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Tag: stories

  • A Meditation on Connecting Lands and Stories

    A Meditation on Connecting Lands and Stories

    Yuria Celidwen guides us to connect to the land, awakening gratitude and listening more deeply into the natural spaces around us.

    Many modern Western cultures don’t have a deep understanding of how we connect to the land as a source of collective identity, story, or purpose. There is a sense that, yes, land can be lovely—but it is mainly seen as a source of recreation or extraction, not necessarily as an integral part of what shapes us and future generations.

    In this guided practice, Indigenous scholar and teacher Yuria Celidwen, rooted in Nahua and Maya lineages, introduces a fresh way to consider our connection to the natural spaces around us. This is a practice that invites reverence, gratitude, and belonging, where our experience of the Earth moves from being strictly transactional to being interconnected and relational.

    A Meditation on Connecting Lands and Stories

    Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.

    1. If you haven’t done so already, turn off your devices or leave them in a different place from where you will do this practice. Find a place within easy reach where you may feel comfortable. If this place allows you to overlook the landscape, that’s fantastic. If you can sit outside, surrounded by the natural landscape, even better. Wherever you decide to sit, make it easy for you so your practice becomes accessible whenever and wherever in your daily life. 
    2. Let your body rest in a way that helps you stay relaxed but attentive. While you may know that some meditation practices engage in contemplation with eyes closed, in this practice, keep your gaze soft but open, taking in your surroundings with a soft, expansive, panoramic view. 
    3. Pause. Notice where your attention is. Just notice where your mind is wandering. Where is your mind wandering? When is your mind wandering? How is your mind wandering? Just notice. Gather your attention gently. And bring it back to this present place and moment. 
    4. Request permission to enter the lands, offering your gratitude for their welcoming. Open. Breath, anchor, presence. Notice the texture of the lands where you are. What are the smells, fragrances, scents? What are the forms, colors and shades? What are the tones,  resonances, timbres, rhythms? What is their touch, their temperature, their strokes? What are their subtle tastes? Even more subtle memories, imagination? 
    5. Breathe, acknowledge, recognize, welcome. Welcome the lands. Pause. Who are the lands? What are they? Where are they? Pause. The lands are telling stories. They have voices. They sing songs. With the utmost care, as you would to a precious elder or a newborn child, just pause to listen. What are the lands telling you right now? What are they singing about themselves? What is their story about you? 

    Pause to listen, as you would to a precious elder or a newborn child. What are the lands telling you right now? What are they singing about themselves? What is their story about you?

    1. Take a few moments to hold this experience. Embrace our first opening into our shared sacred space, our discovering of an open welcoming of the lands. Offer them your gratitude for that opening, for welcoming you. Take a deep breath and exhale, bowing to the lands. Now let this experience flow. 
    2. Here are a few cues to animate your experience. Feel each of these cues as they rise in your body, heart, mind, memory, imagination, and belonging. Let these inquiries connect you to the world. What emerges? How are the lands connecting with you? What are their languages? How are they arising? And how do you relate and reciprocate?



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  • Americans Share Devastating Healthcare Horror Stories in Wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassination

    Americans Share Devastating Healthcare Horror Stories in Wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassination

    Users have taken to social media platforms such as Reddit and X to share horror stories relating to UnitedHealthcare, including situations in which people were left with massive bills or even denied care.

    One user took to Reddit to share how one of their patients was denied neurosurgery for chronic migraines.

    “Just had a letter sent denying my patient who has chronic migraines from an enlarging meningioma + neuritis. They asked me to monitor for expansion. It’s literally expanding you f—ing piece of dog sh-t… it has nothing to do with the fact that they are 64 and will be Medicare’s problem next year, right?” wrote the user.

    The user continued to talk about how they agreed to perform the surgery on their patient for free, and got a free anesthesia service for them as well.

    Another user on Reddit shared a story of how they were charged $275,000 for the death of their mother after her insurance was denied for no coverage posthumously.

    “I got an early Christmas gift from the hospital where my mom passed 10 months ago. She aspirated while in the hospital for cancer treatment, they did CPR – no pulse and called to tell me she passed, she came back for a few hours but was unconscious of course, then passed again. (Fun fact – she had a DNR. They missed it.)” wrote the user.

    “Since they sat on submitting it to her insurance, it was denied for no coverage…. because she was now deceased. Makes sense,” they continued. “So I got this nice little bill. Called the billing department to tell them to shove it. They ask if I want to pay the balance today. Then they tell me ‘we’ll’ go to collections if not.”

    Many of these instances and stories have resulted in users ridiculing the late CEO and celebrating his death after they or a close loved one was negatively impacted by their UHC insurance.

    Such ridicule made its way to the replies of a post made by Thompson on LinkedIn.

    “We work every day to find ways to make #healthcare more affordable, including reducing the cost of life-saving prescription drugs,” Thompson wrote.

    One user responded to Thompson’s post with a personal experience of his own relating to UHC.

    “Hey Brian. I just spent an hour on the phone battling to get information for my wife with stage 4 cancer. She’s a 45-year-old mother of 4 with an abnormal EGFR gene. I’d love to share my experience with you,” he wrote.

    “This message is an example of hypocrisy at its finest. You are denying claims for people who need it,” wrote another user.



    Another user chimed in to share how they were charged $20,000 for care as their wife’s pregnancy progressed. They talked about how their employer switched them over to UHC when their wife was already eight months pregnant.

    “Just after our baby was born (mid Jan), we filed for reimbursement. To our shock, UHC denied our claim, initially alleging we had failed to notify them. Determined to resolve the issue, we provided evidence of our communication with their representatives, and stating the fact that we got the form posted from UHC to our address. After much back and forth, UHC admitted they were notified but then claimed they never received the form(We posted it back via USPS),” they wrote.

    “We turned to the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) for help, hoping for a fair resolution. Sadly, they sided with UHC, stating there was no ‘proof’ of their agreement. Left without options, we faced a $20,000 bill, which went to collections,” they continued.

    One X user shared how UHC denied hip replacement procedures as “pre-existing conditions’, pointing out how this was in violation of the law.

    “So now, @UHC is just blatantly breaking the law by denying a hip replacement as a ‘pre-existing condition.’ He was never seen for his hip prior to seeing me and never diagnosed with arthritis so they just lied. Appeal filed and also denied. This has to stop,” they wrote.


    One woman shared the outrageous cost of her son’s life saving medication even with insurance.

    “My 9 year old son needs a medication that even when approved will cost us $9800 a month. I don’t know whether it’s the insurance company’s or the pharma company’s fault, but either way what am I supposed to do as a parent for a medically necessary medication?” she wrote.


    Another X user shared the story of how his son with cerebral palsy was denied a wheelchair to assist with mobility as UHC determined that the additional features that the user requested for the wheelchair were unnecessary.

    “TBT to when@UHC#UnitedHealthcare repeatedly denied my son’s wheelchair,” they wrote.



    Many users shared stories where medical supplies or procedures were denied for patients undergoing palliative care. One such story includes a patient with ALS who was denied a saline nebulizer solution.

    “Had UHC refuse the saline nebulizer solution I ordered for an ALS patient on palliative care. Had to waste 45 minutes both with an online form then a call to get it approved so the poor patient could thin their secretions enough to help them suction… it would have cost under twenty dollars for the thirty saline neb vials I ordered,” shared a Reddit user.

    Horror stories of unaffordable and poor healthcare continue to flood social media in the wake of the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s death.

    Originally published by Latin Times.



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