Cicely’s Tree

Many years ago, when my son was starting kindergarten, we lived far enough away from school that he needed to ride the bus to get there. My husband and I took turns walking with him to and from the bus stop.

While I drank coffee and watched Anthony, my husband struck up a friendship with the West Indian woman whose house was on the corner.

Her name was Cecily. She was often out working in her beautiful garden, and my husband was also a gardener, so they had this in common. They often traded plants back and forth (e.g. dug things up and gave them to each other).

Cicely had a giant, mature Japanese Maple tree that covered a third of her corner lot. Keep reading

The BRAVE Interview #35: Deb Farina

Welcome to this month’s BRAVE Interview with

Deb Farina!

As a fun-loving psychic biz coach who specializes in client attraction, I am here to guide spiritual and intuitive souls to feel at ease and grow their biz with simplicity and joy. A believer in deep SOUL fulfillment, I was called to this work to support others to bring their divinely guided ideas and desires to form.

It began with one BRAVE step…leaving my full-time job of 5 1/2 years and a career of almost 20 years to focus on my business. Keep reading

The Holistic Practitioner Series #10: Rachel Horton White: Hypnotist, Intuitive Reader, Life Coach, Mindfulness Teacher

Welcome to this month’s Holistic Practitioner Interview with Rachel Horton White, Hypnotist!

  1. WHO are you?

I am a mother of two energetic young children and wife to a talented musician and carpenter. I grew up in Portland, Maine, but did not always live here (in fact all I wanted to do was get out of Maine as a teenager)! When I was a junior at Wellesley College, I studied abroad in Dakar, Senegal. Based on the kindness, generosity and compassion I learned from the Senegalese, this experience changed my life and created a deep desire within me to help make the world a better place in some way. After teaching English in Guadalajara, Mexico after college, I went into non-profit management as a career, and got a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Georgia. I worked for social services agencies for about 10 or so years. I got married, had my first child, and then my second child. Then I started to feel very burnt out of my helping profession, and got back in touch with my spiritual/intuitive roots (with much encouragement)! Keep reading

The BRAVE Interview #34: Karen Maffeo Creamer

Welcome to this month’s BRAVE Interview with … ME!

I have changed how I arrange these interviews and for the first time since I began The BRAVE Interview series, I don’t have someone to feature. Last night I remembered something that happened in my girlhood days that had always been painful to think about, and I realized that it was actually a pretty brave act. I decided to take this as a sign that it’s my turn–especially fitting since it’s my birthday month!

This is me (I am the second one from the bottom–surrounded by my extended family), at about the age that this event happened.

We moved a lot when I was growing up. I didn’t have much time to make friends before it was time to move again. When we did stay in one place for a few years, I still had to change schools, because the town we lived in had built a new elementary school and I was in the zone designated to go to the new one. Keep reading