Surprising Family Ties

Rattle Snake Families

Young rattlers leave their mothers at just a few weeks old, but when it’s time to hibernate in the winter, they follow their mother’s scent trail and use the same den. Future generations will also use the same den—some have been used for over 100 years.



Plant Siblings

According to a new study in Biology Letters, plants respond competitively when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but when placed in a pot with their siblings are more accomodating. "Siblings were less competitive than strangers, which is consistent with kin selection," the study reports.

On Fears

The concept of fear is often considered something to be abolished from our lives, something only for the weak-minded. However, this book reckons that fear is part of our transformational journey, and that addressing those fears in various ways (through the various archetypes) is ultimately the only way we grow.

From The Hero Within:

Unless we fear hunger, want, isolation, and despair, how will we ever learn to confront our fears? We are not ready for abundance, for a safe universe, until we have proven ourselves – to ourselves – by taking our journeys. It does not matter how many people love us, how much wealth we have at our disposal; we will attract problems and we will feel alone and poor as long as we need to. … Ultimately, there is no way to avoid the hero’s quest. It comes and finds us if we do not move out bravely to meet it. And while we may strive to avoid the pain, hardship, and struggle it inevitably brings, life takes us eventually to the promised land, where we can be genuinely prosperous, loving, and happy. The only way out is through.


What is currently your biggest fear? Can you think of fears you held in the past that you have let go of or moved through? Are all of these fears truly your own? Or were some of them created by the media or projected onto you by others?

The Hero Within

I have been reading the book “The Hero Within” by Carol Pearson. I will be creating “lessons” based on quotes, thoughts, and contemplations from or inspired by my readings in this book. It addresses archetypes we all identify with and learn from as we take our personal journey to becoming heroines. Becoming a hero is when you can identify with all the archetypes, and transition between them smoothly. Essentially taking on all the different roles life requires of us with equal competency. For me, heroinism is also about authenticity, and I will do my part to weave this ideal into the contemplations on our hero within.

From The Hero Within:

Heroism is a matter of integrity, of becoming more and more yourself at stage of your development. Paradoxically, there are archetypal patterns that govern the process each of us goes through to discover our own uniqueness, so we are always both very particularly ourselves and very much like one another in the stages of our journeys. In fact, there is a rather predictable sequence of human development presided over respectively by the archetypes of the Innocent, the Orphan, the Wanderer, the Warrior, the Martyr, and the Magician.


In your mind, do you recognize these archetypes from your personal history and experience with religion or spirituality? Do they make any connections for you?

We will be learning more about these archetypes this month, so for now, think about what each archetypes means to you right this moment.