One thing I love about the present time is how SO many people are aware. So many people have awakened or are in the process of doing so. Those who have been doing this for decades are no longer feeling like lone voices in the wilderness of colonized post industrial dystopian society.
So much that got me labeled as crazy, ignored, mocked, shunned etc for most of my life has now become central to global intellectual discourse. People are coming together to learn, grow and actively solve the truly huge problems facing humanity and our beautiful planet.
I’m so grateful! It’s also a novel but wonderful feeling to be a part of the zeitgeist, thinking about and discussing the same range of issues and ideas.
I bet a lot of you are also feeling this sense of amazement and relief- “I’m not alone!”. We are all facing these big problems together.
I have long appreciated Charles Eisenstein’s perspective and writing. I think his essay today is particularly relevant to the theme of Spirit In Action.
I started this blog to share my perspective that spiritual growth and political activism are both necessary but not sufficient to solve the vast mess our species currently faces.
I hoped others would appreciate the idea. I also hoped I would meet people who share this perspective, which seemed somewhat unpopular with both groups(spiritual seekers and political activists), except for Starhawk, ReClaiming Covens, a lot of Native activists, and a scattering of others from various other groups.
I believe that when enough people act decisively on both sides (ie personal/internal spiritual work along with political activism, collective action) the seemingly intractable problems of our age will rapidly become solvable.
If you search for Charles Eisenstein on this blog there is a link to his book Sacred Economics free to read online, or download. A full internet search on him should provide a veritable feast of interesting stuff.
Blessings,
ohnwentsya
What is Action?It seems that a few people misread my catalog of the “jaded activist’s” dismissals of various tactics as my own personal disapproval of those tactics. That was not my intent. I especially value the tactics that disrupt the governing stories of our society, and unravel the narratives that underlie oppression and ecocide. The point I was trying to make is that for any “action” one proposes, there is always a reason why it won’t work, why it won’t be enough, why it is a drop in the bucket, why it won’t bring deep enough change… why it is all hopeless.
Personally, of all the tactics I enumerated, I tend to favor civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action the most highly, but even petitions and orderly, permitted protest marches can sometimes be useful. Just setting the record straight here: Charles is not telling everyone to sit at home “being the change.”
On the other hand, I also want to expand the scope of what we consider to be “action.” Conditioned by the ideology of instrumental utilitarianism, which values actions according to their calculable, measurable outcomes (and which is the essential mindset of the investor), we tend to value the big visible actions more than the private, invisible ones that actually take just as much courage, or even more. For every big-name climate activist out there, there are a hundred humble people holding society together with their compassion and service. I cannot emphasize this point enough. I refuse to accept a theory of change in which the humble grandmother taking care of a terminally ill little boy is doing something less important for our future than, say, Bill McKibben.
This is one of my core beliefs: that every act sends ripples out through the matrix of causality; that every act has cosmic significance.
Yet I am not offering these small acts as substitutes for political engagement. I believe that a well-rounded person will engage on many levels, and that when the moment comes, the courage cultivated on the intimate level will translate into the courage to step in front of the riot police. Both come from the same place.
According to our personal qualities and life circumstances, different kinds of action call to us at different times. I want to expand our understanding of what “action” is, to support people in trusting this call. Because our deep mythology valorizes certain kinds of actions, we are often left with the feeling that we are not taking significant action. Furthermore, even those who attempt the actions that are most strongly validated by our dominant theory of change often feel like they aren’t doing enough. Is the state of the environment better or worse than it was 40 years ago? Is transnational finance stronger or weaker? How about the military-industrial complex? The agrochemical industry? Many activists are coming to believe that more of the same is not enough; that we need to act from a different place — and that requires inner work and interpersonal work. i think many common tactics used by environmentalists and political progressives are actually counterproductive — not because they are insufficiently clever, but because they encode some of the same deep worldview from which ecocide and oppression arise as well. I won’t go there now though.
