid-life, the Local Food Summit event took place with food diversity and food justice being the main focus. I had the pleasure of sitting with speaker, Melissa Milton-Pung, who represented a program she created in conjunction with the county’s Heritage Tourism department. The tour is called the Foodways Heritage Tour and there is a recipe guide online for those interested in our counties rich and bountiful cultural heritage.
