The suffering is so profound on this new moon/new year/lunar eclipse. How do we carry on? All I can do is try to stop a nuclear power plant from getting a life extension, and then, once a week, hold tiny babies close to my heart in the intensive care unit of the hospital. These are petty actions when compared to the suffering. And yet, it's what I can do now and here, where I already am.
Yes, it is what we must do and what must be evident with our actions - - that we do not believe in nuclear power but we do believe in the survival of babies and devote ourselves accordingly. Thank you, Linda.
Thank you Deena for returning and listening again to receive the words to convey the catastrophe of our modern belligerent reliance on things, our tools and weapons, and the terrible and tender wonder. And another way to meet this time. Beautiful dark moon, new year devastation. Earth spins. Returns again.
Thank you, Deena. For being willing to listen differently. For listening, and for picking up the pen and writing this.
I’m reminded of the words that came to me as I walked a woodland path near home, my mind struggling with what a species who has so lost its way has wrought; my senses struggling to stay present to the unfurling maple leaves, the mating calls of chickadee, the warming spring sun on my face:
“Hear the urging of a natural world. Your still, small voice too. They tell us: Stop Now! Hands on your heart. Remember what you once knew.
These are the times we have been made for. Believe we’ve got what it takes. Join the river of unity to restore love and healing to the human race. Love and healing to the human race.
Ears of my ears hear differently. Eyes of my eyes now see. If even one of us is suffering, the waters of life won’t flow free.
Here’s where we open what’s dammed up inside. Here’s where we unite and stand for all life!”
“The spirits answered repeating what they have said so many times, “What is being done is what needs to be done.”” And later “What matters now is vision.”
What I can do is open more and more deeply to listen. Thank for your profound guidance to remember this. It is home.
Congratulations on your draft completion! Or should I be congratulating your draft on completing you? All said with the knowledge that neither can really be completed. I very much appreciate what you've written about Mandaza’s sensibility vs. our own. Hope it finds many readers.
Ah, my writer friend who knows how writing writes us. I am who I am now because of the influence of these characters much wiser than me. And thank you for recognizing Mandaza. Blessings, Deena
Thank you Deena for your deep words about the world situation. I have been watching AlJazeera every day since last Oct. 7 and have seen the terrible devastation of Palestine get worse and worse. The rubble, the children, mothers and men, the piles of bodies in white plastic body bags.. It is what the Global South Feminists are calling 'Reproductive Genocide', an attack on the 'Web of Life'. And as you say, done with US armaments. And this web of life is being attacked everywhere now by climate change and nuclear brinksmanship as they used to call it. My sense is that we are a mothering species that has been altered by an overlay of patriarchal capitalism,.We need a deep and radical change of values now towards nurturing the web of life instead of destroying it. Thank you for your long term committment to this. Genevieve Vaughan
Dear Genevieve: I was relieved not to be entirely without words, not to be entirely speechless before the devastation and praying that the words can actually communicate something of what is occurring - let us stop before the words, "reproductive genocide" and then speak the next words very very slowly and feel their impact, feel it, “an attack on the ‘Web of Life.’ Who can imagine it - who are these beings who can imagine and manifest such attacks — on life! Most species are mothering, most are devoted, perhaps without as many lapses as ours, from Octopuses to Snakes to Dolphins, Bears, Elephants, Deer, Whales etc etc. How those mothers must be horrified at the sight of us … so lost. Thank you for writing, Genevieve.
I meet you in the the awful awareness of what we have done. My life is wholly given to the deep from which guidance comes. Quiet here...slow...deliberate. Always in wait of clarity. Willing, hungry actually, to follow the directives, though they sometimes disappear behind the clouds for great unnerving periods of time. I too, bow to he the moon. And I miss the collective work with allies who likewise listen from thee depths of silence. Grateful for you, Barbara Cecil
I think we should find a way to connect. I believe we have each other’s emails, but to be sure, can you send me your email to deenametzger@icloud.com re: “I
miss the collective work with allies who likewise listen from thee depths of silence."
Thank you, Deena. A four-word refrain--"all with our weapons"--tells the raw truth, brings the wars home. The "things" of commerce include all our weapons. The killing of civilians has been normalized. Words of compassion, of kindness and tenderness even now, especially now, are like the roots of plants, of trees, that may eventually break down the walls of normalization and let in the light.
It is terrifying to note what has been normalized - like killing - like imagining weapons of horror and agony and mass destruction. And the medicine, both kindness and the roots of the natural world. Thank you for writing.
To discern how we need to shift " so we can run interference, do an intervention with a culture run amuck." Thank you for that and for the essential questions and images.
The images say everything, don’t they. One a note, attached to this essay, I have posted the image of Lake Lure before we devastated it with all our stuff. It says everything and clearly enough I pray for all of us to begin the various manifestations of the shift, which has to be a return to living according to the wisdom of the natural world.
The suffering is so profound on this new moon/new year/lunar eclipse. How do we carry on? All I can do is try to stop a nuclear power plant from getting a life extension, and then, once a week, hold tiny babies close to my heart in the intensive care unit of the hospital. These are petty actions when compared to the suffering. And yet, it's what I can do now and here, where I already am.
