This is a placeholder blurb about articles. Here it will say a few things that mean something about Articles and the work.
Ascent Articles
Self-awareness and Yoga - Originally published in ascent magazine, issue 40, winter 2008. What is my path toward & away from this earth? In the final installment of the yamas & niyama series, Eileen Delehanty Pearkes examines svadhyaya, self-study.
Child-rearing as an Act of Devotion - Originally published inascent magazine, issue 39, autumn 2008. How do we surrender all of our efforts & actions to the divine? Eileen Delehanty Pearkes questions isvara-pranidhanat, in the 9th of a 10-part series exploring the yamas & niyamas...
Can Meat-eaters practice Non-violence? - Originally published in ascent magazine, issue 38, summer 2008. Can a meat-eating person practise non-violence? Eileen Delehanty Pearkes looks at ahimsa, in the 8th of a 10-part series exploring the yamas & niyamas.
- Wisdom of the Pines - Originally published in ascent magazine, issue 37, spring 2008. As an ecological epidemic sweeps through the mountains of British Columbia, is anyone speaking the truth? Eileen Delehanty Pearkes listens to the trees in the 7th of a 10-part series exploring the yamas & niyamas.
Yoga and Purification - Originally published in ascent magazine, issue 36, winter 2007. Eileen Delehanty Pearkes hikes into the fire zone & fights the urge to quit with tapas, self-discipline & purification in the 6th of a 10-part series exploring the yamas & niyamas. 
Yoga and Celibacy - Originally published in ascent magazine, issue 35, autumn 2007. Does spiritual development require celibacy? Eileen Delehanty Pearkes looks at the nuances of brahmacarya in the 5th of a 10-part series exploring the yamas & niyamas.
Yoga and a Clean Mind - Originally published in ascent magazine, issue 34, summer 2007. In the unglamorous underbelly of the garden, Eileen Delehanty Pearkes examines sauca: inner & outer cleanliness.
Yoga and Taking only what is Necessary - Originally published in ascent magazine, issue 33, spring 2007. Smelly neighbours test Eileen Delehanty Pearkes’ concept of aparigraha: taking what is necessary. Tthe third in a ten-part series exploring the yamas & niyamas.
Yoga and Contentment - Originally published in ascent magazine, issue 32, winter 2006. Eileen Delehanty Pearkes digs through piles of laundry & finds bliss. The second in a ten-part series exploring the yamas & niyamas.
Yamas, Niyamas & Bears… Oh My! - Originally published in ascent magazine, issue 29, spring 2006. Eileen Delehanty Pearkes explores her place in the food chain, her back garden & her dreams in the 1st of a 10-part series exploring the yamas & niyamas.
Columbia Monthly
Gravity and Water’s Wild Card - Most summer afternoons, I settle into a natural hollow at the base of a sizable cedar tree beside Laird Creek. The creek burbles and runs, curling over cobbles, carrying water downhill. Lying back, I watch the tree’s cool branches spin and whorl above my head. Sometimes, I fall asleep, lulled by the joyful noise that […]
Other
- Bears need open space (and maybe some writers do too) - Recently, walking at dusk, residents of a suburban neighborhood near the Ronald Reagan Freeway on the northern edges of the Los Angeles Basin spotted a bear. What? At the edge of highly urbanized Los Angeles county? This is what the landscape looks like on a map. Likely, the bear had been born and raised in […]
- Swimming with the Salmon - I recently followed the Salmon Spirit to the upper Columbia River region, my literary homeland. The first time I felt that spirit’s power was in 2019, when I attended a tribal ceremony marking the release of several dozen ocean Chinook into Lake Roosevelt Reservoir. With the 500+ foot Grand Coulee Dam blocking their ancient pathway, […]
Salmon River Dreams - In June, I explored the Snake River system of central and southern Idaho for an upcoming book with Braided River Press. The 2024 book will also feature the beautiful photography of David Moskowitz, which you can see here. The Salmon and its cousin the Clearwater are tributaries to the great Snake, a waterway nearly as […]
Emergence Takes Time - Nearly a year ago, I posted about the remarkable yucca species known as Our Lord’s Candle, or, Hesperoyucca whipplei. I have been busy with writing projects since then – too busy for blog posts. On a recent walk in the dry canyon where I live, I came across another yucca plant, this one preparing to […]- Lighting a Flame - In April, 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that the Sinixt/Arrow Lakes tribe are Aboriginal People of Canada. It was the end of a long legal road travelled by this transboundary tribe, to reverse a 1956 Canadian government declaration that they were “extinct.” The word “extinct” descends through English from the Latin word extinctus, […]
The Sense of an Ending - It’s nearly the equinox, when day and night are equal in length, often called the first day of autumn. For several weeks, creeks in the upper Columbia River region have hosted anadromous sockeye salmon, returning home to spawn and die. Chemical changes transform the silver scales of the adults into vivid red. After they spawn […]
Fractured Growth - In his compact and fascinating book, Li, Dynamic Form in Nature, the architect David Wade identifies and catalogues repeated patterns found in the natural world. Wade defines Li as something that falls between pattern and principle. Li can be found in wave-washed sand, ice crystals and tree bark, to name only a few. It demonstrates […]
Taking the Leap - February 29th, is one of those breakouts – a rogue day in the standard calendar. The year (as we measure it) has been around, more or less, since Ancient Rome. A far older calendar common to most Indigenous cultures is one based on the cycles of the moon. Every four years, February adds one day, […]
Choosing Beauty - Recently, I stumbled across an astonishing place, one where beauty has emerged from a surprising source. In the Los Angeles basin, where water is ever a precious resource, a traditional Japanese garden filled with ponds and streams takes as its source sewage from hundreds of thousands of households. In the 1980s, Donald C. Tillman, an […]
Nothing that is big or grand starts out that way - In the past month, I have twice threaded my way east through the Selkirk and Purcell mountains to travel across the mysterious landscape of river-beginnings. In the Rocky Mountain Trench, the Kootenay River starts on the West Slope of the Rockies, tumbling down to wind along the broad valley. Here, too, begins the great Columbia […]