i stayed another night at this old house in parkland and got the chance to help out in the garden! there was rain almost all day yesterday, but today the sun is shining! we planted kale and beet starts that ruth had gotten at Fresh Fridays. i spread some chips on a path and helped with the compost/worm bin situation. i've gotten to pick tons of strawberries from the plants my brother lucas, ruth's son in law, brought from lopez island. it is nice to think he and i are connected by helping out in the same garden.
i want to help out like this wherever i go.
Monday, July 18, 2011
humanure
making use of our humanure to produce more food is one of the most sensible things i can think of. as i understand it is illegal to do anything other than use the wasteful water method of dealing with our waste in most places. there are other options. here is one example.
a good step in the right direction is the way that some cities are creating compost from the sewage solids mixed with other materials. santa fe and tacoma are two examples i am aware of.
also, check out this video if you like about a project in haiti.
a good step in the right direction is the way that some cities are creating compost from the sewage solids mixed with other materials. santa fe and tacoma are two examples i am aware of.
also, check out this video if you like about a project in haiti.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
we patch
no, i'm not referring to patching a bicycle tube. the name of this organization, WE PATCH, refers to the garden patch we work together to create. i came across one of their cards at 20/20 cycle in seattle and thought, "wow, this is a radical way to help people living in urban areas transition to a more self-sufficient lifestyle". this is just the kind of thing i am looking out for on this tour, and that i want to support. it gives me hope! as we create these kinds of relationships with our neighbors we can create alternatives to systems that keep us dependent and disempowered.
harmony in parkland
yesterday i got all packed up again after my week in seattle and bussed down to parkland, near tacoma. here i stayed at the home of relatives, where there is a wonderful little garden and many old trees next to this big, old house. we attended a performance called 'Harmony Explosion' before dinner held at the Pacific Lutheran University campus, where this camp had been held. it was some uplifting entertainment, and it got me feeling the importance of singing together as one of the ways to create more harmonious lives.
while walking in the neighborhood i was shown two vegetable gardens. one is at the church and the other at the university. both looked to be very active and abundant, producing food for the surrounding community. there is a free community dinner every month at this Trinity Lutheran church, in which awareness of food sources is being shared by providing some produce from the church garden and also trying to source other ingredients as locally as possible. there is also in this neighborhood a radical happening called Fresh Fridays. great idea to have these everywhere in addition to farmer's markets!
when we made dinner i rode back over to the church garden to pick a bunch of the HUGE kale that was growing in one of the raised beds i am told is fertilized with composted solid waste from the local sewage treatment facility! YAY! it was a wonderful dinner in which we also enjoyed locally produced raw milk and strawberries from the house's garden.
while walking in the neighborhood i was shown two vegetable gardens. one is at the church and the other at the university. both looked to be very active and abundant, producing food for the surrounding community. there is a free community dinner every month at this Trinity Lutheran church, in which awareness of food sources is being shared by providing some produce from the church garden and also trying to source other ingredients as locally as possible. there is also in this neighborhood a radical happening called Fresh Fridays. great idea to have these everywhere in addition to farmer's markets!
when we made dinner i rode back over to the church garden to pick a bunch of the HUGE kale that was growing in one of the raised beds i am told is fertilized with composted solid waste from the local sewage treatment facility! YAY! it was a wonderful dinner in which we also enjoyed locally produced raw milk and strawberries from the house's garden.
Monday, July 11, 2011
openning up to change
this video of a talk by John Francis was brought to my attention and i'd like you to see it too. i didn't know his story before. his experience relates to how i've been thinking about approaching this tour in the way he decided to focus on listening instead of on speaking.
i found this related quote from Kim Rosen in an interview published in the Sun magazine (Dec 2010):
'maybe the u.s.- and please forgive me the audacity of the sweeping generalization - doesn't want to be reminded of it's limitations, its kinship with all life. it doesn't want to look into poetry's truthful mirror. as a country the u.s. has been indentified with strong will. we've 'pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps." maybe poetry, real poetry, requires a healthy surrender of willfulness. maybe it demands a willingness to be changed, to be affected, to reveal our wounds without denial or muscling through.'
i found this related quote from Kim Rosen in an interview published in the Sun magazine (Dec 2010):
'maybe the u.s.- and please forgive me the audacity of the sweeping generalization - doesn't want to be reminded of it's limitations, its kinship with all life. it doesn't want to look into poetry's truthful mirror. as a country the u.s. has been indentified with strong will. we've 'pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps." maybe poetry, real poetry, requires a healthy surrender of willfulness. maybe it demands a willingness to be changed, to be affected, to reveal our wounds without denial or muscling through.'
