This episode is my first interview with a guest in about eight months and I could not feel more excited & honoured to speak to Chaney Williams. There was so much in this conversation that was a balm to my soul - we talked about life-changing moments and accidents, listening to the whispers of your ancestors and our bodies, quiet spaces to create and dreaming new dreams. I hope you love it as much as I did!

Chaney Williams (she/they) is a full spectrum doula, ritualist, and writer. She lives in Kentucky and has been a southerner since birth. Chaney strongly believes that all people deserve access to trauma informed, intersectional, sex positive, reproductive care. For Chaney, writing specifically their poetry and creative non-fiction essays are confessional in nature because they create what they know and what haunts them because it is the way they make sense of the world they exist in. It is how she finds belonging in the universe and connects to her ancestors, future descendants, and the collective.
https://chaneywilliams.squarespace.com/ 

https://chaneywilliams.substack.com/ 

Stitching Together Community: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/ 

Thank you for listening,
Yarrow

#178 Moments that change everything with Chaney Williams

In this episode I'm sharing more about an oral history project I'll be running this year - I want to find out how people with disabilities, like myself, used needlework to explore a sense of place and heritage during lockdown. I'm excited to explore topics like resilience in isolation, material and making vs consumption, connection with family stories and more. 
This of course relates to my Stitching Together project, which you can find out more about here: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/
Thank you, as always, for listening!
Love,
Yarrow

#177 Needlework, disability & oral history - an update on my studies

Happy new year!
In this episode I'm talking about how I am centring mental health & wellbeing in my creative practice this year - removing barriers, creating space for accessible participation & dreams, finding the sweet spot of gentle accountability and indulging wildly in flow states! 
More info about my web design work is here: https://pinkwellstudio.com/
and you can join Stitching Together here: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/
Thank you for listening!
Love,
Yarrow

#176 Stitching spells for mental health

Perhaps an odd day to publish a new episode, but I thought this might be nice to share today for anyone who also feels a little overwhelmed with the festivities at a time of so much uncertainty and upheaval. 

Finding and exploring one's creative voice is something I have been thinking about a lot this year - I explored stripping back the media overwhelm, identifying core messages and symbolism and, as always, unraveling perfectionism. 

I hope this episode gives you something interesting to think about too! 
Here is more info about the Stitching Together community: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/

Love,
Yarrow

#175 How do we find our creative voice?

If you're like me, having gentle accountability to slow down & be creative makes it much more likely for you to do things that bring you joy. Maybe you too feel that you need it more than ever. 
After a bit of a break I am bringing my Patreon back, because I miss our creative time together and also because I am excited to share my research on radical needlework with you. In this episode I am sharing the new structure for my Patreon/Stitching Together in 2024 - a community space focussed on making, mending, writing & wellbeing. 
Learn more here: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/
Thank you for listening!
Love,
Yarrow

#174 An invitation to stitch & make with me in 2024

In this episode I am talking about what slowness means to me in my practice right now and how I've learned to still appreciate the process when chronic illness and disabilities slow me down. I'm taking a longer view on things, thinking about how slowness makes space for observations and stories to be woven into my work and how stitching and carving supports my wellbeing in so many ways. I'm also asking questions about devotion, the value of time and the beauty of simplicity and simple aesthetics. 
I hope that if you've ever felt too slow you'll find comfort in listening! 
Here is more info on Stitching Together in 2024: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/
Love,
Yarrow

#173 Disability & slow process as devotional practice

In this episode I am talking about taking a specific question into the darker time of the year, thinking about what spiritual practices I want to commit to this season, trying something new & gathering tools that are meaningful to me.
You can join my Substack here if you like: https://yarrow.substack.com/
Love,
Yarrow

#172 Making a spiritual home for winter

In the second instalment of my Getting Ready for Winter series I am sharing things that have helped me pay more attention to what I love - making, cooking, wandering and having conversations. As the days grow shorter many of us feel we want more of those things, but it can be so so hard to make time. If you feel the same I hope this episode will offer you some ideas & inspiration. 
You can join my Substack here: https://yarrow.substack.com/
Love,
Yarrow

#171 How I am expanding my attention span to dive deeper into subjects I love

Hey friends,
I'm so excited to be back here with a little series on getting ready for winter, seasonal rituals & living a soft & creative life. 
In this first episode you'll hear more about how I inhabit my home and make it a place of easy, playful and accessible creative expression. 
You can join my Substack & the Spark sessions I mentioned over here: https://yarrow.substack.com/

Love,
Yarrow

#170 Making a creative home (& I'm back)

This episode is such a wonderful note to end on before I am heading into a little break - it was a true joy to talk to Justine & Larisa who wrote the wonderful book called The Grieving Therapist. I hope listening will feel as comforting as it did for me. Here is some of what we talked about: 

 Diving deep into collaborative creative projects
 Processing pandemic grief and making meaning from what happened
  Exploring what change might come from loss