When someone focuses on one level of service to the exclusion of the rest for too long, the result will be a growing dissatisfaction and a desire to grow. One way that growth happens is through the broadening of the scope of one’s vision: for example, to learn about the web of economic and political relationships that is driving ecocide, or to become aware of oppression within one’s own organization, or to recognize one’s own self-delusion, sanctimoniousness, or violence. As we grow, the natural object of our care grows too, and there may be a shift in what calls to us. Someone unaware of climate change isn’t going to do anything to stop climate change.
I think the discomfort that some of the commenters have expressed with the idea of sitting in retreat (and believe me, their discomfort echoes my own) comes from two sources. One is the feeling I referred to above, that “I’m not doing enough.” I’m not doing enough and I can’t do enough and perhaps if I make myself uncomfortable enough about it, I can goad myself into greater efforts. The second is the natural discomfort that arises when the time to grow, to move, to expand is upon us. I suspect I am not the only one who is in the Space Between Stories, not the only one who feels the call to deeper and more effective service. Nor am I the only one who doesn’t have a clue what that looks like. The caution I am offering (to myself mostly) is not to temporarily alleviate that discomfort by reflexively adopting familiar or prescribed kinds of action, just so I can assure myself I’m doing something. Maybe something new wants to emerge. Maybe I need to stop all this traveling and speaking. Maybe that’s getting in the way of my next step. Maybe I need to get my hands in the soil more. Maybe I need to drop my knowledge for a while and learn something radically new, which will then integrate with my old knowledge in ways I cannot imagine.
“For some, racial inequality and fear are raw realities every day, and anything inspiring in American history rings false and remote. For others, the call to reflect on injustice feels like a personal accusation. But we are caught in this history together.” READ MORE »
In St. Paul, Minnesota, artist Seitu Jones wanted to start a community-wide conversation about food access and food justice—and where better to talk than over a good meal? READ MORE »
Until all areas of oppression, genocide and state sponsored terror against the disadvantaged are cleansed of this spiritual and moral cancer, we will not have peace or progress toward a just and prosperous future for all.
If you can do nothing else at least remember the forgotten people who are suffering invisibly from Palestine to Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, much of Africa and South America and the Pacific, in even the US and Canada the ongoing genocide of First Nations has yet to let up.
We can speak out. We can pray. We can boycott and divest from companies who profit from these miseries.
I disagree with this author on one point- I believe that boycott and divestment from Israeli corporations that profit from the occupation is also a valid choice that respects the Israeli companies and people who oppose the occupation instead of acting as though Israeli citizens and Jewish people are a monolithic entity like the Borg.
Imho it is racist to lump ALL of ANY ethnic group into such a monolithic nonsense.
People are individuals with hearts, minds and moral choice-how insulting to act as though Israeli citizens cannot choose to themselves divest from and boycott corporations that are endangering their lives by placing profits ahead of human rights and safety of everyone in the region!
ohnwentsya
Editor’s Note: We invited the Relgious Action Center of the Reform Movement and J Street, both of which have opposed the Presbyterian divestment, to respond to those who support the Presbyterian resoluiton. Neither agreed to do so. Tikkun has sought to be a safe space in which both sides could present their thinking. But it’s hard to get the two sides in the Jewish world to sit together and discuss the issues, since anyone who supports even the very limited form of divestment proposed by the Presbyterians is, as J Street’s Jeremy Ben Ami said recently, crossing “a red line” and hence, in the view of the Jewish establishment, automatically suspect of being anti-Semitic. We believe a public debate is a more healthy way to conduct this discussion, and so we are disappointed that neither J Street nor the Reform Movement accepted our invitation..–Rabbi Michael Lerner
Presbyterian Divestment – A Jewish Perspective
by Cantor Michael Davis, Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council
The first time I wore a kippa and talit outside of a synagogue setting was four year ago outside a hotel in downtown Chicago overlooking the Chicago river. I was singing with a group of my colleagues, local Reform cantors, to protest the mistreatment of hotel workers. I had the privilege of getting to know worker leaders, edit a national clergy report into worker conditions and organize my fellow clergy in Chicago. This was an exciting time – we took over the lobby of a Hyatt hotel with a flashmob, met with senior executives, collaborated with Christian clergy, traveled to other cities and on and on. Last summer, four years after their last contract expired, the Hyatt workers finally won a fair labor contract from management.
