Maria Popova

Autumnal Equinox- September 22, 2026

The equinox lands midpoint between the solstices.
Consider it an opportunity to recognize the balance in your life,
an opportunity to shift what may need to shift or to
drop the dead weight of an unnecessary load.

As autumn arrives and we head towards colder,
more hibernation-inspired days and the time of natural light lessens.
Let us honor this potential time of
transition, transformation and transcendence.
In recognition we may honor the physical and emotional balances
that keep us, at once, flowing and grounded.
Perhaps drink more warm liquids, eat foods that serve us more completely
in the cold days and longer nights.

I encourage taking a moment (or longer)
to recognize the Equinox,
perhaps offering up a mantra, prayer or meditation
devoted to this time of transition.
Offering our attention, we give it the power it deserves
to help guide us towards a
softer, calmer, more enlightened journey.

All good things, Tricia

Gloria Steinem

We can only hope so.

MAria Popova, The Marginalian

“Language is the chalice we lift to our lips to taste our own experience — a vessel that constrains what it contains by giving it its own shape. The more complex our experience, the more muddled the emotions that comprise it, the more it spills outside what language can hold. And yet we live in language —” MP

Here are 10 of Maria’s favorite untranslatable words from around the world,
that have no equivalent in ours, the English language.

ABHIMAN
Sanskrit

The literal meaning of abhi-man is “self-pride.” Abhiman evokes the pain and anger caused when someone we love, or expect kind treatment from, hurts us. Sorrow and shock are at its root, but it quickly flourishes into a fierce, bruised pride. To recognize abhiman as an inevitable part of our emotional life is to know that breaking the unspoken contracts of love and respect between families and allies is an extremely serious betrayal.

ACEDIA
Greek

A distracting, creeping feeling. Like the tickle of a gnat crawling up your arm. A short-lived but disastrous emotional crisis, usually striking between 11AM and 4PM. Its first signs are listlessness and irritability, but it doesn’t take long to turn into desolation and despair.

AMAE
Japanese

The sensation of temporary surrender in perfect safety when you crumple into the arms of a loved one to be coddled and comforted. In Japan, amae is commonly acknowledged as part of all kinds of relationships, felt not only between family members, but with friends and in the workplace too. According to the Japanese psychologist Takeo Doi, amae is “an emotion that takes the other person’s love for granted,” there when we depend on another’s help with no obligation to be grateful in return. You can even be encouraged to show amae to yourself. For Doi, surrendering to amae is important because it represents a return to the indulgences and unconditional nurturing of infancy. It’s the glue which allows stable relationships to flourish, an emblem of the deepest trust… this combination of vulnerability and belonging.

BASOREXIA
20th-century English derivative of Latin and Greek

The sudden urge to kiss someone.

GRENG JAI
Thai

The feeling of being reluctant to accept another’s offer to help because of the bother it would cause them.

KAUKOKAIPUU
Finnish

Feeling homesick for a place you’ve never been to. From kauko — faraway, and kaipuu — a yearning.

MALU
Indonesian

The sudden experience of feeling constricted, inferior and awkward around people of higher status.

SAUDADE
Portuguese

A melancholic yearning for someone, or something, which is far away or lost. It’s always there, pulsing between the surface with its hopefulness tinged with grief. There is a vague yearning, yet it is interlaid with resignation and the pleasure of remembering past joys.

VIRAHA
Sanskrit

Viraha is usually translated as longing or the particular kind of love felt during separation or abandonment. An aspect of sringara rasa (erotic and romantic love), one of the nine rasas or themes that shape human experience, viraha is a feeling of incompleteness without a loved one, and a fixation on the ecstasy of the longed-for reunion. Viraha recalls the formulations of romantic infatuation, not only the erotic — the poetry of the Occitan troubadours, or the inconsolable longing expressed in Portuguese fado music. The difference is that viraha is also a religious feeling — the soul’s quest to find it’s spiritual home. [See John Donne’s “Batter My Heart”.]

ŻAL
Polish

Żal (pronounced jal) is melancholy felt at an irretrievable loss. This is not straightforward dejection. Żal is fickle, and shifts its shape, one moment resigned, the next rebellious. It combines the disappointment, regret and even violent fury which comes when some part of our lives has been taken away for good. It is most of all a kind of anger at recognizing the end of things.

Ursula K LeGuin... Words

“Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it.”

Gloria Steinem, 3/25/1934 - 9/2/2026

What a powerful impact Gloria Steinem had on the evolution of women’s rights. When I was small, I remember my mom who was a huge fan, talking about her and what were considered her “explosive” comments (like women should earn equal pay for equal work) in a time where women were supposed to sit down and shut up- which my mom never did. I felt the impact of her voice and presence as I developed a deep seated respect for all women and our plight for justice & equality. I recall hearing comments from many men about the futility of this “women’s movement” as if it was just a troublesome phase.

