Archive for Community/Family
Positive Progress
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been off and running…networking myself into a new business – at least that’s the idea. I’ve been noticed and now I am talking to some very interesting and plugged in people. The energy, enthusiasm, and joy evident in the Urban Sustainability movement is stunning! In fact every single place we need reform, or just flat out a new system, is in a marvelous state of ferment. It’s quite pro-biotic,organically growing in communities of ideas, and dreams, and deeply grounded intent. The will is there to create something new. The pieces we need are all here as well. Creativity is fountaining up in people; they are all meeting each other and immediately connecting. The air in these meetings is so delicious – full of local, organic, flexitarian home cooking, an old fashioned pot luck with people who are ecologically conscious! We’re also bringing our own plates, cups, silverware, and napkins again! Ah! Shades of the Hippy sixties and the ‘back to the land’ 70’s! Only now it’s going mainstream.
We are all practicing the best practices for the Earth as far as we can – and ready to stretch for tomorrow. It’s so excellent to be in a room full of people who (in one way or the other) sound like you do. Or more accurately, have the same underlying vision about this next step. We all want to know what the other is doing, and enjoy seeing how it all fits into the whole. What a delicious time. This type of community is so very important right now, with the world loosening at the seams to allow for the newest configuration to emerge. And it’s full of optimism!
The “greenies” are gathering around food and becoming more eco-conscious in the process. There is a wonderful sense of comradery when you find others that don’t use paper towels, or put their tissues in the compost instead of the trash. A woman in the same master composting class as I came up to me today, beaming, because she was so pleased to know someone else that uses handkerchiefs and turns off water!
What’s interesting is this is the way I grew up! We had a well on the farm, and particularly in summer you just didn’t take your hand off the faucet. The water went on and off fast, or you filled a basin to wash, because you didn’t want the well to run dry and burn out the pump! Then the water was dumped on Mother’s roses. Cloth napkins were normal, not fancy; and just about everything got turned into something else. What happened in the mean time? Check out www.TheStoryofStuff.com for an interesting answer!
Like the first line in the Tale of Two Cities, “It was the worst of times; and it was the best of times…” Whenever you can, wherever you can, focus on what is the best about these times.
Sacred Women
Posted by: | CommentsLast week I spent 4 days in ceremony with 33 other women. I have never before had the privilege, never had the pleasure, of women coming together for sacred play. We laughed and drummed, cried and comforted, danced a new vision, dreamed a new dream, and deeply reconnected to Honua, PachaMama, Turtle Island, Mother Earth. We were called to the Grandmother’s Summit celebrating Turtle Island during the new moon, the Turtle Moon. Each one of us was called to come even though there was no program, no schedule of events, no description of the time to be spent together. We just knew.
We ranged in age from the 20’s to the 80’s; we covered a broad spectrum of races, cultures, and practices. And we were ONE. There was enough trust, enough acceptance, enough appreciation, and enough safety to be who I truly am without ‘toning it down’. All of us are teachers, healers, channels of the Divine, and dedicated to focusing our energy towards a new dream of the world.
We women, in many other groups like this one, are gathering to support each other, to support ourselves, and to support the world shift to a new consciousness. As we become more and more aware of the role we play in this shift, women are standing hand in hand, heart to heart, in communities bound by love, integrity, joy, sacredness of all that is, and allow the Great Female to emerge anew. With hearts wide open, we are united in our dedication to passing this beautiful Earth on to the next seven generations.
This is the eleventh hour; this is the call; this is what all of you have been waiting for. The Grandmothers are calling and when Grandmother says something in that tone of voice, it brooks no compromise. It is just so.
All of you women who have stood with your feet planted, arms folded or fists on your hips and said: “Not in my home! This will not happen in my home, ever again!” are now joining and in one voice and a million voices simply saying: “No more.”
It is time to roll up your sleeves and do what women do best: Pray for strength, pray for inspiration, join each other, sing the work songs, and just plain clean up this mess! This can be done from wherever you are – in tiny ways and in big ways. Do one thing at a time: stop buying plastic bags; use cloth napkins; buy fair trade and local stuff. Don’t know how? Read some of my other columns and ask me to come teach a class in all sorts of easy ways to slow down buying and throwing away. (Where is ‘away’?)
There is an astonishing array of ways to connect and become part of a new way of being. Find one. You are my family, and I am yours. We can do this if we all stand together. You are needed and you are unique. No one else can do what you do. Come join the the biggest change in the history of humankind! It’ll be a gas!
Urban Gleaning
Posted by: | CommentsI’m living here in an old neighborhood in North Denver and wishing I had the energy of a decade ago or about 5 more sets of hands. The apricots are ripe across the street, bowing the branches to the lawn with fragrant fruit. They are ready for jam, bars, drying, eating, and Moroccan Chicken. All this used to go hand-in-glove with community and family time. It’s such wonderful -but intense- work that a group really counts! I want a gleaning group!
There are three or four peach trees at the end of the street loaded with ripening fruit, and I just missed the cherries a few blocks over. Soon my plums will be ready to go, and there are apple trees on every block. And that’s just around my house. Some of the freshest and cheapest organic fruits are dropping to the ground instead of into our mouths.
We have an old problem: food wastes and people are hungry! I’ve started talking; I’ve started connecting; and I envision people learning how to harvest again from their own yards and preserve their rewards instead of having it rot on the ground. I am dreaming about Urban Gleaners and Urban Foragers, harvesting all this abundance and sharing it with others. Now that’s local! That’s sustainable! Will you join me?