The lessons I learned from this successful worker justice campaign have relevance for me in thinking about how to end Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank.
The lasting lesson this experience taught me was that in any dispute between two parties of disparate power, the more powerful party will object to the involvement of third parties. In the case of the Hyatt labor dispute, management argued that this should be resolved between management and labor; the public should stay out of it. Israel, is by far, the more powerful side in the Israel-Palestine conflict: militarily, financially, politically. In Israel’s case, American Jews are told that only the Israelis have the right to an opinion on the Palestinians. After all, their future is at stake not ours. Americans, including Jews, have been accused of anti-Semitism or being fellow travelers of Jew-haters. We are told to stay out of it.
Yet our involvement in Israel-Palestine as Jews and as Americans is necessary and valuable. In the case of Hyatt, management was clearly disturbed by the public’s engagement with the issue. Hyatt Corporation’s most senior executives devoted many hours to meetings with clergy – particularly rabbis – who supported the workers. In the case of Israel, the international movement speaking up for Palestinian human rights is of great concern to Israel.
In Detroit, in a couple of days, the Presbyterian General Assembly will debate divesting from three companies that are complicit in Israel’s military occupation and colonization of the West Bank.
I, an Israeli national who served three years in the IDF, and who has served the Jewish cmmunity in Chicago for over 20 years, support the right of our Presbyterian friends to freely explore their conscience on divesting from American companies that benefit from Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank. I will be at the Presbyterian General Assembly arguing for divestment. I believe, along with a growing number of Jews and Israelis that BDS is the best non-violent option to stop the downward spiral to inevitable violence. For Jews – and for Christians – divestment is a principled position. As a supporter of BDS myself, I know how much effort the mainstream Jewish community is putting into shutting down this debate and excluding BDS supporters from the Jewish community. I would challenge those who are trying
to shut down the Presbyterian debate to show how the motives of those supporting divestment are anything less than honest. This is unworthy of us as Jews and particularly egregious when directed at our Christian neighbors.
First, we should note that under international and American law, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is illegal. Any business involved in the occupation is therefore illegal too. That alone should be enough to keep American companies away from the Occupation. The Israeli government argues that the occupation is necessary in order to keep Israel safe. How does building Jewish cities on stolen Palestinian land or the daily harassment and humiliation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians make Israelis more safe? All indications are that antagonizing Palestinians imperils Israeli lives.
But more importantly, for us as Americans and Jews, the argument itself is irrelevant. The law does not recognize Israel’s perceived self-interest as legitimate grounds for making another population suffer. Jewish tradition teaches the same lesson. On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, we read of the education of the Prophet Jonah. Jonah was commanded by God to prophesy to the city of Nineveh: let them repent their evil ways and be saved. But Jonah boards a boat to escape that mission. Rashi on the first verse of the Book of Jonah explains Jonah’s thinking: “the non-Jews will likely repent. If I prophesy to them, they will turn to God. And so, I will have shown Israel in a poor light since the Jews do not heed the words of the prophets”. Jonah was willing to let a non-Jewish city be destroyed, fearing what saving them might mean for the Jews. The ancient rabbis selected this reading for Yom Kippur to teach us that even when saving others in immediate danger now may imperil Jews later, we must choose to save our fellow human beings. If that is the reason for the Occupation, then Jewish tradition rejects that argument.
Let us also remember that the Presbyterian resolution does not call for divestment from the State of Israel, from Israeli companies, from individual Israelis or even from Jewish-owned companies. Rather the resolution calls for divestment from three American multinationals implicated in documented human rights abuses.
The Presbyterian General Assembly will consider divestment from three companies: Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola.