While we all still work tirelessly to bring equality to women across the world I mourn the loss of Gloria Steinem. I sit with gratitude knowing she was a force to be reckoned with, never gave up the fight.
and caused generations of women, and men who love them, to be fueled by her rebellious and powerful spirit.

Rest easy in peace & power Ms. Steinem.

Ireland in a Scarf

When you forget to bring a swimsuit, or a towel to the loch but you must go in because- well it’s Ireland and it’s a loch and you believe you will be spiritually cleansed by sinking in- but you have a scarf for cover after the dive
so you say ”Fuck it! I’m going in!”
Then someone snaps a pic :O

Ireland- Words, Thoughts

Green, light, chartreuse
My ancestors sing to me
Waves of possibility lap at my shore
My spirit sheds knots and tangles
Preparing for eventual flight
How far off I don’t know
I don’t care
I’m merely here
To witness the beauty
And share the
Best of who I’ve become
………………………………………………

The near full moon grabs my eye
Over the blankness of Shannon
The amber reflects of the silver gray
Of the wispy horizontal clouds
They seem meant to accent more than camouflage
I am called once again to my feminine core
Through the layer of yang
That I built like so many limestone walls
To keep me both protected and alive
In my very feminine body
A body I was taught to despise and cover
Fo fear of revealing my urge to tell the patriarchy
To Fuck the Fuck off

Thank you Moon
Thank you Luna
Thank you Mother Earth
…………………………………………

I am here on my own
Well- with my demons and angels
who accompany me, invited or not
……………………………………………………….

Tell me that the world will heal
Tell me we’ll all get to feel
The hope that seems to evade us
At this very fraught time
To create the world
Where love is what we feel
……………………………………………..

Packed day in the damp forest of Ireland
Learning of flora and fauna
And the creatures below the Earth
The crucial assignment
Understand, respect and preserve
………………………………………………………….

Sisters, brothers come along
Tell me what do we all come from?
As we seek
As we share
Tell the truth
Lay it all bare
Let’s share our meals and our savory tea
Connecting supporting, for the divine, are we
Gratitude abounds from our hearts it spills
As we venture down our paths raw and un-tilled
………………………………………………………………………
Harry Holy Water, a spirit unparalleled
Wild goats traverse the limestone mountain
Hawthorns and Hollys
Walking sticks and soil moist with possibility
David and Soairse, harps and flutes
The many raindrops flooding the soot
The winding roads
Rocks us to sleep
As the history accounted into us creeps
……………………………………………………………………..

I may never know the many threads
That weave me together
and intertwine in my heart and head
But love feels certain as
This wide expanse
Reveals the true divine web
I’m one who keeps my creativity personal
Watching those more outward
Donning cloaks of purple
I’m uncertain why I feel the need to blend in
I can only accept it
Like the town I was born in
…………………………………………………

Who am I really?
I am the observer of all
I listen closely
I heed the call
The clarion call
Deep in the heart
Keeps me forever willing
To once again start
……………………………………..

Tricia Schwaba, August, September 2026

Herbs That Can Help

Matt Moberg

‘Don’t dress avoidance up as holiness… Peace is what is the powerful ask for when they don’t want to be interrupted. Unity that refuses to name violence is just loyalty to the ones holding the weapons.”

John O'Donohue

“While we are here in the world
where is it we are absent from?”

Noel Dermot O'Donoghue

“The contemplatives or the mystics are people who withdraw
from the world to confront the monster in its lair.”

John O'Donohue

“Most of us are moving through such as undergrowth of excess
that we cannot sense the shape of ourselves anymore.”

The Best in Puppetry

The Best in Puppetry

The Best in Puppetry

Author Nancy Thayer on the Meaning of Life

Leah Song 💚🇮🇪 🪕☘️

Animals

Earth Below Heaven Above

Earth below, heaven above

Show me the certain path to love

Show me the beauty deep inside

Where balanced and harmonious I can reside

Show me the way to the energy pure

Instead of passage to the ways things were.

Love restores my mind when weak

It leads me to this path I seek

It flags me down in times of doubt

Bringing a blessed turnabout

It seeks out peace when my mind’s a mess

Or I am feeling I’m somehow less.

Earth below, heaven above

Your grace it flies on the wings of doves

Brushing my soul, light strokes of faith

Gently dispelling harsh words of hate

Earth below, heaven above

I stand grateful for this path of love.                          

Tricia Schwaba, 2019

Art Source: Saatchi Art