goddessdreams

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  1. Finding Healing Through the Earth Element

    4/2/12 1:52pm by goddessdreams
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    I started the 12 week cycle three weeks ago with Taxol. I have a lot of anxiety each time I go to chemotherapy. I dread it but I go anyway. Taxol is the third drug in my treatment regimen and it has its own set of issues and side effects. The body aches and intestinal issues are challenging and as each week progresses the cumulative affects take their toll. It is what it is and this is what I signed on for when I made the decision to enter into this treatment.  Read more >

  2. Big Medicine in a Tiny Package

    2/13/12 11:16am by goddessdreams
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    Studies abound on the ways in which animal companions enrich our lives, even heal our bodies and minds. We know that having  a pet in your life can reduce, stress, lower blood pressure, and make our mood better. Check out WebMd's slide show for 27 ways pets improve our lives: http://pets.webmd.com/ss/slideshow-pets-improve-your-health   Read more >

  3. The Healing of Henna

    2/4/12 4:24pm by goddessdreams
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    After my hair cutting ceremony, I spent some time in meditation on what to do with my hairless head. I had already decided that I would not wear a wig. Headwraps and scarves are nice enough and keep the cold air off my head, but I wanted something that would be a continuation of the spiritual ceremony I had. I've always loved Henna. It's a sacred plant with deep and powerful spirit medicine. Henna has a long history in spiritual practice and belief: The Henna Page  Read more >

  4. Food Not So Glorious

    1/24/12 11:11am by goddessdreams
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    Chemotherapy is saving my life, and like everything else in life there is a cost to be extracted. The bone deep fatigue, the aches and pains are dismal; that's just the way it is. The stomach trouble is the worst for me. They give you drugs to control the nausea, sure. Those drugs have their own set of side effects. The thing is that just as cancer is not a one size fits all kind of disease, the treatments to deal with it are not either. I struggle with getting enough nutrition into my body.  Read more >

  5. Turning the Page

    1/23/12 1:20pm by goddessdreams
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    Sunday was an incredible day. My friends and family gathered at my home for my hair cutting ceremony. We began by calling the four directions and the spirits to be with us. My three Sister Friends  smudged, sang, and prayed in the traditional manner, and we saved my locs in a sacred bundle that I will keep on my altar until my hair begins to grow back. They gifted me with a frame drum that I played while one of them played Native American Flute. The hair that we shaved, we released through the fire element. Then we had a wonderful feast   Read more >

  6. Not a Dixie Peach Anymore

    1/15/12 12:38pm by goddessdreams
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    I got up yesterday morning and saw the patches of my scalp along the crown of my head, felt the thin fragileness of the new growth on my locs. I fought some sadness the whole day, but did not succumb to it. My hair, as for many Black women, has always been a source of judging myself and in some ways my place in the world. Hair is complicated for us. To dissect the why would take too long, and still the dominant world would not understand.  Read more >

  7. One Wise Thing, Maybe Two

    1/12/12 2:18am by goddessdreams
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    It's been 1 week out of Cycle 1 of my chemotherapy and today I felt nearly human.  Read more >

  8. Warrior Goddess

    11/26/11 3:24pm by goddessdreams
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    Three weeks ago, I was diagnosed with Stage I IDC (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma)--Breast Cancer. I am a woman of African descent; I am a triple negative so hormone therapy is not an option in my treatment. Now that I have had surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are next.  I'm not going to write about the paralyzing fear, the crying jags, and the chaos that having cancer has thrown me into. Everyone is afraid, everyone cries, and everyone has their lives turned upside down by this. It's not like Hollywood movies.  Read more >

  9. Why I am Not Polyamorous

    11/22/11 12:54am by goddessdreams
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    ...anymore.   My spiritual path has led me to the kind of relationships that do not have ownership or possessiveness of people as allowable. I own my actions; and I own a responsibility to be honest, communicative, and loving in what I say and do with my relationships with my friends, and my family. My partners are family, chosen and as dear to me as the children that came though my body into the world.  Read more >

  10. 'Tis the Season

    12/5/10 8:26pm by goddessdreams
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    winter moon

    I am one of those who do not celebrate Christmas, who do not go to church, who do not participate in office parties and revelries of the season.  Each  year I dread the onslaught of  commodified craziness that passes for the holidays. I refuse to go to the Mall; the frenzy makes me angry and frustrated. As a woman who walks a different  spiritual path, I often feel more than a little out of place at work during this time of year.  Read more >

Rena Bird

Full Name
Rena Bird
Member Since
September 2009
About Me: 


Left of center baby boomer in a perpetual state of discovery. Some of my Heras are Toni Morrison, Luisa Teish, Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley, and Maya Angelou. I abhor reality TV, SUV's, NASCAR, mullets, "bling-bling," "pimped rides," and the various other contrivances that trivialize life and destroy the planet.

Happily partnered with two men for more than12 years, one is rafeegh to me, the other is yaar; both are soulmates. I am hopeful for the future, and find joy in art, music, literature, poetry, and individual people. Pagan heart, polyamorous, belly dancing, drum beating, untamed independent woman.

A womanist in the tradition of Alice Walker and lover of the earth who is my strength and my source. A daughter of Osun and Yemaya, I follow a solitary earth-centered path that embraces traditions of the Orishas, first peoples, and goddess cultures as they speak to my heritage and my heart.

This is the center of my life and everything I do, every choice I make is from this heart of desire and love of the earth as Gaia. For me, there is no separation of spirit from matter, sacred from profane. For me, the sacred is found in the everyday, and I work at allowing it to "happen." Small moments, seemingly insignifcant, are where I experience the sacred nature of my journey, though there are times when I am working clay, dancing or drumming that I am moved to joy. These artforms are my hymns, my prayers, my scriptures.

Location Tags: 

The Great  Northwest near Mountain Mother

School Tags: 

University  of Tampa, University of South Florida

About Me Tags: 

Spirituality,Women's Spirituality,Pagans not Wiccans,Love,Relationships,Polyamory,Sexuality,Older Women,Aging,Art,Altar Building,Hoo Doo,Rootwork,Rituals,Drumming,Dancing,Oracle Reading,Books,Culture,Race,Class,Inequality, Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Survivors

Causes Tags: 

Partnership Community,Cultural Competency,Intentional Community,Sustainability,Health Care as a Right not a Privilege,

Favorite Tags: 

People I love,Humming birds at my flowers,Chai cold or hot,breakfast for supper,brie at room temperature,drumm circles,bonfires,hip scarves,shimmies,zills,turbans,big funky jewelry,beads,second hand stores,incense,candles,middle eastern music,R&B Music,Krispy Kreme Donuts,True Blood,Wine with my women friends,crazy outrageous courageous people

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