Sunday, July 10, 2011
inspirational letter
Finisia Medrano is the author of Growing Up In Occupied America, which i read in the spring. the book has spoken so deeply to my heart's core that i have wanted to join her in this work of planting back and learning to walk in the beauty way. the hoop tour is a way of acting in solidarity with her.
this letter was written in 2008 and can be found here.
A letter from Finisia in jail...
to the Lemhi County Court
(This is an exact copy of what I gave to the court) I would like it to be known that the reasoning in my violations is a deliberate act of civil disobedience. This was to bring to light that I have been violating U.S. Government treaties of war by engaging in that indigenous life way that was disallowed to force the native onto reservations and to complete the genocide of that life way.
I find life in this civilized way unconscionable and immoral! I find myself without freedom of conscience in it. For twenty-five years I have been planting back the native food flowers of lomatium, cymopterus, bitterroot, yampa, lilies, and berries without permit on public lands. I have done so to complete my cycles and to give life to that which fed me. If I am always planting these flowers there is constantly more of these plants rather than less. This is my duty to God and to Earth. I have been doing this secretly, knowing that I am a violator of statute, code and treaty. I have come out of the closet, so to speak, in order to bring to the attention of all, the injustice of these laws that continue to enforce the genocide on this way of life. I do this only to follow my spiritual convictions, and to have any sense of conscience.
I further am of the opinion that there is criminality in civilization that is not unlawful. It is criminal what is done to the Big Lost River system in favor of farming industries, as is the damning of rivers and the results of salmon depletion, and destroying ozone in nuclear test. I've tried many times to assimilate into society but it would require a psychosis of denial to all of these realities. I find I would forfeit my soul and live a fabric of lies in order to enjoy myself in the destruction and extinctions and genocides required by civilization.
I would hope that the destructive results of the civilized world would result in some relinquishment of dominion and that those who destroy this way of life and continue to forbid it could find reason to begin to allow those of us who can to engage in a socio-environmental experiment to show once again how I and others can be effective in enlivening the natural world.
I have many friends who would like to participate in supporting this or being this thing I call human being. I believe all those who will not complete their circle and give life back to mother earth for all that she gives us, are not standing up to their obligation to creator, creation or even their own children. I am asking for your help to establish this way again. I am doing this as a way to blaze a trail to liberty in this way and to open the door to it so that those who would choose this can, without threats of incarceration that I now face for doing such things.
There is now only 2% of God's aboriginal planting left on earth. I reject that I should be criminal to live a migratory, planting back, walks in beauty way. This hoop in the west is the last place on earth where it is even possible to live in that symbiotic way. All over the earth this aboriginal planting has been done away with. The earth has been made to be like a girdled tree and here in my home in the west is the last small ribbon of bark. Even so, there isn't any slacking of exploitation of the last 2%. Here even now these plants and animals are being plowed and burned and ground to extinction and those who benefit from these thefts and murders are in denial in order to continue unabated. They are full of self-excuse and justification.
I am at a point in my life I would echo Patrick Henry, "Give my liberty or give me death."... if I cannot be allowed this life way that my people and my Mother earth cry out for. All of nature is in travail crying out to us to be this kind of people and begin to revisit this old way that provided what Americans called a "Garden of Eden"... to do the work of restoration and re-creation. If I cannot have this, my life is worthless to me and a forfeiture. To be permanently incarcerated in jail or mental institution or grave is better than what I now live. I care for nothing else and for any life outside of this old way. I have strived to not be against anything but it is a fact that to be for a life giving way over a culture of death put me in a perspective where I am an outsider and all is against me and what I am for.
You tell yourselves maybe that you love nature but live outside of it, and the road kill under your tires does not know anything of love from you.
To have hope, I do not say these things in a condemning tone, but to have hope I need to see this liberty to be this kind of person. I am sick at heart to have sneaked around like a criminal for 25 years doing this.
Jesus told you that you make evil good and this good thing evil. I hope that I have illuminated a path where any can see this is now so. Further, I hope in seeing this thing with me, you can help me to change our legacy and give our children an abundant natural world and a chance to see themselves as a beautiful life giving thing in it. I know they all most all can only see themselves now as a plague on earth.
I Hope. Here is my unreasonable delusion: I hope.
Joel, Chapter 2 - The Bible
I will show you a people unique in their ferocity, like a flame of fire, where before them is a Garden of Eden. Behind them a vast, toxic. desert wasteland.