Caterpillar (CAT) sells heavy equipment used by the Israeli government in military and police actions to demolish Palestinian homes and agricultural lands. It also sells heavy equipment used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the construction of illegal Israeli settlements, roads solely used by illegal Israeli seIlers, and the construction of the Separation Wall extending across the 1967 “Green Line” into East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The number of outstanding demolition orders in East Jerusalem alone has been estimated at up to 20,000.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) provides biometric ID equipment to monitor only Palestinians at several checkpoints inside the West Bank. 2.4 million West Bank Palestinians are required to
submit to lengthy waits as well as the mandatory biometric scanning, while Israelis and other passport holders transit without scanning or comparable delays. The biometric ID is also used to regulate residency rights of non-Jews in Jerusalem. Since 1967, Israel has revoked more than 14,000 Jerusalem residency cards, with 4,557 being revoked in 2008 alone. HPQ sells hardware to the Israeli Navy that enables it to maintain the ongoing naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. This blockade has included interdicting humanitarian supplies and attacking Palestinian fishermen.
Motorola Solutions (MSI) Motorola Solutions provided an integrated communications system, known as “Mountain Rose,” to the Israeli government which uses it for military communications. It also provided ruggedized cell phones to the Israeli army utilized in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The company also sold wide-area surveillance systems for installation in the illegal Israeli settlements.
Plainly put, corporate revenue is built on the back of Palestinian suffering. And Jewish tradition is clear in its rejection of ill-gained profits.
Caterpillar profits from the destruction of Palestinian homes and the uprooting of Palestinian orchards by supplying the armor-plated and weaponized bulldozers that are used for such demolition work. Destroying homes is not a Jewish value.
Motorola Solutions profits from many aspects of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including developing perimeter surveillance systems installed around dozens of Jewish- only settlements in the West Bank, built on Palestinian land. Defending stolen property is not a Jewish value.
Hewlett-Packard provides ongoing support and maintenance to a biometric ID system installed in Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank which deprive Palestinians of the freedom of movement in their own land, allows the Israeli military occupation to grant or deny special privileges to the civilians under its control, and denies residency rights to a number of nonJews in Jerusalem by virtue of not being Jewish. Discrimination and segregation are not Jewish values.
Christians, like Jews, have a special interest in what happens in the Holy Land and a special responsibility to its peoples. The Presbyterian Church should be free debate the issues on their merits without fear of being branded as anti-Semites or any of the other harsh responses that have been circulating recently in the Jewish community. Friends allow friends to have their own opinion and to freely discuss their ethical choices.
Let us show our Christian neighbors the same respect that we expect and enjoy from them. Hillel said: Love your neighbor as yourself, this is the whole Torah.
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To Support Israelis Fighting The Occupation, Presbyterians Should Vote “YES” On Divestment by M.J. Rosenb erg
A number of people have written to ask if I support the motion before the Presbyterian Church to divest from three companies which produce machinery Israel uses to sustain the occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza.The companies are Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola.
Why those three companies?
Caterpillar manufactures the bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes to make way for settlements. Hewlett-Packard supplies Israel with the hardware to maintain the blockade of Gaza and the software to enable Israel to segregate and separate Palestinians at West Bank checkpoints. Motorola provides the surveillance equipment used to monitor Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank.
These three are to the occupation what Dow Chemical was to the U.S. war in Vietnam.
The Presbyterian Church, with some $9 billion in investment assets, is being asked to divest from all three companies,
Actually, I don’t understand why any religious group would invest in any of these companies in the first place. All three are members in good standing of the military industrial complex and have been involved in unsavory activities around the globe. But that argument is for another day.
Right now, the Presbyterian Church has the opportunity to say NO to the occupation in a tangible, concrete way. It has the opportunity to support Palestinians without harming Israelis. I can hardly imagine any progressive voting NO on this resolution, choosing big corporations over the people of both Palestine and Israel.
Don’t overlook the latter: the Israelis. There are hundreds of thousands, maybe a few million. good Israelis who are desperate for outside help to end the occupation. Due to the quirks of their political system, they are saddled with Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition of religious extremists and settlers. Time after time, they have looked to the United States for help and, time after time, the Netanyahu government and its lobby have blocked the Obama administration from providing any.
This resolution provides hope.
For the record, I oppose the Boycott, Divestment & Sanction of Israel in general because I believe that the BDS approach targets all Israelis, not just the government and certainly not just the occupation. The Presbyterian resolution targets only the occupation which is fair and right. If I thought it was anti-Israel in any way, I would not support it. But I believe that being pro-Israel requires opposing the occupation.
