first poetry packages sent to america, canada, england, and australia: join us!

August 6, 2012 by rachel

The energy started moving quickly yesterday after I posted the details of the (ahem) Global Poetry Party of the Heart. The perfect moniker for our divinely collaborative undertaking has not yet presented itself, so I’ll be trying on various names until we get the perfect fit. Today, the first six poetry packages went out via snail mail. Three are headed to addresses within the US (2 to Pennsylvania and 1 to New York); one is headed toward Ontario, Canada; one […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation, Words Divinely Wrought, writing & creativity • Tags: change, faith

40,000 norwegians respond with love (video; 2:37)

April 27, 2012 by rachel

In Oslo and other sites around Norway, 40,000 people gathered with folksinger Lillebjørn Nilsen and others to raise their voices in love. Standing in the rain, together they sang the 1970s-era peace song, Children of the Rainbow, which had been described as “Marxist propaganda” by a man now on trial for murdering 77 Norwegians, mostly teenagers, last July. According to UK-based Reuters/Guardian, the crowd chose the song because it “extols the type of multicultural society (the accused) has said he […]

Categories: inspiration, love, planetary shifts, video • Tags: change, new paradigm

do it today

February 5, 2012 by rachel

if you have something to say and you know deep in your belly that it needs to be heard speak it if you have something fresh to begin and like a chick too large for its egg it can no longer be contained start it perhaps you have something to end once and for all, something you have continued to engage in even though it drains or suffocates you let it go do it today if your deepest dreams were […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, change, empowerment

dealing with widespread uncertainty? drink here the gentle wisdom of robert wilkinson

August 23, 2011 by rachel

Robert Wilkinson is so much more than a world-class astrologist – and this post, A Letter To A Spiritual Warrior Dealing With Widespread Uncertainty In Many Lands, reflects his wise and insightful approach to life. There’s not a single word of astrology here, though he does bring in some of his Eastern/Buddhist thinking while maintaining a universal tone. After being awakened in the night by a small yet unsettling earthquake in my tiny Colorado hamlet, these words of Robert’s brought […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, spirituality, transformation • Tags: change, consciousness, higher consciousness, new paradigm

the wave is cresting: remain fluid in all things and unduly attached to none

May 13, 2011 by rachel

Thanks to souldipper for pointing me back toward this poem, which I wrote and posted in October 2010, graced by John Singer Sargent’s loose-limbed “Spanish Dancer.” Seems I invariably end up back at Bouguereau when I go trolling for images: note the woman has now shed her clothes! I live in a drought-stricken, dusty place, and, as a double Piscean, I tend to bring my own water (and fluidity) with me wherever I go. Dare I say I relate to […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: change, higher consciousness, spirituality, wisdom

in these most tumultuous times,remember: this is how easy it is

February 27, 2011 by rachel

“This is how easy it is” first appeared here in January 2010. The title in no way intends to diminish the grating, grinding experiences that many were undergoing then, and many are undergoing now, and another wave will be undergoing later. Take heart! The cycle of life/death/rebirth may be the only constant we can rely on. The dawn always follows the darkness; spring perpetually arrives on the heels of winter. you agree to attend the occasion of your own birth […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, health/healing, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: change, consciousness

navigating the free-falling goo of personal metamorphosis

February 17, 2011 by rachel

A dream, a vision, happenstance? Do you truly believe all is left to chance? First light shines on, then darkness purged Then out of time as essence merged, Who claims to grasp the nature of things While counting legs, now eyes, now wings In deconstructed apprehension It’s This! No, That! Oh! Did I mention That what I see is all I know? How dost one explain the rivers flow? Where is the rational, the justifiable In beauty, truth, infinity indefinable? […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, change, higher consciousness, letting go

dancing between storms, backed by a chorus of chaos

February 9, 2011 by rachel

Surely you have noticed — in your own life as well as in the lives of our greater planetary family — that smooth sailing has not recently been the order of the day. Floods and cyclones, revolutions and upheavals, rip-roaring tears in the fabric of individual lives, evolutionary twists and turns and taps on the shoulder have put into bas-relief what so many of us have known in our bellies and hearts for eternity (and then some!): The rate of […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, spirituality, transformation • Tags: change, faith, higher consciousness