Revelations, 11:18
God should and will destroy all those who destroy the earth.
A tree is known of it's fruit. A child of creator would even suffer pains of death to give life to creation. A child of the destroyer lives to enjoy and perform the destruction of it.
Finisia Medrano
this letter was written in 2008 and can be found here.
A letter from Finisia in jail...
to the Lemhi County Court
(This is an exact copy of what I gave to the court) I would like it to be known that the reasoning in my violations is a deliberate act of civil disobedience. This was to bring to light that I have been violating U.S. Government treaties of war by engaging in that indigenous life way that was disallowed to force the native onto reservations and to complete the genocide of that life way.
I find life in this civilized way unconscionable and immoral! I find myself without freedom of conscience in it. For twenty-five years I have been planting back the native food flowers of lomatium, cymopterus, bitterroot, yampa, lilies, and berries without permit on public lands. I have done so to complete my cycles and to give life to that which fed me. If I am always planting these flowers there is constantly more of these plants rather than less. This is my duty to God and to Earth. I have been doing this secretly, knowing that I am a violator of statute, code and treaty. I have come out of the closet, so to speak, in order to bring to the attention of all, the injustice of these laws that continue to enforce the genocide on this way of life. I do this only to follow my spiritual convictions, and to have any sense of conscience.
I further am of the opinion that there is criminality in civilization that is not unlawful. It is criminal what is done to the Big Lost River system in favor of farming industries, as is the damning of rivers and the results of salmon depletion, and destroying ozone in nuclear test. I've tried many times to assimilate into society but it would require a psychosis of denial to all of these realities. I find I would forfeit my soul and live a fabric of lies in order to enjoy myself in the destruction and extinctions and genocides required by civilization.
I would hope that the destructive results of the civilized world would result in some relinquishment of dominion and that those who destroy this way of life and continue to forbid it could find reason to begin to allow those of us who can to engage in a socio-environmental experiment to show once again how I and others can be effective in enlivening the natural world.
I have many friends who would like to participate in supporting this or being this thing I call human being. I believe all those who will not complete their circle and give life back to mother earth for all that she gives us, are not standing up to their obligation to creator, creation or even their own children. I am asking for your help to establish this way again. I am doing this as a way to blaze a trail to liberty in this way and to open the door to it so that those who would choose this can, without threats of incarceration that I now face for doing such things.
There is now only 2% of God's aboriginal planting left on earth. I reject that I should be criminal to live a migratory, planting back, walks in beauty way. This hoop in the west is the last place on earth where it is even possible to live in that symbiotic way. All over the earth this aboriginal planting has been done away with. The earth has been made to be like a girdled tree and here in my home in the west is the last small ribbon of bark. Even so, there isn't any slacking of exploitation of the last 2%. Here even now these plants and animals are being plowed and burned and ground to extinction and those who benefit from these thefts and murders are in denial in order to continue unabated. They are full of self-excuse and justification.
I am at a point in my life I would echo Patrick Henry, "Give my liberty or give me death."... if I cannot be allowed this life way that my people and my Mother earth cry out for. All of nature is in travail crying out to us to be this kind of people and begin to revisit this old way that provided what Americans called a "Garden of Eden"... to do the work of restoration and re-creation. If I cannot have this, my life is worthless to me and a forfeiture. To be permanently incarcerated in jail or mental institution or grave is better than what I now live. I care for nothing else and for any life outside of this old way. I have strived to not be against anything but it is a fact that to be for a life giving way over a culture of death put me in a perspective where I am an outsider and all is against me and what I am for.
You tell yourselves maybe that you love nature but live outside of it, and the road kill under your tires does not know anything of love from you.
To have hope, I do not say these things in a condemning tone, but to have hope I need to see this liberty to be this kind of person. I am sick at heart to have sneaked around like a criminal for 25 years doing this.
Jesus told you that you make evil good and this good thing evil. I hope that I have illuminated a path where any can see this is now so. Further, I hope in seeing this thing with me, you can help me to change our legacy and give our children an abundant natural world and a chance to see themselves as a beautiful life giving thing in it. I know they all most all can only see themselves now as a plague on earth.
I Hope. Here is my unreasonable delusion: I hope.
Joel, Chapter 2 - The Bible
I will show you a people unique in their ferocity, like a flame of fire, where before them is a Garden of Eden. Behind them a vast, toxic. desert wasteland.
Revelations, 11:18
God should and will destroy all those who destroy the earth.
A tree is known of it's fruit. A child of creator would even suffer pains of death to give life to creation. A child of the destroyer lives to enjoy and perform the destruction of it.
