by Beth Coyote | Dec 11, 2019 | Uncategorized
As we approach the nadir of the winter solstice, our days in the Northwest are overcast, rainy and gray. It’s dark by 4 in the afternoon. Trees are bare of leaves, the garden plants are hoarding their nutrients underground. My old shamanic teacher taught that...
by Beth Coyote | Jun 27, 2019 | Uncategorized
Recently, I attended a silent retreat with nuns from California. During the retreat they educated us about the dilemma of bhikkhuni ordination, which has been denied them by the Vipassana forest elders in Thailand. An Ajahn in Australia ordained them but the Thailand...
by Beth Coyote | May 15, 2019 | Uncategorized
When I got the news that my brother was dead, I was in my midwifery clinic. Another brother called to tell me and when I asked how, he responded, ‘suicide’. All the years we had watched him falter and fall. Tangles with the law, driving drunk, domestic...
by Beth Coyote | Apr 1, 2019 | Uncategorized
When we sit down to meditate, we have an opportunity to observe what is actually going in our bodies. As the mind begins to quiet down, we can start to see that we are uncomfortable. Our hips ache. A knee hurts. Our skin is itchy. Our stomach is unset. In my case,...
by Beth Coyote | Jan 10, 2019 | Uncategorized
This New Year, I traveled to the Big Bear Retreat Center in SoCal. It’s a meditation center 7000 feet up in the mountains about 2 hours outside Los Angeles. I was there to cook with my friend Jessica, a master retreat cook. I was (and still am) a neophyte. It...
by Beth Coyote | Sep 19, 2018 | Uncategorized
Our lives are busy. We run from one activity to another. Traffic is clogged, our workmates are sometimes a great challenge, the world around us seems to be falling apart. The daily news cycle brings worrisome news of disasters and disorder of all kinds. It’s...
