Who is the Great Mother, and what does it mean to embrace mothering as a verb – stretching our notions of this action to reach out beyond gender? On today’s episode I explore this and many other questions with writer, storyteller and epidemiologist Finn Schubert. Finn is a board member at Baltimore Wisdom Project and co-author of Developing TransCompetence: A Short Guide to Improving Transgender Experiences at Meditation and Retreat Centers. Released in 2014, this book was an early resource on transgender inclusion in Buddhist communities. Finn is also the author of a new essay collection, Even the Cemeteries Have Space Here, which explores finding home in body, place, and time -- an intimate look at a moment in his life when he moves to a small town to start over and immediately gets his period back. On today’s episode, we discuss: • Finn’s background in Zen Buddhism and how his spiritual practice has evolved • His discovery of the Great Mother in a witch shop • What it means to embrace mothering as an act that anyone can offer • The power in naming our desires, and the liberation that comes from a spiritual practice that allows us to do so • Embracing the wisdom of his menstrual cycle as a transgender man • How praying the rosary has helped him connect with his ancestral people