Justine Mastin, LMFT, LADC is a psychotherapist, author, and so much more. Justine runs Blue Box Counseling, a private practice in Minneapolis, MN and is an AAMFT-Approved Supervisor. She literally wrote the book on Therapeutic Fanfiction—Starship Therapise: Using Therapeutic Fanfiction to Rewrite Your Life—and she offered support to healers in The Grieving Therapist: Caring for Yourself and Your Clients When it Feels Like the End of the World. Justine also co-hosts both the Starship Therapise and Dark Side of the Mat podcasts and has presented a TEDx talk.
TedTalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmtZU0_xmKY&t=1s
Larisa Garski is the chief of clinical staff for Empowered Therapy in Chicago IL. Larisa is the co-author of The Grieving Therapist: Caring for Yourself and Your Clients When it Feels Like the End of the World, and Starship Therapise: Using Therapeutic Fanfiction to Rewrite Your Life. Larisa has also contributed to numerous other books on pop culture and psychology, co-hosts the Starship Therapise podcast, and is an AAMFT-approved supervisor.
The Grieving Therapist book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/724011/the-grieving-therapist-by-larisa-a-garski-lmft/
Starship Therapise podcast: https://www.starshiptherapise.com/podcast/
Thank you for listening!

#169 Exploring creative grief with Justine Mastin & Larisa Garski

For this episode I had the honour of talking to Joelle of Butch Yoga again - we had a great first chat for episode #159 and so in this one we got to dive a little bit deeper. Here is some of what we talked about: 

 Finding time for stillness in one's body
 Bringing in joy, self-compassion and playfulness 
  Letting things move through our bodies

Joelle is a non-binary butch lesbian who is really into queering spirituality. Joelle started practicing meditation and yoga in 2007. Then in 2009, they completed an Master of Arts in Cognitive Studies with a focus on Philosophy, Psychology, Linguistics, and Neuroscience. That means before Joelle was on a yoga mat, they were in lecture halls studying the mind, but their professors didn’t teach how to work with the mind to find happiness—and then Joelle found in most yoga classes they teach practices to work with the mind and body, but don’t usually go in depth with the concepts! And it’s been rare for Joelle to find queer yoga spaces, and even rarer to find other butches in those spaces—so Joelle created Butch Yoga as a space for butches and gender non-conforming friends to study and practice spirituality together. More about Joelle: Joelle is a white Latinx Jewish person who has been living on Mayan land in Guatemala for 7 years with their 3 cats
https://www.instagram.com/butchyoga/
https://butchyoga.com/
Thank you for listening!

#168 Embodiment & movement with Joelle of Butch Yoga

Hi sweet listeners,
I am delighted to bring you a charming, inspiring and joyful conversation with the wonderful Melissa Word. I have loved her Grief Threads program so much and could listen to her talk about bodies, grief and art forever. Here is some of what we explored:

 Approaching dance & movement in a totally new way
 Listening and learning from our grief
 Opening our arms wide wide wide to what art can be
 Finding secret information inside ourselves

Melissa Word is an artist, dancer, writer and somatic facilitator. Her work takes the form of live performance, workshops, textile collages, drawings and newsletters. She specializes in creating transformative group experiences for people who want to feel more creative and connected to themselves–quilting classes for grief, movement classes for anxiety relief and body image repair, voice work for expanding consciousness. She is a current arts educator with the Alliance Theatre, and formerly with the High Museum of Art and Boys and Girls Club of Atlanta. Her pedagogy is based in somatic inquiry, presence and mindfulness practices, experimental voice work, intersectional discourse, liberatory social movements, and the perennial power of play.
https://www.melissaword.com/
https://www.instagram.com/melissawordstudio/
Thank you so much for listening! 

#167 Weaving grief threads with Melissa Word

In this episode I am sitting by the river with you to think about the summer ahead. Three different ideas made me feel that approaching it as a season of creative recovery would be a really good idea on so many levels. I am also sharing two practices that might help you get intentional about the next few months in your own way. 
I decided not to start a private podcast in the end, but might do in the future. 
Thank you for listening!
Love,
Yarrow

#166 Entering a season of creative recovery (a river episode)

I recorded this episode by the river this morning and talked about the why & how of small ritual quilts. My little waffle includes thoughts on the meaning of ritual and what has changed for me three years after publishing my book Rituals, what I love about working with reclaimed materials and how I use these small ritual quilts in my day to day for beauty & inspiration. 

The workshop on May 21st I mentioned is over on the Making app, you can sign up here: https://themakingapp.com/
here are the ritual quilts I am currently offering: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/art/
and here is the Create & Launch program I mentioned: https://pinkwellstudio.com/create-launch/
Enjoy! 