Finisia Medrano
camas in seattle
today i am taking a relaxing day in seattle at my folk's house, where i was born. this morning i read some articles in local papers about topics like bicycling, urban farming, and community building.
i read one short article in which it says that the landscape design of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Campus, by GGN, includes plantings of camas bulbs. in further research i found this article online that tells us: "Edible plants include 1,715 blueberry plants, 250 native evergreen huckleberries, 117 native thimbleberries, and over 10,000 native camas bulbs."
to me this is very exciting news! for such a high profile project to take this step in restoring native habitat and reducing their ecological footprint gives me hope.
for very detailed information about camas you can check out the information here. this paragraph stuck out to me:
Many of the traditional camas gathering sites, such as Weippe Prairie and Camas Prairie in Idaho and the Willamette Valley in Oregon, have been converted to agriculture. The average size of a camas patch needed to feed a five person family was 2.7 ha (Thoms 1989). Camas roots are hard to find now. Restoration of camas prairies and access to camas bulbs are priorities of many Indian people. At one time, “When camas was in bloom in wet meadows, the flowers grow so thickly that they look like a blue lake” (Murphey 1959).
i read one short article in which it says that the landscape design of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Campus, by GGN, includes plantings of camas bulbs. in further research i found this article online that tells us: "Edible plants include 1,715 blueberry plants, 250 native evergreen huckleberries, 117 native thimbleberries, and over 10,000 native camas bulbs."
to me this is very exciting news! for such a high profile project to take this step in restoring native habitat and reducing their ecological footprint gives me hope.
for very detailed information about camas you can check out the information here. this paragraph stuck out to me:
Many of the traditional camas gathering sites, such as Weippe Prairie and Camas Prairie in Idaho and the Willamette Valley in Oregon, have been converted to agriculture. The average size of a camas patch needed to feed a five person family was 2.7 ha (Thoms 1989). Camas roots are hard to find now. Restoration of camas prairies and access to camas bulbs are priorities of many Indian people. At one time, “When camas was in bloom in wet meadows, the flowers grow so thickly that they look like a blue lake” (Murphey 1959).
Saturday, July 9, 2011
the prophecy
this may resonate with you or it may not. this is what this trip is motivated by for me. i get emotional reading these words about how i must not underestimate my ability to make a positive difference, because it affirms my feeling, as i follow signs and my intuition, that i am a part of this great healing. we all are as we choose to proceed in this spirit. this excerpt was taken from this site.
The Elders revealed that there would be nine Signs before the 5th World emerges. This will be a world of peace and abundance—a New Earth.According to White Feather, a Hopi of the ancient Bear Clan, the prophecy goes like this:“The Fourth World shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. The elders everywhere know this. The Signs over many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.“This is the First Sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, our lost White Brother from the Stars. But these men will not live like Pahana, they will be men who take land that is not theirs, and men who strike their enemies with thunder—guns.“This is the Second Sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes—the white men bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.“This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns will overrun the land in large numbers. These White Feather saw with his eyes—the coming of the white men’s longhorn cattle.“This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron—the railroads.“This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be crisscrossed by a giant spider’s web—power lines and telephone lines.“This is the Sixth Sign: The land shall be crisscrossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the Sun—freeways with mirages caused by the Sun.“This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it—oil spills in the oceans.“This is the Eighth Sign: You will see many youth who wear their hair long like my people. They will come and join the tribal nations, to learn our ways and wisdom—the hippies in the 1960s and 1970s.“And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the Heavens, above the Earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue Star—the Blue Kachina Sun. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.”The Hopi prophecy goes on to say that the appearance of the Blue Kachina Star will initiate a time of great purification, a time during which the Earth will be purged and cleansed of negativity in preparation for her emergence into the 5th World—the 5th Dimension.
It is true that the Earth must be cleansed and purified in order for the New Earth to manifest in all of her infinite perfection, but the severity of that purging will depend on Humanity. If we reclaim our natural Birthright as stewards of the Earth and invoke the assistance of the Company of Heaven to help transmute and heal the atrocities we have inflicted on this blessed planet and its people, the cleansing will occur gently with a minimal loss of Life. If we choose to ignore the Signs and continue our mindless pursuit for material gain at the expense of the Earth, the purification will be harsher with a greater potential for loss of Life.
This information is being given to Humanity at this time not to instill fear but to inspire us to remember our purpose and reason for being. We are being called to a higher service on behalf of Mother Earth and all Life evolving upon her. We are powerful beyond our knowing. Each and every one of us has been preparing for aeons of time to be the Hands of God in the physical plane during this Cosmic Moment. Please do not underestimate your ability to make a positive difference. Trust yourself! Listen to your heart, and you will know how you can be the most powerful force of Light possible.