hold on, let go: finding balance in an upheaved world

January 25, 2011 by rachel

How does one speak of the nature of time? Of the unriddled riddle, the unmetered rhyme? What lies now upon us with the greatest profusion Brings great knowing to some and to others, confusion. You beseech as you wonder, you ask without pause What are the rules, you implore! Where, the laws? Is there nothing but nothing that one can rely on? Oh yes, to be sure, but even more new to try on! You see it yourself, what once […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, love, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: change, higher consciousness

now is the best of all possible times: you are sovereign unto your own authority

December 5, 2010 by rachel

In whatever way you choose, through whatever forms or wisdom resonate with the beat of your fulsome heart, now is the best of all possible times to open the sluice gate you mistakenly believed was rusted shut The key glistens in your holy hand, poised to open new channels let run without impediment a new river of awareness align yourself east, then west, above, below, beyond gold awaits you on the riverbanks and too, there is sand, there is wheat, […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: change, consciousness, empowerment

today, remain fluid in all things and unduly attached to none

October 25, 2010 by rachel

There are times to be patient and times to act. Times to rise up strong and independent and times to sink to the floor in surrender. Change may very well ask you to be wildly proactive one day and hands off the next, an outspoken go-getter one week and a quiet listener before the next rolls around. Your best chance at riding out flux is to remain fluid in all things and unduly attached to none This need not be […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, change, higher consciousness

more than enough change to spare? be audacious

October 23, 2010 by rachel

On the continuing topic of change… Be Audacious Once your moorings are untied, you can steer yourself into open and uncharted waters. Out of the boxes and pigeonholes that have defined you, you are free to go boldly where you perhaps have never ventured before. Cowering in the face of approaching change is for cowards. Busting out with exhilarated glee is for warriors of the heart and spirit. Surprise yourself! Take a risk! Search out unmined inner veins flowing with […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, prose poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, change, empowerment, life

a deep pocketful of change: be open, be your own champion

October 22, 2010 by rachel

A perfect storm of technological, emotional, relationship, and transformative issues has kept me from my blog, but that, too, has passed. Last year I brought through a collection of meditations to ease the way through periods of change. Even though the project did not fare well in the publisher’s test market process (Go figure!), I still believe there may be one or two people on Earth who might appreciate this bit of inspiration. Be Open to Change When change approaches, […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, change, life

yes, human evolution can be funny: norwegian medieval “helpdesk” skit is proof (video 2:46)

October 4, 2010 by rachel

Given what I feel and what I read and what I know (you know?), this week’s energy carries with it some hard edges and potential for heaviness. I’ve already felt the flames licking up the past few days, so I’m lying low and nurturing myself in all the ways that help me remain focused, centered, and balanced. Since my current labors of love include creating a small public library in my tiny rural town and, as a spinoff, wading into […]

Categories: eclectica, humor, video • Tags: change, comedy, Norweigan humor

didn’t we love the things that they stood for? video (3:15)

August 29, 2010 by rachel

There are lots of videos out there that feature Dion singing his late ’60s hit song, “Abraham, Martin and John.” If this one doesn’t bring you to tears, you’re either too young to remember or too numb to care. Intelligent inspiration, indeed…

Categories: inspiration, video • Tags: '60s, 60s music, change, peace, US history

someone asked me where i live: the answer is ‘here’

August 1, 2010 by rachel

I can scarcely tell you where I’ve traveled The maps have yet to be drawn Terrain emerges from heights and depths in every moment, Uncharted landscapes arise with the sun. I know only that I wandered among the dunes Weighed down by ancient sacks stuffed full of recrimination Earthen pots brimmed with incomplete assumptions Sacred oils nested deep within the skins of alabaster jars. I turned down dusty highways ringed by sage and supposition Met my own gaze behind bovine […]

Categories: inspiration, poetry, southeastern colorado, transformation, writing & creativity • Tags: American Southwest, change, Las Animas County

a time to inspire (video)

June 27, 2010 by rachel

I continue to support my daughter as she moves through changes — even as I attend to my own evolution. Many new ideas are percolating yet not quite ready for expression. Enjoy this video (7:40) from crimsoncircle.com, whether it stirs you into silence, stirs you into deeper levels of self, or stirs you into action. If this resonates with you, please also visit (or perhaps, revisit) The World Needs You Now.

