Archive for Grandmother’s Wisdom
Grandmothers Wake Up Call!
Posted by: | CommentsAs everything ‘heats’ up in a world preparing for change, I have had some deep questions about my own role in this. There are many ways I could help, or teach, or present others with options for a healthy future. As various ideas arose in me, I would explore them in my heart and mind to see which ones really caught fire. Some were close to that ignition point – just not quite there yet.
Recently I took a road trip to New Mexico to visit three different sets of friends. First I connected with a dear girlfriend from my childhood in Santa Fe. Much to my surprise and delight we were more natural and at ease than ever before. Even though more than forty years had passed, we had a very ‘in the moment’ relationship together. Yet, to me, it was also rooted in our childhood, in the Earth, at my roots. This stirred me deeply as the love and the warmth between us was so very real.
This warmth and love has happened with other best girlfriends from childhood, and it has re-grounded me to a past that is suddenly alive and well in the present! This is a sea change for me, and adds a depth to my presence I didn’t know I was missing! This has connected me back to the Farm, the Earth, and childhood in a positive, nourishing way.
Next I went to hang out in the loving presence of three Sisters Of Honua, my beloved Spirit sisters. We Sisters of the Earth are connecting, communing, and supporting one another for the sake of our Mother Earth and all my relations. Here, after the drumming, during the night, a fire started burning in me, a fire I had no words for yet.
Two hours North, I stopped and parked on the other side of a juniper, on the other side of a ranch gate, and waited for my friend to come get me. She arrived before I got the gate pulled closed over the rough, rutted ground. [There is no way for my low-slung ride to navigate the road to her home.]
Finally, after much bumping and twisting around on dusty roads, we could look down into a small valley and see the donkeys, a horse, the river, and the beautiful buildings she and her husband call home on the range! A year ago I built a labyrinth for her on this land and I knew we were going to walk it again in the moonlight as it was to be a full moon that night.
While waiting for the moon to rise, my friend pulled out an album and a DVD . Her sister had put together the story of part of the Suffragette Movement, the part their Grandmother played in giving Women the vote. We immersed ourselves in that story, really experiencing what our Grandmothers did, what they endured, and what it was all for. It was truly inspiring! I wanted to join them, to stand on their shoulders and make a difference in my world.
There it was! The fire in the belly had words, and it went like this. One of the wisest advisers President Obama lost was his Grandmother! He has missed and still needs that counsel of wisdom in Washington. Now all the Grandmothers need to speak to him and to all leaders everywhere! We have something to say that needs to be heard!
The time has come to speak our truth: about the food, about the water, about the seeds and the lands and about the children and grandchildren of our lands. We Grandmothers, and supporters of the Grandmothers, and supporters of Mother Earth need to SHOW UP in force. We need to BE WILLING to stop the madness. We need to TELL THE TRUTH from our hearts. We need to say to all the powers that be: “I will only accept the best from you!”
If not now, Women, then when? For if we cannot speak out now to stop the poisons, stop the killing, and start healing ourselves and our home there will be no tomorrow to do it in. This is the Grandmothers Wake Up Call! This is the right time for peaceful action. We have our Grandmothers shoulders to stand on. This is when we shine in all our power, so that there is an Earth to pass down to the next seven generations, and humans to live on it. This is why we are here at this moment on this Earth, our home!
I propose we meet in all the capitols of all the lands on Earth Day, April 22, 2012. I see us walking, riding, pedaling, flying, and car pooling to our capitols. I see us pushing baby carriages, pushing each other in wheel chairs, riding on floats, dancing great daisy chains, and singing our way to the capitols. Let us make a huge noise for life, joining together heart to heart in community to get this house cleaning done once and for all.
Roll up your sleeves, Ladies! It’s time to have some serious fun! And don’t forget to ask all those wonderful men in our lives along for protectors. The more the merrier!
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.
Letter From Sendai, Japan
Posted by: | CommentsI just wanted to share this letter with you since it touched my heart. . . .Love, Kate
A letter from Sendai by ANNE THOMAS 3/14/2011
Published online @ Ode magazine
Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend’s home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.
During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out a sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.
It’s utterly amazingly that where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, “Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another.”
Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.
We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet come on. But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do not. No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.
There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses a mess in some places, yet then a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs. All happening at the same time.
Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains are Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.
And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.
They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes, for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls, shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, so far this area is better off than others. Last night my friend’s husband came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.
Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don’t. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent.
Thank you again for your care and Love of me,
With Love in return, to you all,
Anne