Yes, it is what we must do and what must be evident with our actions - - that we do not believe in nuclear power but we do believe in the survival of babies and devote ourselves accordingly. Thank you, Linda.
Thank you Deena for returning and listening again to receive the words to convey the catastrophe of our modern belligerent reliance on things, our tools and weapons, and the terrible and tender wonder. And another way to meet this time. Beautiful dark moon, new year devastation. Earth spins. Returns again.
Thank you Alexis for your heartfelt response - the truth of what you know in the poetry of your words.
Thank you, Deena. For being willing to listen differently. For listening, and for picking up the pen and writing this.
I’m reminded of the words that came to me as I walked a woodland path near home, my mind struggling with what a species who has so lost its way has wrought; my senses struggling to stay present to the unfurling maple leaves, the mating calls of chickadee, the warming spring sun on my face:
“Hear the urging of a natural world. Your still, small voice too. They tell us: Stop Now! Hands on your heart. Remember what you once knew.
These are the times we have been made for. Believe we’ve got what it takes. Join the river of unity to restore love and healing to the human race. Love and healing to the human race.
Ears of my ears hear differently. Eyes of my eyes now see. If even one of us is suffering, the waters of life won’t flow free.
Here’s where we open what’s dammed up inside. Here’s where we unite and stand for all life!”
(From These are the Times, a song)
Indeed, I hear the song when I say the words in my heartmind.
P. S. Congratulations on your first draft! I cannot wait to read Broken Lambs.
Thank you Deena for putting pen to paper, thoughts and feelings to words. The universe is crying out. What are we to do?
What are we to do and how are we to be - how to change radically enough for the world to change?
“The spirits answered repeating what they have said so many times, “What is being done is what needs to be done.”” And later “What matters now is vision.”
What I can do is open more and more deeply to listen. Thank for your profound guidance to remember this. It is home.
Yes, yes, the task is to listen more deeply, to learn what listening means. Blessings, Deena
Blessings to you Deena. Your words, found only just last night, have opened a deeper listening in me.
Congratulations on your draft completion! Or should I be congratulating your draft on completing you? All said with the knowledge that neither can really be completed. I very much appreciate what you've written about Mandaza’s sensibility vs. our own. Hope it finds many readers.
Ah, my writer friend who knows how writing writes us. I am who I am now because of the influence of these characters much wiser than me. And thank you for recognizing Mandaza. Blessings, Deena
Thank you Deena for your deep words about the world situation. I have been watching AlJazeera every day since last Oct. 7 and have seen the terrible devastation of Palestine get worse and worse. The rubble, the children, mothers and men, the piles of bodies in white plastic body bags.. It is what the Global South Feminists are calling 'Reproductive Genocide', an attack on the 'Web of Life'. And as you say, done with US armaments. And this web of life is being attacked everywhere now by climate change and nuclear brinksmanship as they used to call it. My sense is that we are a mothering species that has been altered by an overlay of patriarchal capitalism,.We need a deep and radical change of values now towards nurturing the web of life instead of destroying it. Thank you for your long term committment to this. Genevieve Vaughan
Dear Genevieve: I was relieved not to be entirely without words, not to be entirely speechless before the devastation and praying that the words can actually communicate something of what is occurring - let us stop before the words, "reproductive genocide" and then speak the next words very very slowly and feel their impact, feel it, “an attack on the ‘Web of Life.’ Who can imagine it - who are these beings who can imagine and manifest such attacks — on life! Most species are mothering, most are devoted, perhaps without as many lapses as ours, from Octopuses to Snakes to Dolphins, Bears, Elephants, Deer, Whales etc etc. How those mothers must be horrified at the sight of us … so lost. Thank you for writing, Genevieve.
I meet you in the the awful awareness of what we have done. My life is wholly given to the deep from which guidance comes. Quiet here...slow...deliberate. Always in wait of clarity. Willing, hungry actually, to follow the directives, though they sometimes disappear behind the clouds for great unnerving periods of time. I too, bow to he the moon. And I miss the collective work with allies who likewise listen from thee depths of silence. Grateful for you, Barbara Cecil
Dear Barbara:
I think we should find a way to connect. I believe we have each other’s emails, but to be sure, can you send me your email to deenametzger@icloud.com re: “I
miss the collective work with allies who likewise listen from thee depths of silence."
Thank you, Deena. A four-word refrain--"all with our weapons"--tells the raw truth, brings the wars home. The "things" of commerce include all our weapons. The killing of civilians has been normalized. Words of compassion, of kindness and tenderness even now, especially now, are like the roots of plants, of trees, that may eventually break down the walls of normalization and let in the light.
It is terrifying to note what has been normalized - like killing - like imagining weapons of horror and agony and mass destruction. And the medicine, both kindness and the roots of the natural world. Thank you for writing.
To discern how we need to shift " so we can run interference, do an intervention with a culture run amuck." Thank you for that and for the essential questions and images.
The images say everything, don’t they. One a note, attached to this essay, I have posted the image of Lake Lure before we devastated it with all our stuff. It says everything and clearly enough I pray for all of us to begin the various manifestations of the shift, which has to be a return to living according to the wisdom of the natural world.