<![CDATA[CARINA COSTOM - Blog]]>Tue, 14 Oct 2025 00:17:21 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[A Little Wisdom, Shared Softly]]>Fri, 18 Jul 2025 08:34:10 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/quote-of-day-widgetHi friends,

I'm playing with the idea of weaving something new and quietly powerful into the corners of this site: A little rotating window of community wisdom — one quote at a time.

It could be something your grandmother used to say.
Or a line you hold close when the day feels long.
A phrase passed down in your mother tongue, rich with memory and meaning. Even something silly that cracks a knowing smile.

You’ll see a little example just to your right — a simple quote widget designed to hold small but steady things. If something comes to mind — in any language, with or without translation — I’d love to hear it.

You can drop it in the comments or send it along privately if that feels safer or more comfortable.

No pressure.
Just an open door.

In a world where so much moves fast and loud, this is a small, slow gesture. An invitation to gather, quietly.
To remember that wisdom often lives in our kitchens, our pockets, our lullabies — not just in books.

Looking forward to what might emerge together.
Warmly,
​cc]]><![CDATA[Old Ocean]]>Thu, 17 Jul 2025 01:37:53 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/old-ocean
Picture
Old Ocean: A Song of Gratitude, Grief, and Ecological Witness

Cosmo Sheldrake’s Old Ocean is more than a song—it’s an offering. Released in early 2024, just before his album Eye to the Ear, it carries the salt-stained weight of love, loss, and fierce ecological tenderness.

Composed off-grid in a solar-powered studio, Old Ocean is a meditation on environmental collapse—yet it doesn’t scream. It listens. Sheldrake’s signature layering of human and natural sounds (including whales, frogs, curlews, harp, clarinet) invites us into a state of reverence, not panic.

The lyrics—"Old ocean, thank you for holding me. Won’t be the same without you"—read like a eulogy and a lullaby all at once. Sheldrake doesn’t ask for action before inviting presence. He begins with gratitude, which is regulation. Then he names the harm: acidification, coral bleaching, noise pollution, deep-sea mining. It’s trauma-informed truth-telling through melody.

The music video, directed by Narna Hue, transforms the message into movement. Dancers and costumes echo marine rhythms—fluid, strange, and sacred. It is not just art about nature. It is nature, remembered.

At a farm near Leavenworth, Washington, I had the quiet privilege, some fifteen years ago, to sit around a campfire at a Power of Hope Expressive Arts Facilitation camp with Cosmo Sheldrake and his older brother, Merlin. There was something about the Sheldrake brothers, the musician-composer and the biologist, even then, that vibrated with a kind of resonance I’ve never forgotten: a mix of brilliant mischief, wonder, and reverence for the invisible threads that connect things. That impression was layered, too, with memories from my childhood—of sitting cross-legged in my mother’s library, leafing through books penned by their mother, Jill Purce. Voice teacher, Family and Ancestral Constellations therapist, and author, Jill wrote about the healing power of sound, lineage, and ritual long before those ideas became mainstream. Her presence, too, lives on in the contours of Old Ocean. The Sheldrake family, including biologist father, Rupert Sheldrake, it seems, have long moved through the world attuned to what pulses beneath—be it mycelium, myth, or music, in waves.

At 100 Women | 100 Oceans, we recognize this as kin work. Like Cosmo, we’re not asking before we’ve arrived. Presencing is the work. To be with what is—tender, entangled, unsolved—is a beginning. What will follow, will.

Old Ocean is a quiet revolution. It doesn’t demand we save the ocean. It dares us to feel what we’ve already lost—and what might still be held if we listen.

Watch Old Ocean here

Sources:#OldOcean #CosmoSheldrake #100Women100Oceans #EcoGrief #GratitudeAndGrief #OceanAsWitness #ListeningIsAction #PresencingFirst #QuietRevolution#TraumaInformedArt #FeltSense #RegulationThroughRitual #PresencingPractice #GriefAsCompass #ArtAsAttunement #EmbodiedListening
#SoundEcology #MycelialThinking #SonicActivism #DeepSeaListening #OceanicAwareness #SolarComposed #EcologicalReverence #NatureInMusic
#KinWork #WhatWillFollowWill #EntangledTenderness #RelationalEthics #RuralMothersRise #StoryAsMedicine #WitnessingTheInvisible​
]]><![CDATA[An inspiration shared by a friend of the project]]>Sat, 21 Jun 2025 20:38:20 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/an-inspiration-shared-by-a-friend-of-the-project
Picture
]]><![CDATA[Our project in numbers so far]]>Sat, 21 Jun 2025 15:41:58 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/our-project-in-numbers-so-farSomething beautiful is stirring.
The first 33 mothers have already stepped into the circle—pre-registered, curious, ready to share. By September 2025 what can't be shared in a quick text or a tidy essay, will be shared in intimate conversation. For the moment though, while we wait together, the stories are starting to swirl like tidepools: quiet, strong, real.

