Blog
Why Reciprocity Matters: Growing the Capacity for Love in a Hurting World
Over Dependence: The Cost of Disowning the Self When love was modeled through enmeshment or boundary violations, we may have learned to earn care by abandoning ourselves.Signs of over dependence include:• Abandoning our needs to please or rescue others• Experiencing disagreement as dangerous• Collapsing identity into one relationship• Confusing approval with love• Losing sight of…
The Healing Power of Othermothering: Singing Medicine and the Return to Belonging
In a world where loneliness is rampant and hyper-individualism is often mistaken for freedom, a quieter truth is calling to us: we were never meant to do this alone. As someone who was othermothered back into life by a woman who had every reason to turn away, I have spent my life answering that call…
Self-Compassion as a Path Home to Belonging
One of the great benefits of helping other people heal is that I get to witness the potency of compassion. A person shared with me a moment that had haunted her for decades. It was a circumstance where she not able to help a vulnerable person she loved. Since trauma is not in the event, it…
How I Received My Name Landsong and My Call to Mount Shasta
When I was 20 years old, I sat with my knees bent up, and journal in my lap in the bed I was given at the Women’s Shelter. I had just gotten out of three months of inpatient trauma treatment, and now I was starting my life over on the West Coast in Seattle. My…
Profound Connection on second return to Zimbabwe
This post is from 2019 second return trip People are arriving, goat meat is being cooked in a huge metal pot over a wood fire, and men are warming the drums by another fire. John goes over and greets the men and they offer that he can try out the drums. Everyone…
Book Excerpt: During My NDE A Being Shows Me the Ways All Of Life is Gracefully Linked Together
In the center of an open space of short grass I am so surprised to see a man who looks like a king. He has no crown but when I look at him I think of royalty even though he is dressed like a shepherd. His coat is not fancy or jeweled. It goes to…
Create Belonging
Giving and receiving help, including others, and honoring yourself are ways to create belonging. Creating belonging is an antidote to alienation. What are the ways we can share our unique gifts unsparingly, while calling out the gifts of others?An excerpt from my book when I first arrived to the village that took me in: “A…
We found the location of my first village!
A second miracle has taken place. Yesterday we (John my husband, Vanessa our host, Future an area game scout and our fabulous translator, and Maemu) found the location of my first village from 40 years ago. My friend Brianna helped me find words for what took place inside me with this quote. “We need to be…
Maemu and Robin Reunited !
This post is from 2017 on the first Return trip. From John: One of the most amazing moments of my life happened two days ago. While on the way to our stay at a Farm on the Limpopo River, we were approaching the lands where Robin lived when was at 8 years old. We had…