Categories: inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation, video • Tags: change, consciousness, evolution, life

vehicle for change: what your car is telling you about your life

June 17, 2010 by rachel

I will not deny it: I’m one of those people who never “met a phor” I didn’t like. (And yes, I know someone wrote a book with that title, but fact is, I’ve toyed with the phrase since nearly forever.) I see symbolism and meaning in everything. When people say to me, “You know, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” I figure that, surely, they jest. I size up every situation, every person, every occurrence, on multiple levels – […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, health/healing, humor, personal growth • Tags: car trouble, change, Dort Automobile, oracles

be ready for the wonderful

June 17, 2010 by rachel

Here’s an excerpt from a book of mine that’s currently going through market review by a gift book publisher.  Each page helps you to look at change in a new way so you can move through transitions with greater ease and less upheaval and angst. May this small snippet do the same for you today. When winds of change blow, it’s all too easy to bemoan what is carried away in the process. Why not choose to notice the gifts […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, spirituality, transformation • Tags: change

the winds of change are upon us: time to brace — or embrace?

May 29, 2010 by rachel

the wind blows incessantly here lifts up the edges of unrooted intention carries off the vestiges of all that remains vague, ungrounded if you have not battened down your hatches with outreaching action be prepared to be blown to smithereens endlessly circling your personal vortex only brings you back to conversation with yourself where lies the delight and wonderment? myopia is so very short-sighted there are unimaginable worlds yet to see trees wiser than any who walk among us wave […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: change, higher consciousness

the times they are a-changing: be adaptable

May 22, 2010 by rachel

This is from a book (now in test-marketing phase) on easing your way through change. Nobody’s going anywhere these days if they dig in their heels and steel themselves against inevitable, inescapable, and (yes!) potentially wonderful change. There are times to be patient and times to act. There are times to rise up strong and independent and times to sink to the floor in surrender. Change may very well ask you to be wildly proactive one day and hands-off the […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, transformation • Tags: change, empowerment, personal growth, wisdom

moving through change? be kaleidoscopic

May 10, 2010 by rachel

Here’s an excerpt from a book of mine that’s currently going through test marketing with a certain publisher who shall remain nameless. Can’t tell you the title (mainly since it’s not finalized), but it’s filled with “words of well-being to ease your way through change.” Be Kaleidoscopic If you’ve ever peered through a kaleidoscope, you know the beauty and delight produced through constantly changing patterns. The tiniest shifts this way or that bring forth an unending parade of color and […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, spirituality, transformation, word of the day • Tags: change, life, wisdom

your personal power bill of rights

May 5, 2010 by rachel

Please take a moment to link to the interview with H. Wantue Major. This gifted and highly inspirational man truly embodies personal power, courage, and the role of the arts in the face of conflict and human oppression. In the “be whole now” realm, personal power has nothing whatsoever to do with being more powerful than anyone else, exercising control over others, or holding great influence by dint of status, wealth, education, prestige, or economics. Your personal power is the […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, health/healing, inspiration, love, personal growth, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, change, consciousness, empowerment, life, personal power, recovery, wisdom

a double dose of straight-up inspiration

May 3, 2010 by rachel

Two messages to help move you down the road: one from my book “Be Filled with Faith” (learn more in the right-hand sidebar), and one from a book currently in the test marketing process.  These words are infused with the vibration of faith, discovery, and easeful change.  Let ‘em in! Be Unafraid to Let Go Change can be a powerful tonic, bringing fresh vibrancy to the old and stale. But first, you must be willing to release dead-end relationships, jobs, […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, health/healing, inspiration, personal growth, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, body mind & spirit, change, empowerment, faith, letting go, life, personal growth, truth, wisdom

if you believe:kenny loggins live at the grand canyon 1992 (video)

March 13, 2010 by rachel

I know I’m dating myself, but I am falling madly in love with Kenny Loggins all over again and listening to his soul-nourishing, inspiring, and exhilarating music nonstop. This video (thanks, cetera06!) is not technically great, but the spirit and energy of these folks is wildly contagious. If this doesn’t get you moving some part of your body in some way, I don’t know what will. Believe and Enjoy!

Categories: inspiration, video • Tags: "If You Believe", change, faith, Grand Canyon, inspiring music, Kenny Loggins

for 2010, be an extraordinary machine (fiona apple live video)

December 31, 2009 by rachel

Today’s Full Moon Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse and end of yet another unforgettable (ahem!) year might have you feeling betwixt and between. Enjoy this great number from Fiona Apple, appearing live on The Today Show in December 2005. The technical quality isn’t stellar, but this tune aways leaves me smiling. For more divas, check out the Video section in the right-hand sidebar under Categories.  