Respectfully Shared by
Redfoxsee
The Elders revealed that there would be nine Signs before the 5th World emerges. This will be a world of peace and abundance—a New Earth.According to White Feather, a Hopi of the ancient Bear Clan, the prophecy goes like this:“The Fourth World shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. The elders everywhere know this. The Signs over many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.“This is the First Sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, our lost White Brother from the Stars. But these men will not live like Pahana, they will be men who take land that is not theirs, and men who strike their enemies with thunder—guns.“This is the Second Sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes—the white men bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.“This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns will overrun the land in large numbers. These White Feather saw with his eyes—the coming of the white men’s longhorn cattle.“This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron—the railroads.“This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be crisscrossed by a giant spider’s web—power lines and telephone lines.“This is the Sixth Sign: The land shall be crisscrossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the Sun—freeways with mirages caused by the Sun.“This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it—oil spills in the oceans.“This is the Eighth Sign: You will see many youth who wear their hair long like my people. They will come and join the tribal nations, to learn our ways and wisdom—the hippies in the 1960s and 1970s.“And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the Heavens, above the Earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue Star—the Blue Kachina Sun. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.”The Hopi prophecy goes on to say that the appearance of the Blue Kachina Star will initiate a time of great purification, a time during which the Earth will be purged and cleansed of negativity in preparation for her emergence into the 5th World—the 5th Dimension.
It is true that the Earth must be cleansed and purified in order for the New Earth to manifest in all of her infinite perfection, but the severity of that purging will depend on Humanity. If we reclaim our natural Birthright as stewards of the Earth and invoke the assistance of the Company of Heaven to help transmute and heal the atrocities we have inflicted on this blessed planet and its people, the cleansing will occur gently with a minimal loss of Life. If we choose to ignore the Signs and continue our mindless pursuit for material gain at the expense of the Earth, the purification will be harsher with a greater potential for loss of Life.
This information is being given to Humanity at this time not to instill fear but to inspire us to remember our purpose and reason for being. We are being called to a higher service on behalf of Mother Earth and all Life evolving upon her. We are powerful beyond our knowing. Each and every one of us has been preparing for aeons of time to be the Hands of God in the physical plane during this Cosmic Moment. Please do not underestimate your ability to make a positive difference. Trust yourself! Listen to your heart, and you will know how you can be the most powerful force of Light possible.
Respectfully Shared by
Redfoxsee
Hopi & Tibetan Prophecy
today i left orcas island and arrived in seattle to do some final preparations before serving at a meditation course on July 20th. before leaving orcas i received the blessing of some important elders there. i felt compelled to give them gifts as a token of my respect for them. the woman who i saw today i gave an aloe vera plant and some dried nettle. to the others i brought dried seaweed, coconut chips, goat cheese, dried eucalyptus leaves, and a piece of my artwork. i was given arnica oil and valuable spiritual support.
the trip to seattle was fortuitous. i got a ride to the ferry from some sweet hippies from ohio. i gave them a pouch of dried coconut. on the ferry i found a ride with a woman now living in seattle, who's daughter knew my younger bro in high school! i gave her five bucks for gas, which she reluctantly accepted. people are so nice! i was thinking, "asking for help creates a world in which we help each other".
recently my attention has been brought to the hopi prophecy of the 'fifth hoop'. when i googled it i found this page.
"We will awaken our Spirits again. When that happens, things will be revealed of the old wisdoms. Things that have been forgotten for a long time are going to be brought back – art, music, song, dance, storytelling, spiritual wisdom, knowledge - and the wisdom of how to work with Mother Earth will all be restored..."
the trip to seattle was fortuitous. i got a ride to the ferry from some sweet hippies from ohio. i gave them a pouch of dried coconut. on the ferry i found a ride with a woman now living in seattle, who's daughter knew my younger bro in high school! i gave her five bucks for gas, which she reluctantly accepted. people are so nice! i was thinking, "asking for help creates a world in which we help each other".
recently my attention has been brought to the hopi prophecy of the 'fifth hoop'. when i googled it i found this page.
"We will awaken our Spirits again. When that happens, things will be revealed of the old wisdoms. Things that have been forgotten for a long time are going to be brought back – art, music, song, dance, storytelling, spiritual wisdom, knowledge - and the wisdom of how to work with Mother Earth will all be restored..."
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