A Fierce Belief in Miracles is featured this month by GirlTalkHQ--the global headquarters of female empowerment stories and voices--in their Girl on a Mission section. You can read the story and interview here. Continue reading

A big shout out to Betsy Graziani Fasbinder for her amazing podcast The Morning Glory Project: Stories of Determination. If you're looking for inspiration, this is a great place to find it. My interview with her has just been featured -- Anne Reeder Heck: A Fierce Belief Continue reading

Since childhood, cycling has brought me joy. After being assaulted on a morning ride, I felt fearful of getting back on my bike. For years, my body memory equated the joyful feeling of cycling with being harmed. Working through this fear meant getting on my bike--not once, but many times. Each ride has felt like an emotional workout--and I’ve nearly always felt stronger for it.... Continue reading

It’s been five weeks since I fractured my femur and I’ve been working diligently strengthening my leg so it will support me when I’m given the green light to walk again. Today I celebrate a 90 degree bend in my knee and am grateful for so many things, including my sweet pup, my herbal support, an easy way to connect with friends, and my patio... Continue reading

My book will be sent to print next Tuesday, July 28. This happens to be the same day I see my doctor for a 7-week follow-up and -- fingers crossed -- may get a green light to walk without crutches. I’m doing my best to withhold expectations. I was originally told 10 weeks of no weight-bearing. Still, there have been multiple synchronicities surrounding this injury.... Continue reading

Things are not always as they appear. Knowing this is a reminder to examine life closely, to dialogue with what enters my experience, to remain open and curious. Here’s a photo of my femur which was shattered two weeks ago in a cycling accident. For many, this photo may equate with pain, expense, inconvenience. There’s so much this photo doesn’t convey. There’s the intention I... Continue reading

I had a bicycle accident on June 10th involving a railroad track and the rain. I shattered my right femur. In my quiet moments of recuperation, I’m examining this incident from various angles. I can’t help but find parallels with another major life trauma. That day (thirty years ago almost to the day), cycling on some unfamiliar roads, I got a clear message not to... Continue reading

This morning I sat thinking My mind was just adrift Missed an angel lighting on my head With the moment's gift So caught was I amidst my thought This moment passed me by What precious gem may have been I cannot quantify Our focus is so crucial To creating our life's dreams So bless this precious moment It's more sacred than it seems The angels... Continue reading

Healing doesn't happen in a vacuum. The way I work with my individual wounds affects everyone. Last week's trauma occurred thirty years nearly-to-the-date as my last trauma that involved my bicycle, an ambulance, and the emergency room. You can read that story in my forthcoming memoir "A Fierce Belief in Miracles." Healing requires revisiting the pieces that have been hardest for us - often several... Continue reading

“You are not your fear.” These are words that came to me years ago when I dialogued with my emotion. At the time, I was working through anxiety and restlessness as well as an inability to breath comfortably. A respected elder encouraged me, “Invite your fear to the kitchen table.” I found this counterintuitive. I wanted nothing to do with the pain and unease of... Continue reading

This past year, I've been connecting more deeply with the forest and have completed several art installments there. Here's a recent piece along with my poem. magic in the forest surely knows no bound just yesterday upon the trail, this is what I found another tiny ladder ascending to a door curious ‘bout little folk, I couldn’t ask for more I rapped below the welcome... Continue reading

Update on Gunhild: She’s enjoying a little less work time on the farm and enjoys letting her hair down in the evening. Gunhild was pleasantly surprised on Valentine’s Day to receive a bouquet of yellow tulips and a ‘gaekkebrev’ - a Danish love note filled with funny rhythmic poems sent from a man to a woman. The man sending the gaekkebrev signs it using dots... Continue reading

Gunhild Pedersen owns a small organic pig farm in southeast Denmark. In her country, being unmarried on your 25th birthday gives people social license to cover you in cinnamon. Being tied to her farm, Gunhild had no time for relationships and fell victim to cinnamon pelting. Wanting to avoid the traditional peppering at age 30, she hired help for the farm, purchased a pair of... Continue reading

Eljin O’Driscoll lives in Puzzlewood, a magical woodland in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. Said to be one of JRR Tolkien’s inspirations, the ancient forest is home to more magical beings than one might imagine. Eljin inhabits one of the oldest yew trees—some 600 years of age—living in its hollow trunk with his friendly neighbors, the hoverflies, ladybirds and wood-boring beetles. He’s partial... Continue reading

Yevgeney Youssef was born and raised deep in the East Siberian taiga. He knows all the plants in the area and learned from his grandmother how to use them for healing. A descendant of the okapi of central Africa, Yev (as his friends call him) is partial to the warm short summers on the taiga but is drawn to the snowy barrens of the Baikal... Continue reading

I'm hiking in the forest daily and have developed a beautiful connection with the spirits that live there. This one has just arrived and I'm super excited to introduce him to you ~ Grün König is up before daybreak, wakened by birds singing outside his window. Grün is an elder forest elf raised in northern Germany, not far from the Heligoland Bird Observatory where his... Continue reading

One of the recurring symbols that surfaced for me during 2019 was the cardinal. Not only did the red bird often perch outside my window, but it appeared in art pieces I was creating. Its message to me was “show up in your full color.”

 Cardinal taught me a subtle but important lesson. I used to be challenged with whimsical play. While I love playing... Continue reading

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I'm excited to unveil the cover of my forthcoming memoir A Fierce Belief in Miracles, which will be published in September 2020. Publishing my book is an exciting achievement, but admittedly, I’m feeling both tender and vulnerable. I wasn’t sure I could write this book. It called to me for twelve years before I took it on. Even then, writing it was an arduous process... Continue reading

A little new year magic for ye! A family of forest elves have taken up residence in a nearby oak tree. Here’s their lovely door, along with my most recent poem - a new year’s gift to you. Enjoy! The trails of Pisgah hold magic some say “Treasures,” I call them; I find some each day Some treasures stay hidden, like fae, sprite, and elf... Continue reading

Several people have inquired about my experience of writing memoir about rape. My answer: “It was full of emotion.” I wrote my book to offer hope and healing for others. Still, the writing required me to dig beneath the uplifting message I wished to relay. After twenty-eight years of physical, emotional and spiritual healing involving nearly eighty different alternative healing modalities, I felt there was... Continue reading

Thanks for your interest in Through the Fire: My Journey to Wholeness and Healing from Rape. I'd love to receive your feedback. I'm currently testing titles for the book and value your input. Please offer any insights or reflections in the comments section below, telling me why you clicked on the advertisement for this book. What attracted you to it? What made you curious? What... Continue reading

Thanks for your interest in Rape, Forgiveness and Healing: A Memoir. I'd love to receive your feedback. I'm currently testing titles for the book and value your input. Please offer any insights or reflections in the comments section below, telling me why you clicked on the advertisement for this book. What attracted you to it? What made you curious? What are you seeking? Thanks in... Continue reading

I'm excited and grateful to announce that my memoir A Fierce Belief in Miracles: My Journey from Rape to Healing and Wholeness has been accepted by my top choice publisher, She Writes Press. She Writes Press is an independent publishing company founded to serve members of SheWrites.com, the largest global community of women writers online, and women writers everywhere. She Writes Press is both mission-driven... Continue reading

I was interviewed this week by a woman doing her PhD project on healing and transformative doll making. One of her questions for me was “does a doll have agency of its own?” “Absolutely,” I replied. For the purpose of her study, she needed to challenge my belief, saying that most people would contend dolls are inanimate objects, and a belief in dolls having their... Continue reading