15 cups of tea later (and counting), project web design, postcard production, editorial crafting and even setting up the back end to support 100 tender conversations or inner-views is well underway. Slow. Deliberate. Full of grace.

Our widget quietly counts what matters: not just numbers, but signals. A grant on the horizon. Supporters becoming sponsors. Mentors arriving in perfect timing.
This isn’t a pitch. It’s a pulse.

We’re not pushing. We’re pacing.
Because what wants to be shared will come when it’s ready.

Until then, the counter ticks on.
Come take a look. Stay a moment. Or many.
View the counter (At the bottom of the landing page).
––
For the quiet ones, the watchers, the waiters:
​you’re part of this too.]]><![CDATA[Post Card Invitations Are Out]]>Sun, 15 Jun 2025 06:41:38 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/post-card-invitations-are-out
Picture
Picture
New Project Postcards Are Here
An invitation to pre-register for the
​100 Women – 100 Oceans project

They’ve arrived. Simple, tangible, and heartfelt—our first round of postcards for 100 Women – 100 Oceans: Notes from the Parenting Underbelly are now making their way into the world. You might find one tucked into your local café, handed to you at a gathering, or sitting quietly in a stack somewhere waiting for the right moment.

Each one is an invitation.
To participate.
To be witnessed.
To help shape something real.

If you feel called, you're warmly invited to pre-register. There’s no rush, no pressure—just a gentle beginning.
Gratitude goes out to the people who helped bring these into being:

– Jai, for the steady design guidance.
– Mackenzie, who generously supported
the first printing.

Thanks for helping this vision take physical form.

If you’re holding a postcard and wondering if this might be for you—the short answer is: if you’re a parent in the West Kootenay who wants to share a piece of your truth, yes. This space is being made with care, and you’re welcome in it.
​
You can learn more and pre-register at: www.carinacostom.com/contact
​
With appreciation,
Carina

]]><![CDATA[Creative Prompt #2 for 100 Women | 100 Oceans]]>Thu, 05 Jun 2025 16:11:42 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/creative-prompt-2-for-100-women-100-oceansHello Dear Ones:

If you're feeling inspired, keen or simply soulful, here is one easy way to dip your toe in this summer to begin exploring your contribution  (optional, of course) for the 100 Women | 100 Oceans project - expected start date, late September 2025:

Reflect and respond
Consider how living rurally—and your connection to land, water, and community (or the absence of it)—shapes your identity as a woman and a mother. You're invited to send a thoughtful reflection, along with an optional high-resolution selfie, in response to this question: “What does it mean to YOU to be a rural mother, a mother of a child with difference from the so-called-norm, a disability, a lone parent or co-parent, or a parent with a hidden disability raising a child with differences (like me)?”

​I'm working on my answer too!]]><![CDATA[Creative Prompt #1 to Send in your expression on motherhood in the koots]]>Thu, 05 Jun 2025 16:05:36 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/creative-prompt-1-to-send-in-your-expression-on-motherhood-in-the-kootsHere is one easy way to dip your toe in this summer as you consider your rural parenting journey so far (optional, of course):

​Send your creative expression
Share a letter, poem, journal entry, short story, grocery list, photo, video, collage—whatever form best expresses your truth about rural motherhood in the Kootenays. Submissions may be thoughtfully selected for inclusion in a future book, exhibit, or digital gallery.

Best to send attachments to info@carinacostom.com.

I'm working away on my abstract selfies with my phone by the lake this month. Feeling excited!]]><![CDATA[Editorial Sneek Peek - Matrescence, Part II]]>Thu, 05 Jun 2025 16:03:27 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/editorial-sneek-peek-matrescence-part-iiSneak Peek & Feedback Welcome
Before it hits the waves in June 2025, here’s early access to part II of the article on matrescence: https://www.carinacostom.com/guest-essays.html (look for the .pdf file). 
​
I’d love your thoughts on this one or your ideas for a third piece.

​]]><![CDATA[New Editorial on Matrescence - Part 1]]>Thu, 05 Jun 2025 16:01:17 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/new-editorial-on-matrescence-part-1Hello Wonderful Ones:

Some of you have been gently (or boldly!) nudging me to get things rolling early—and guess what? I’m listening.

While the official start date is still September 2025, I thought I’d send you a little something to stir the creative tide. Here’s what’s floating your way:

A Little Light Reading (2 minutes)
This short editorial appeared in the May 29th, 2025 edition of the Nelson Star and speaks to the heart of the  100 Women | 100 Oceans project​: https://www.carinacostom.com/guest-essays.html
​
Please share widely.


]]><![CDATA[100 Women | 100 Oceans Project: Grant update]]>Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:57:04 GMThttps://www.carinacostom.com/blog/100-women-100-oceans-project-grant-updateHello wonderful ones,​

Grant News
The application to the Canada Council for the Arts just passed the next stage since February 28th, 2025 grant request submission. The project is eligible and complete and we are now in the capable hands of the peer assessment team at the Canada Council.
​
Fingers crossed, seaweed offerings made. I’ll keep you posted.

]]>