Newsletter   July 2026  Volume 201

Hello there, 

I hope you’re doing well. 

Mid July. It feels like the halfway point of summer; that time in summer where we still have plenty to come. Some of my teacher friends who get the summer off, say that all of August is like a long Sunday night; trying to wrap things up and fit in everything they wanted to do over their glorious break.

So in this amazing but fleeting vibrant summer season I’m just checking in to make sure that you are doing something you want to do, that you love to do and that feeds your soul.

Of course it feeds my soul to see my wonderful friends, spend time with family, interact with my marvelous coworkers and patients, but sometimes there’s something that I want to do that requires a little work, some planning, and a burst of brave energy to go to it on my own.

Braid of a statue in Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum courtyard.

We can spend so much time caretaking everyone else and, of course, we get and give joy from those connections, but it can still often be putting the focus on others and their needs.  This comes very easily as a default for many women who were trained to be caregivers above all else and definitely taught to take care of others before they take care of themselves. 

As a rebellion against that standard and as a gift to the part of your soul that might be wanting something that is not convenient – how about you make sure to take some time in this second half of summer to give yourself the gift of an adventure; big or small?

It can be challenging because often kids can be home and there are so many obligations penned in early in the season; familial, friends, work, home and yard take up much of our time. So much needs doing; everything is growing so fast and time is going by so quickly.

So you may need to block off some time and move things around to make some time for yourself. This past month I’ve gone on two solitary pilgrimages to museums with no agenda. It wasn’t easy and both times I almost stayed home and did practical things but thank goodness I didn’t! 

My day trips were lovely. 

There are plenty of people I would’ve loved to go to the museum with, but my job is so social and my house is so full that sometimes I just want to wander around artwork and statues and just let my mind roam.

Durga as the slayer of the Buffalo Demon from Indonesia 9th century

That recharges me and helps me feel like I’ve been somewhere and done something new. It might come from when I was 19 and backpacked through Europe for six months. The museums were such a haven and I learned so much. Also, growing up my mother, who is an artist, would always say that museums and the woods were our churches. 

I am also thrilled to find a variety of Goddesses and representations of powerful women in art throughout history when I visit museums.

I know there’s plenty to be ambivalent about how artifacts have been acquired. And I do find after just a couple hours I feel a deep tiredness that I think comes from all the different pieces in the museum display giving off their individual energies from their complicated journeys. And the weird lighting and the crowds. 

But I love wandering through them.

I had been so hot the week before that I had been craving to go to the Egyptian room in the museum and just sit in the chilly dim light quietly beside the stone statues. When I got there, I realized the room I was thinking of was actually in the British museum where I had rested for an entire afternoon and journaled while I waited for my youth hostel to be available 36 years ago! Oh well. It was still a nice place to sit and look at mummified cats and crocodiles. 

King Menkaura and one of his queens 2490 BCE

I had envisioned lying down in the cool shadows, but of course the bench was full and as Georgie pointed out later when I complained that I couldn’t recline – you’re really not allowed to lie down in the museum.

I am someone who would definitely love to get invited to a sleepover at a museum and spend half the night poking around, maybe with a lit candle or lantern. Makes me think of this fragment from a letter Emily Dickinson wrote to her friend.

“I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.”

Emily Dickinson

My solitary museum days worked as a reset for me.

I am grateful that I can get a day off during the week when these places are more empty, but whatever it is, you are craving during this vibrant and generous time of year, make sure you take some time to do it. 

One of the 9 muses in a huge statue from the theater of Pompey 32 BCE

Things are so expensive, politics and everyday life are so fraught and disappointing, and the responsibilities placed upon us are never ending. Make sure to just stop and take time to care for that quiet sweet part of you that has its own desires and wants that are separate from everyone else roiling about you.

We all need time to wander, contemplate and let our mind unfold. 

If it’s hard for you to be alone you can do it in small doses. 

Take yourself somewhere and do something that takes care of your deep soul. 

Drive to the ocean for a long walk, run through the damp woods, go to a city, swim in a lake or a pool, go to your favorite restaurant.

You are worth the time, the energy, the expense,and the planning of a whole blank day stolen just for yourself to feast on.

And also to remind yourself that you don’t have to wait for everyone else to do what you want to do. 

You can just do it. 

You don’t have to rally, bargain, manipulate or control someone to get them to come along. 

You can just do it and come back and report on the time you had. 

Woman lighting fireworks for Diwali – extingishing fuse in her mouth. 1800

It was just the new moon on Monday. 

New moons are a time for new beginnings. A time when the night is filled with sweet and patient darkness where the stars and planets really show up in the sky. And fireflies emerge; blinking in the night. 

In this quiet darkness -What is calling to you? Who you want to be and what adventure do you want to create to guide you through this next season?

It can be big or small.

A movie you want to watch. A city you want to visit. A show you want to see. A restaurant you want to try. Learning to bake a dish you would love to have in your repertoire, or laying in the grass in the backyard looking up at the stars.

Whatever it is, make a date with yourself, reaching deep into yourself and find something you want to do and then give it to yourself. 

You deserve to be loved, nurtured, supported and guided. 

You deserve some adventure. 

Here’s a poem for inspiration:

The Coming of Light

Even this late it happens:
            the coming of love, the coming of light. 
            You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves, 
            stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows, 
            sending up warm bouquets of air.
            Even this late the bones of the body shine 
            and tomorrow’s dust flares into breath.

Mark Strand

Much love.

xoxo

Katherine

These are the only upcoming Full Moon Circles for the rest of 2026! (Sanctuary has us take off July and  August. Then the full moon falls very close to Thanksgiving and winter holidays so we won’t be meeting those nights either.)

• 9/25
• 10/2

So, if you want to join us put the dates on your calendar and come! 

I’m not certain I will be continuing the Full Moon Circles in the coming year so make sure to join us if is something you are wanting to do! 

The Goddess Athena who originally held a spear and a shield. You can see the colors she would have been painted with behind her-A 37 foot version of this was inside the Parthenon in Athens.