This resolution is pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian and, above all, pro-peace. It must be approved. Voting “NO” is a vote for the occupation.
Thank you for posting this! You must be doing some good in the world because when I try to share your posts on Facebook it goes haywire. 🙂 (I’m going to share this anyway!)
The Mi’kmaq Warriors, Germaine Jr Breau & Aaron Francis who have been held in custody since the day of the raid on Oct 17th, are now facing trial in Moncton courts. They are currently facing indictable charges for being true to their inherent responsibilities as L’nu people by protecting the lands and waters against corporate imperialists, SWN. We are unsure how much longer Aaron & Jr will have to sit in jail, having already served over 5 months without conviction. The financial burden of supporting imprisoned warriors has been carried solely by the family and loved ones and it’s time that changed. Again we are uncertain as to the outcomes of sentencing, but Jr & Aaron have plead to a number of charges. Support funds will be…
Healing Ceremony for Earth
A Free Equinox Ceremony
featuring Dr. Jean Logan, Masaru Emoto and Michelle Anderson
Saturday, March 22
Time: 11am Pacific / Noon Mountain / 1pm Central / 2pm Eastern / 6pm GMT
With Online Replay & MP3 Recording to share with friends
Your beautiful presence is invited to this free Online Healing Retreat in celebration of the Equinox. This is a Healing Ceremony for Earth and any thing you wish to correct or empower in your life. Bring a favorite pendant or two, pendulums or your favorite charms to empower! You can empower more than one during this ceremony.
Dr. Jean Logan, of Sacred Symbols of Light Healing Glyphs, leads us in a special pendant ceremony that, together, we’ll empower with a Decree and Invocation, so that with each beat of our hearts, this inovocation continues to pulsate into our surroundings.
Also featured in this retreat, is Dr. Masaru Emoto who discusses his legendary work on how water is affected by our thoughts, words and all vibration. “Water is God,”says Emoto. Dr. Emoto is an internationally renowned researcher who has gained worldwide acclaim by showing how water is deeply connected to our individual and collective consciousness. His message is simple, profound, and far-reaching. His photographs can be seen in Messages from Water Vols. I, II, and III and The Hidden Messages in Water The True Power of Water, and The Secret Life of Water.
Lightworker Michelle Anderson also shares from Laguna Lemuria on the Sacred Ceremony she experienced with Dr. Masaru Emoto and how you can hold similar ceremonies in your area.
This event is the launch of our next Series of Healing Conversations, which are free online shows with Spiritual Teachers, Healers and New-Paradigm thinkers who share their knowledge on Consciousness, Ascension, Healing, DNA Activation, Quantum Physics, Ascended Masters, Angelic Beings and all things metaphysical. You’re registration today will also include this free series of Healing Conversations that will expand your consciouness, open your heart and allow Your True Light to shine forth into our world!
In case you missed it, here is my latest article. You can also share it or read it online here:
Have you wondered what is behind the oppression of our feminine side?
It’s easy to fall into the victim/aggressor cycle when we think about the oppression of our feminine side. Not only the suppression of our own, personal feminine traits, whether we are men or women, but the physical and often brutal oppression of women and feminine men around the world.
It’s easy to fall into rage, anger, frustration, fear and hopelessness when we open our eyes and look around to what is happening all around us. How we tell our boys to “be men”, and not cry, run, laugh, play “like a girl”. How we program our girls to be passive, helpless, submissive, beautiful, and compete for the attention of men (which until recently, and in many countries still, is vital to their physical survival and the survival of their children).
The oppression of women did not come about coincidentally, or through the survival of the fittest. It is a program that has been brutally imposed by all of us, on all of us, for thousands of years now. And it’s coming to an end.
If you are familiar with my work, you will know that I will tell you “you are an eternal divine being, powerful beyond measure, the Creator of this reality”. Know that this is true. At this time, we are, some of us are, on a bridge between a reality where the suppression of women was necessary to keep a certain light/dark paradigm alive, and a reality where that paradigm, the old paradigm, is no longer in existence. All we need to do, is become conscious of various key aspects, or anchors, that keep the old paradigm real, and decide to dissolve them.
