Thank you Deena. As always a reliable voice of assessing these times. I always remember what you say about challenging times: "What do we do in these times? We gather together in community and listen to each other." Peace and love to you.
Thank you Deena. When I lived in the SFV, I attended several of your circles, and honor your past work that taught me about "the sacred prostitute." As we grieve or rage or numb the election results, we must indeed, gather, support, embrace and inspire one another to add our Voices and Acts, Art and Prayers to Creator's experiment on Planet Earth. Marcia SInger, Santa Rosa
"The Red Line" reaches deeper into my heart than anything else I've read or pondered since Election Day. This, for example: "The Native American elder remembered what an elder had taught her: They had survived five hundred years of genocide enacted by this culture and government because they had remembered to be thankful and preserved their prayers, ceremonies and rituals and their relationship to the Earth and lived accordingly."
"What she meant by they had survived, she meant the prayers survived and the tribal wisdom and their relationship to the Earth even when they were removed from it."
I do have faith in the Earth and tribal wisdom. To pray is easy, effortless, in the presence of what is already a prayer. And the Earth, wounded though She is, still holds us all.
And the prayers and heart, that wisdom, creates a field of being through which we sustain each other. Thank you, once again, for writing Jim, it matters so much.
Thank you beloved friend and wise woman of our tribe. Beautifully said and rendered. And true. It is time to move beyond so much that has been taking up our minds and chi. I think of Toni Morrison, the brilliant Black American author who wrote, “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work." I think I've been distracted for too long. I agree with you -- let's no longer be distracted from our great work, creative, cultural, medicinal, innovative, indigenous healing work on behalf of the earth and all life, locally, in community, with each other. Love you always, Carolyn
Thank you Deena for reminding us, in this time of deepening crisis and danger, that we need to return to ritual, to circles for sharing, listening and healing, to all the ways of remembering and recreating interconnection with Mother Earth and all her precious beings.
Beautiful as always! Organizing locally is how we create the future we desire. Turn our attention to that. The project of liberal democracy failed in 2008 and we are in the dregs of it, all the finger pointing and blame misses the bigger point, the war economy has failed. We have to build back a peace economy which is the indigenous economy humans have survived with for centuries. Imagine and co-cultivate the soil and the plant the seeds, let them grow, what have your learned, time to put it into action. The fight is over, don't let them use you anymore. For support there is the Local Peace Economy Workbook – Cultivating Home Sweet Home and Planting seeds of peace is available for free to all. (Deena pulled the name out of me in her writing workshop)
What a stunning and lucid response from the I Ching. Thank you for your work on our behalf, and your deep wisdom in articulating our tasks. Love what you say at the end!
Thank you Deena for your dearly needed wisdom. I recall in one of your intensives years ago it was given to me to write, “Even though we are shattered, our imagination remains intact.”
How perfect: Hexagram 18, work on what has been spoiled. But then isn't the I Ching always perfect? Thank you Deena. I love you.
Thank you Deena. As always a reliable voice of assessing these times. I always remember what you say about challenging times: "What do we do in these times? We gather together in community and listen to each other." Peace and love to you.
Thank you Deena. When I lived in the SFV, I attended several of your circles, and honor your past work that taught me about "the sacred prostitute." As we grieve or rage or numb the election results, we must indeed, gather, support, embrace and inspire one another to add our Voices and Acts, Art and Prayers to Creator's experiment on Planet Earth. Marcia SInger, Santa Rosa
"The Red Line" reaches deeper into my heart than anything else I've read or pondered since Election Day. This, for example: "The Native American elder remembered what an elder had taught her: They had survived five hundred years of genocide enacted by this culture and government because they had remembered to be thankful and preserved their prayers, ceremonies and rituals and their relationship to the Earth and lived accordingly."
"What she meant by they had survived, she meant the prayers survived and the tribal wisdom and their relationship to the Earth even when they were removed from it."
I do have faith in the Earth and tribal wisdom. To pray is easy, effortless, in the presence of what is already a prayer. And the Earth, wounded though She is, still holds us all.
Thank you, Deena.
To pray is easy, effortless,
in the presence
of what is already a prayer.
And the Earth,
wounded though She is,
still holds us
all.
And the prayers and heart, that wisdom, creates a field of being through which we sustain each other. Thank you, once again, for writing Jim, it matters so much.
This poem was sent in response to this writing and the times:
Unbroken
by Rashani Rea
There is a brokenness
out of which comes the unbroken,
a shatteredness
out of which blooms the unshatterable.
There is a sorrow
beyond all grief which leads to joy
and a fragility
out of whose depths emerges strength.
There is a hollow space
too vast for words
through which we pass with each loss,
out of whose darkness
we are sanctioned into being.
There is a cry deeper than all sound
whose serrated edges cut the heart
as we break open to the place inside
which is unbreakable and whole,
while learning to sing.
BY AURORA LEVINS MORALES
Thank you beloved friend and wise woman of our tribe. Beautifully said and rendered. And true. It is time to move beyond so much that has been taking up our minds and chi. I think of Toni Morrison, the brilliant Black American author who wrote, “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work." I think I've been distracted for too long. I agree with you -- let's no longer be distracted from our great work, creative, cultural, medicinal, innovative, indigenous healing work on behalf of the earth and all life, locally, in community, with each other. Love you always, Carolyn
Excellent and appreciated.
Thank you Deena for reminding us, in this time of deepening crisis and danger, that we need to return to ritual, to circles for sharing, listening and healing, to all the ways of remembering and recreating interconnection with Mother Earth and all her precious beings.
Beautiful as always! Organizing locally is how we create the future we desire. Turn our attention to that. The project of liberal democracy failed in 2008 and we are in the dregs of it, all the finger pointing and blame misses the bigger point, the war economy has failed. We have to build back a peace economy which is the indigenous economy humans have survived with for centuries. Imagine and co-cultivate the soil and the plant the seeds, let them grow, what have your learned, time to put it into action. The fight is over, don't let them use you anymore. For support there is the Local Peace Economy Workbook – Cultivating Home Sweet Home and Planting seeds of peace is available for free to all. (Deena pulled the name out of me in her writing workshop)
Peaceeconomy.org
Peace and Love
Jodie
What a stunning and lucid response from the I Ching. Thank you for your work on our behalf, and your deep wisdom in articulating our tasks. Love what you say at the end!
Thank you Deena for your dearly needed wisdom. I recall in one of your intensives years ago it was given to me to write, “Even though we are shattered, our imagination remains intact.”
Last night I dreamed
ten thousand grandmothers
from the twelve hundred corners of the earth
walked out into the gap
one breath deep
between the bullet and the flesh
between the bomb and the family.
They told me we cannot wait for governments.
There are no peacekeepers boarding planes.
There are no leaders who dare to say
every life is precious, so it will have to be us.
They said we will cup our hands around each heart.
We will sing the earth’s song, the song of water,
a song so beautiful that vengeance will turn to weeping,
the mourners will embrace, and grief replace
every impulse toward harm.
Ten thousand is not enough, they said,
so, we have sent this dream, like a flock of doves
into the sleep of the world. Wake up. Put on your shoes.
You who are reading this, I am bringing bandages
and a bag of scented guavas from my trees. I think
I remember the tune. Meet me at the corner.
Let’s go.
by Aurora Levins Morales