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, transformation, video • Tags: An Extraordinary Machine, change, empowerment, Fiona Apple, life, music video

ode to branson, colorado: bring your dream

December 19, 2009 by rachel

I haven’t said all that much about my new rural community down by the Colorado/New Mexico border, but here’s some wordage that just came through. Once you get excrutiatingly clear about your dream and release just about everything blocking your attainment of it, you may find yourself in surprising and unexpected locations. When you are called, you simply go. It matters little whether anything makes sense, is practical or convenient.  Home is where you find it; paradise is yours to create. This is […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, southeastern colorado, transformation • Tags: Branson Colorado, change, Colorado, community, dreams, Las Animas County, life, rural life, small town, surrender

transformative poetry for the willing

November 10, 2009 by rachel

your regrets and disappointments, let them go missteps and infelicities, cast them aside indiscretions of the past mean nothing now and if you insist on lugging them along in some ersatz act of Sisyphusian heroics your feet will fail you and you may never arrive leaking baggage is no longer de rigueur as proof of your wounded eccentricities, the weight of these badges has inspissated your soul! elevate yourself let each sodden sack tumble over the transom these millstones are […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, health/healing, inspiration, love, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: ascension, awakening, change, consciousness, higher consciousness, letting go, life, new paradigm, opening heart

enjoy billy joel while i’m warming up in the greenroom: and so it goes (video)

June 9, 2009 by rachel

Saints be praised! I can feel the stirrings of a new cycle of blogging, poetry, and other shared pursuits. While I’m shaking off the residual cobwebs, enjoy this poignant classic by Billy Joel.  These poetic words and his sensitive performance seem to characterize where many of us are these days: Letting go of the old (whether by choice or circumstance) and opening our tender hearts to new ways of being, feeling, and engaging with others.  Enjoy! Both tears and smiles […]

Categories: inspiration, love, transformation, video • Tags: And So It Goes, Billy Joel, change, healing, inspiration, life, love, opening heart, surrender, transformation, video, wisdom

words of the day: be, begin, believe

April 13, 2009 by rachel

To encourage and support your becoming, here are three words excerpted from my book, Words of Wisdom for Women (Barnes&Noble/Fall River Press). Though the book’s title is gender-specific, the content is universal. If you enjoy these, hop on over to my sister blog, Just Say Yes Now!, for a trifecta including Refuse, Remember, Restore. Be Remember that life is in the being, not the doing. Be every bit of everything that you are. Be tough, be soft, be dramatic, be subdued. Be a […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, spirituality, transformation, word of the day • Tags: awakening, be, begin, believe, body mind & spirit, change, empowerment, inspiration, life, personal growth, soul, transformation, word of the day

what there is to love about a man: conflicts

April 6, 2009 by rachel

Excerpt from my out-of-print book, What There Is To Love About A Man (Sourcebooks), which honors and celebrates masculine qualities of body, mind and spirit. Used and imperfect copies can be found here and there on the Internet, if you feel like digging. How can I show you who I really am, when I don’t even know myself? How can I share with you my vulnerable side, when everybody told me I had to be strong? What if I want […]

Categories: health/healing, men, personal growth • Tags: body mind & spirit, change, inner conflict, life, masculine, men, personal growth, transformation

meet my new sister blog: just say yes now!

April 4, 2009 by rachel

After a gestation period of way more than 9 months, my second blog, Just Say Yes Now!, has emerged. Bear with us as we get into the new rhythms that accompany a family with a newborn as well as a very active one-year-old. The new blog is a bit more directed to women – though all are welcome.  I’m seeing it as more of a community effort — and want to integrate more of your ideas, your comments, your art, […]

Categories: blogkeeping, body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, transformation, women • Tags: change, empowerment, inspiration, personal growth, Rachel Snyder, transformation, women

change is the prelude to growth (video)

April 2, 2009 by rachel

Here’s one of the many beautiful and insightful videos from Humanity Healing, a worldwide organization that can help enlighten you on the subjects of personal and global transformation; spiritual living; starseeds, angelic humans and twin flames; and awakening from a variety of traditions. Enjoy! There’s a significant list of credits at the end of the video, with good links to check out. Learn more about Humanity Healing Foundation at http://www.humanityhealing.net. Check out the Humanity Healing Social Network here. I am […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, love, personal growth, planetary shifts, spirituality, transformation, video • Tags: awakening, body mind & spirit, change, consciousness, Humanity Healing, inspiration, life, personal growth, spirituality, transformation, video