Self-love is the foundation of our loving practice. Without it our other efforts to love fail. Giving ourselves love we provide our inner being with the opportunity to have the unconditional love we may have always long to receive from someone else...When we give this precious gift to ourselves, we are able to reach out to others from a place of fulfillment and not from a place of lack.

bell hooks,  All About Love

You know who you are, oh one with the scales and clawed toes. You are ancient, like the dewy ferns and aromatic rivers with their milky fertile succulence. Your senses alight in the floral breeze, the red heat, the orange sunset. Surrender, oh lizard girl, the water becomes you. Dive under, and stay awhile. You are home here.

In the fantasia of your pleasure, let a world emerge. Let its colors open into a mist where events unfold and your inner creatures play. Become cleansed by the maple sweetness. Become birthed.   Exhale. “Yes.”