Becoming a student of death. Photo by The New York Public Library  on Unsplash A few days before my first ayahuasca ceremony, I had a dream where a voice said, “The storm is coming. The storm is already here.” It was 2022, I’d been alive for 44 years, it was time to get ready. The ceremony turned out to be a clarion call – to begin the process of letting go of childish things; to prepare myself to hold the door open for elder loved ones, and to slowly but surely walk through that door myself....

When I hurt, I don’t want clever advice, just a little handholding and reassurance that I’ll be OK. Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR  on...

Published in Willamette Week, Sept. 17, 2025, and WW The Daily Primer, Sept. 21, 2025 Click link for story: https://www.wweek.com/news/20...