#165 The why and how of small ritual quilts (a river episode)

This is an episode I recorded by the river this morning, I am talking about what might happen when we die - why I think it's an important question, what dreams have to do with it and what I love about not actually knowing. 
I hope it gives you some food for thought! 
Here is the Create & Launch program: https://pinkwellstudio.com/create-launch/
Thank you for listening!
Love,
Yarrow

#164 What happens when we die? A solo river waffle

Happy spring or autumn to you, dear listener! This episode is a really wonderful one to help us dive into a new season - I spoke to Phelicia of Queen and Crow about such wonderful things like:

 Being called to be tender in all we do 
 Letting flowers hold us through periods of grief 
  Being polyamorous with the plant world
  Finding small everyday rituals and resisting the ways capitalism wants to sell things back to us

I hope you'll enjoy this conversation as much as I did!
Phelicia Okon Magnusson is a queer black herbalist and flower essence practitioner based on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Her work centers folks of color who are affirming their wholeness by healing inter-generational trauma, moving though narratives of shame, reclaiming pleasure practices, exploring sexuality and returning to their intuition and resilience in the face of ongoing oppression. Phelicia's work is open to everyone and is an embodied exploration of building reciprocal relationships with land and plants to tend healing and facilitate transformation and acceptance. 
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queenandcrow/
Website: https://www.queenandcrow.com/
email: phelicia@queenandcrow.com

Tiffany, the tarot led, plant inspired embodiment coach Phelicia mentioned:  https://www.lovechildbotanix.com/ 

Thank you for listening!

#163 Slowing down for everyday plant healing with Phelicia Magnusson

This episode feels like it was really touched by the beautiful full moon I saw rising over the Scottish sea yesterday! I was chatting to my friend Rowan Walker earlier today, who was also on episode #126 recorded back in 2021. We caught up on creative practice, building intimacy with the tarot and overcoming road blocks and perfectionism. It was a total delight and I hope you'll enjoy listening too!
i’m rowan. i’m an agender white settler of Irish, Lithuanian, Scottish and Sicilian trancestry born on Turtle Island/North America. i’m the creatrix behind of hawthorn and yew, a sacred cauldron of plant kin relationship, ritual, and education. i facilitate community spaces for queer and trans folks for healing re-connection and collaborative learning. through the pathways of ritual + relationship, i seek to spiral ever closer to holy embodied aliveness, and to help others do the same.
ofhawthornandyew.com
Working the wands program: https://ofhawthornandyew.com/workingthewands/
Previous episode: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/podcast/126-plant-friends-ritual-anarchy-with-rowan-walker/

#162 Finding daily creative practice with Rowan Walker

It's been about three years since shit hit the fan, can you believe it? I wanted to record this little reflection waffle to mark this milestone - tune in to hear me chat about how the pandemic has changed my relationship to home, work, creativity, landscape and people.
Here is the Finding Movement podcast I mentioned: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/finding-movement-podcast/

#160 Thinking about how the pandemic has changed me

This conversation was the first interview I did in a while and it was such a beautiful way to drop back into conversation! I spoke to the wonderful fellow Venus in Scorpio Joelle of Butch Yoga. Their practice and way of being in the world is so joyous, I really hope you'll love listening as much as I did. Here is some of what we talked about:

 Sitting with big spiritual questions
 Not finding a home in mainstream yoga spaces
  Embodying butch identities beyond stereotypes
  Integrating spiritual practices into our lives

Joelle is a non-binary butch lesbian who is really into queering spirituality. Joelle started practicing meditation and yoga in 2007. Then in 2009, they completed an Master of Arts in Cognitive Studies with a focus on Philosophy, Psychology, Linguistics, and Neuroscience. That means before Joelle was on a yoga mat, they were in lecture halls studying the mind, but their professors didn’t teach how to work with the mind to find happiness—and then Joelle found in most yoga classes they teach practices to work with the mind and body, but don’t usually go in depth with the concepts! And it’s been rare for Joelle to find queer yoga spaces, and even rarer to find other butches in those spaces—so Joelle created Butch Yoga as a space for butches and gender non-conforming friends to study and practice spirituality together.
More about Joelle: Joelle is a white Latinx Jewish person who has been living on Mayan land in Guatemala for 7 years with their 3 cats 😻😻😻 https://www.instagram.com/butchyoga/

#159 Exploring queer spirituality with Joelle of Butch Yoga

What a beautiful start to the podcast year! I am delighted to send a conversation with the insightful and generous Gabriela De Golia your way, which I hope will offer you some comfort on a cold January day. This was truly balm for my soul. Here us some of what we talked about: Finding out what spirit and spirituality means to us Liminal space, dreamwork and divination Daily prayers, making time and finding spaciousness Gabriela De Golia is a spiritual care provider, writer, multi-media artist, and learning facilitator. She serves as the foundress and facilitator of The Betwixt & Between LLC, a small business that centers on offering spiritual care for liminal times. A former community organizer who now works as a spiritual director, tarot reader, dreamworker, and mentor for those yearning to become attuned to sacred magic, Gabriela works at the crossroads between spiritual care and collective liberation efforts. They are passionate about supporting individuals and groups in honoring the divinity nested within and beyond themselves. In so doing, she hopes her work can help usher a new and beautifully liberated world into existence. https://www.thebetwixtandbetween.com/ 
Thank you for listening!

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