When we begin a Planet Dance Class, we take a good moment to check in with our own selves.  Hotels have check in times, doctors have check in times, but we humans love to forget to take stock of ourselves, how we are doing, or what we are feeling.  Since

Are you one of those mothers who is quite good at meeting other people’s needs, and abysmal at meeting your own?  Or, you meet your own just enough to meet all the other demands in your life, but not enough to actually feel resilient and strong and deeply content?  Last

Why do you lie to me? I know I am Aridane, goddess of pathways.  These pathways take us from dread to delight, uncomfortably painful grief to bursting joy, curious child to impactful adult…and yet when I look at you in the mirror, all I can see is a dumping ground…trodden,

To our horror, modern day times have given birth to a horrible self harm mechanism: cutting.  But many of us practice self harm in smaller, seemingly less unthinkable ways to great effect- by eating food or drinking alcohol we know is poisoning us.  Even ceding our will to gravity and

With the season of gift giving supposedly behind us, we at The Motherline propose a new idea: what if the gift we give, all year long, is ourselves?  What if the way we navigate the world, interact with others, and tend our common good is a present: to our community,

Will another year go by where you think about making time to dance?  What does it take to prioritize nourishing your mind, body,and soul connection, to put movement where your heart, mind and mouth are? Or, will you remain…immobilized? These days, knowing is like chasing a white rabbit. The increasing

This Solstice season, get in bed in the middle of the day.  But only if you usually don’t.  If day bedding is a usual thing for you, go outside and look up.  The mother is telling us now…this is the time to curl.  Curling inward is a necessary transaction with

Tis’ the season where the question abounds…”what do you want for Christmas?”  It’s a terrible question, insinuating that a certain day of the year entitles me to a gift I don’t need, but desire, in this world where alluring stuff abounds,  But, I am shifting my loathing of the season

It is critical in realizing the potential of your third income…that is all the money you can save by not spending it. Funnily, we improve our physical health when we do this! For example, having a dance party to ‘dance it out’ is a completely viable and ‘free’ way for

Your third income is what Homesteaders refer to as all the money you save by not spending it.  Unlike our primary earned income, or job, or the second income the world refers to as ‘debt,’ the third income improves your quality of life, on all fronts.   Examples of the

Today, crawling through the gargantuan asparagus fronds, trying to weed the tangles of bindweed and pigweed, I was careful not to knock seedheads into the ground and instead escort them from the garden, I realized how beautiful the soil is under the overstory of noxious, colonizing ‘mean weeds’, as I

My daughter doesn’t read these newsletters. But every time I write for Motherline, I write with her in mind. It’s impossible not to, because the work of the line is about remembering our kids in every choice we make, every action we take, down to the mundane moment of deciding

Introducing my favorite new word! Yesterday I was washing dishes at my kitchen sink, which happens to be outdoors, and which doesn’t happen to have running water, and I was thinking of how grateful I was to be out in nature under the birds and the rustling leaves, even while

After the Clean Sweep kickoff last weekend, I was reflecting on how much trash was out in those woods, and how little of a dent we made on the overall amount.  Even though we worked so hard for so many hours, with so many people!  But I also realized that

Your need for rest is independent of those who need you.  Their needing doesn’t mean you will magically have more to give, or cancel out your tiredness, though so often women act like it does.  We bulldoze over our own self awareness around our energy levels because we are trying

Earth has a favorite emotion, and that’s generosity. No- I don’t mean to say value, I mean emotion – Gaia is constantly wanting to give.  As someone who spends a majority of her time outdoors, I know this as sure as I know my own soul. That’s why big bursts

What does it mean to have a moral core?  It means that even in the face of unprecedented challenges we keep going, with as much dignity as we can muster, brought to us by the strength of our values.  Motherliners insist on hope over despair, because despair is best friends

Mothers.  You are enough.  I know this about you.  I just don’t know it about myself. What is enough? When it comes to being good, when is it enough?  When we pour water in a glass, we know when it is full.  Why is it when we pour our hearts

Where can I go?  Where will my family be safe? I think a lot about “home” as a homesteader living in climate precarity.  I constantly wonder where safer is.  As a small farmer in rural Southern Oregon my lungs have seen a significant amount of wildfire smoke.  Nothing says “move

“Rural people are irrelevant,” he quipped.  A good friend was explaining to me how inconsequential he viewed rural America to be with regard to the greater world order and the impending wars festering in so many regions.  I took a long deep internal breath contemplating the most impactful way to

What is planting time if not thinking ahead? Maybe the garden teaches us that the “live for now” mantra isn’t all that healthy. Maybe learning to think about what we can’t see matters hugely. Time and time again I look to the garden for wisdom.  It has undone so much

The planet is sick, and so are we. When we work to heal the planet, we work to heal ourselves. Not just literally, but spiritually.

Dance is your soul insisting on freedom.   I’ve been reflecting on my inferiority complex.  It’s huge.  I believe I was born with it because as far back as I can remember I have been scared of messing up.  Scared to have a voice.  It makes sense that I make

In Motherline’s earliest days we struggled to find words that would help people conceptualize what we are doing, and we gathered our fundamental mission as: dancing together as the origin point to fulfill a vision of Rural ReciProsperity.  That vision sees a thriving and sustainable, planet-protective local economy that supports