The Season of Ephemerality
We’ve gone from the bleakness of “the dirty reveal,” to tight buds on brown branches. May we caress them with our quiet gaze.
Having stepped through the Spring Equinox's Gate of Balance, we cross the threshold riding the momentum of Nature's Eros as we come to the throbbing energy of Beltane.
We apprehend the delicate, slow, incremental greening. Heading to that POP moment, when all the tulips are up and the forsythia is like a mane of giant exploding yellow.
A profoundly sensuous moment, where we experience the delicate loveliness of all the spring ephemerals, the pastel precursors to the coming gaudiness of summer.
Spring ephemerals are plants who only bloom before the tree canopy closes overhead. I never know this...the idea of a bloom while the sun still streams open down to forest floor.
Let us take a deep inhale.
Here, just right here.
Everything is tender and new. Vulnerable. And Alive.
Ephemerality and Detachment
That’s the thing about ephemerality. We can’t fix it, hold it, grasp it.
Think what it’s like to walk in the bare woods, and apprehend the beauty at your feet, only in this moment... while you still see the open possibility of the sky.
Here’s the mindset that nature offers us.
True detachment.
Something I’ve been stalking my whole life, as I know many are.
That quality of allowing, rather than being driven by the urgency of insecurity.
The moment of beauty as spring ephemerals appear before us.
Once June has “busted out all over,” they’re gone. Their season is over.
If they never surrendered their beauty to the earth, there would be no seeds for the next bloom.
Uncertainty has its terrors.
Yet if we touch the beauty of that which is here, now knowing that a seed is a promise... a promise that 'solutions will emerge.'
Taste the green unknowing.
We have the power to be real and embrace it.
Just for an ephemeral moment.
photo credit: Archil Pichkhadze
Beltane 2026
Friday, May 1 | 5 PM | $20 Donation
GATE OF EROS @Gateway House
12 Fairview Ave, Rosendale
Donation $20
CEREMONY@ 5:00pm
🌀Maypole w/ Andrew Forbes, Bagpipes
🌀Bawdy Questions from the Spirit of Eros
🌀Jumping the Beltane Fire
🌀Parachute Play
🌀Music with Laura Hitt & Barely Lace
*POTLUCK & Fire
*PERFORMANCES @ 7pm ish
👉🏼 Seriously Silly Medicine Show
***Parking is Limited***
If Possible: Park at bottom of Keator Ave (1016) opposite St. Peter’s Church
& walk up hill
OR
Park at Trestle Rail Trail parking lot (750 Binnewater Rd) & walk across the Trestle
Easter Sermon, Gateway House, April 5, 2026
"Koinia, joining together that which is separated, not by force, by frequency, the frequency of love"
Video of the service HERE
I am honored to be part of the coordinating committee for an ongoing multifaith witness and protest of ICE. Our second vigil is part of Disappeared in America’s Communities Not Cages: National Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouse Detention.
If you are interested in participating, please reach out to me directly.
Learn more about the national action here: https://www.mobilize.us/disappearedinamerica/event/941864/
Gateway House Sanctuary Meetings
Tuesday, May 5 | 6 PM | note time change
Looking for deep community in these times?
Gateway House is committed to holding sanctuary within ourselves, our communities and our world.
Gateway House Sanctuary Singers
The Sanctuary Singers include contributions from many Gateway House musicians and singers. We intend to continue into the future with more rehearsals, as well as sing at rallies and actions in the Mid-Hudson Valley.
For more info on our Sanctuary work, click HERE
Join us. RSVP to 845-417-5430
Inquire for Signal Group access
Gateway House, 12 Fairview Ave, Rosendale
Do you remember the heat of last summer, and the need to slip away into nature to cool off in clear, flowing water? Deep Hole Nature Sanctuary on the Peterskill Stream has been that place for so many of us, and with your support, it can continue to welcome visitors for years to come
Deep Hole Nature Sanctuary is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to conserving the natural beauty and spirit of the land that makes this place so special. Our work is guided by a commitment to long term environmental care, inclusive access, and shared responsibility for this community resource.
It will take the entire community to see that this special place remains open, accessible, clean, quiet, and safe. With this in mind, the DHNS is reactivating the Deep Hole Keepers as a feet-on-the-ground group that can act as Active Stewards for Deep Hole, specifically to:
Organize improvement projects and cleanups,
Monitor environmental health,
Promote low-impact recreation,
Provide a vehicle for community engagement,
Educate visitors on what stewardship means
Collect public feedback
The Deep Hole Keepers will self-organize through this WhatsApp group. If you (and anyone you know) would like to be part of the group, please click the link and join us in Whatsapp AND at our MEETING AT 2PM on the first Community Day of the season!
With Love, The Deep Hole Nature Sanctuary Board:
Dan Getman, Kathleen Mandeville, Steeven Price Lall, Zoe Getman-Pickering, Amy Little
An Invitation to the Practice of Biodanza
As explorer of the many modalities and forms of spiritual growth and healing, Biodanza is the spiritual somatic form which I have practiced consistently over the recent years. Boidanza deeply nourishes me personally, and allows me to sustain and embody the depth of my own work at The Outer Edge and Gateway House. Biodanza cross pollinates with both Constellations and Ceremony. Join us!
Wed Evenings, 7:15pm
92 Saint Josen Road Accord, NY
You can find detailed info and the event calendar at the New World Ritual & Dance, the Hudson Valley's Biodanza center.
Early Spring Love,
Kathleen C. Mandeville, M. Div.
Community Pastor, Consultant, Facilitator, Coach
Through The Outer Edge, Kathleen offers personal and organizational coaching, employing the modalities of Systemic Constellations, ritual, pastoral guidance. Her specialities include working with healers and creatives, as they achieve the true expression of their soul’s mission. Combining heart centered intuition with hard headed strategy...'Cuz, baby you're a firework.'
Contact me at The Outer Edge Coaching to schedule an initial 30 minute consultation.
