At the bottom of the hill on our half acre land was a dirt patch. As a young girl of nine years old, I would often sit there and play with the pebbles. Perhaps I felt closer to the earth and gently guided by our land's invitation to lean in. I listened to the calls of parents summoning their children to return home, lawn mowers distinctive humming and the encircling of light winds. I was surrounded by familiar neighborhood buzz yet enveloped in solitude. There are some that a

Soon after my father passed way, my life was full of constant observation. I was in a perpetual state of recognizing the roles and rituals my family and I were a part of. In her book, "Our Secret Territory: The Essence of Storytelling," Laura Simms describes ritual as "an activity that evokes the sacred...ritual confirms our deepest human values; the presence of shared mystery; the magic of language; a knowledge or opinions; inspiration for growth; awareness of death; and the