Singing the Red Dress Song is both an essay (which was long-listed for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Award) and a book-length composite of short reflections on grounded spirituality. I’ve spent the last three years trying to find a publisher who loved this work enough to print it.
Ah, shoot.
Since the point was to share what I’ve discovered, and I am getting older by the minute, I see no reason to wait. So, below, you’ll find the introduction and the eponymous essay. I’ll be posting each chapter in order, with the occasional podcast, over the next year. Happy reading and listening! And if you would like to support this endeavor, you can contribute through an e-transfer or cheque to the address on the bottom of the page.
The First Practice: Learning to love what I love
The Red Thread Songyuan asked, Why can’t clear-eyed Bodhisattvas sever the red thread? When I was in my early thirties, a ragtag group of friends and family assembled weekly in my living room to meditate. Our teacher was a recovering alcoholic and self-identified Sufi who taught us glorious chants. We’d sing and sing and sink …
Forward
Twenty years ago, in a fit of wild openness, my husband and I decided to move. Not just to another city or state, but to another country. It didn’t happen all at once, but about three years after the initial spasm, I found myself transplanted (alone; it took him two and a half years to …
Singing the Red Dress Song
I roll over to turn off the light and address a silent prayer to my deepest part, to the Holy, to my unconscious, to whatever or whomever prescribes the nightly play that goes on when I slump into sleep: May I please have some joy in my dreams tonight? I’ve been tired, bone tired. The …