By becoming conscious of where we hold those anchors in our own energy fields, our own minds, our own bodies, our own belief systems, we become the pioneers, the path-makers, for the collective dissolution of one of the most insidious and enslaving programs known to man.
We can recognize these programs, which are usually related to our beliefs about men or women and in particular sex, when we feel, think or sense an emotion, thought or feeling that is “not allowed”. Something we automatically suppress. Something we have been taught is evil, bad, naughty, not allowed. Something which, at the same time, has been placed in our bodies of energy by exposure, design, or purpose. It keeps us from expressing our full power, because we become afraid that this particular thing will surface when we are powerful and cannot be stopped.
But here’s the thing: humans are one of the few animals on the planet that do not react from programs alone. We are one of the few species that can want, think, feel, desire, and be programmed to do something in reaction to an external stimuli, but CAN CHOOSE to do something else instead.
And when we allow ourselves to feel, think, sense, desire, or fear, whatever it is, but not react to it, and instead simply OBSERVE that energy in ourselves, the program DISSOLVES.
I invite you to observe yourself in the mirror, and imagine, believe and know, that you are the opposite sex to which your physical body is presently in, for at least 10 minutes every day for a week. I also invite you to observe someone close to you, whether a spouse, work mate, family member, or friend, and for at least ten minutes KNOW they are the opposite sex to what their body is. You may need to start with a couple of seconds to begin with, and build it up to ten minutes in both instances.
Another exercise is to read the next sentence and watch your reaction to it: “Inelia Benz is a powerful, highly influential, and fearless woman”. What do you feel? Think? Sense?
What about these combination of words: “powerful woman”, “highly influential woman”, “fearless woman”.
Now read the following and watch the difference (if any) “The Dalai Lama is a powerful, highly influential and fearless man”. Any differences?
Now the word combinations: “powerful man”, “highly influential man”, “fearless man”.
Interesting huh?
As you do these exercises, watch and observe your reactions, whether emotional, mental, egoic, physical, or energetic. Keep a journal and be amazed.
When we move out of the programming, we can take action at a social level. The oppression of our feminine side results in more than the subjugation of women, it is also in part the reason why the majority of human beings accept war, abuse of animals and lack of empathy toward living beings and the planet as a whole by men and women alike.
When one awake individual (YOU) dissolves his or her programs of oppression, she or he creates an energetic map, a resonance, that starts activating the feminine side of hundreds of other individuals. And when we act at a social level in the redefinition and treatment of women, animals, and other brutalized beings, we do it from a place of fearlessness and impeccable integrity which is undefeatable. We no longer “save” them, or add to their victimhood by feeling they are victims. Yet we literally stop what is happening because it does not fit into our chosen reality. How we do this? It’s up to us! We rally and organize with others, and use the social and personal tools at our disposal. But FIRST we liberate our own selves, our own bodies, energy field, minds and emotional bodies of those enslaving programs.
Let’s put our egoic survival instincts on hold for the next few months, and lets dare to act in breaking this link in the chain of enslavement. Let’s let our feminine side out of her cage! What do you say? Are you game?
I received this in email from Tikkun and thought some of you might also find it useful.
I have a page here on spirit in action about ESRA as well but it has not been updated in a while.
The astrology seems to be saying this month is the start of a sea change in awareness and perspective-a time when the people say no more to the abusers and begin to work in Unity for a better world for all.
I hope so!
ohnwentsya
We at the Network of Spiritual Progressives have been working to spread information about the dangerous environmental impact of the Keystone/XL plan to build a pipeline to send oil from Canada down to refineries on the Gulf Coast of the southern United States. Environmentalists have raised powerful objections, but the Obama administration lately showed signs of being willing to give permission for this project. And the Keystone advocates in Congress promise that this will provide new jobs at a time when unemployment remains a major problem for the U.S. economy. Please watch this short and hilariously accurate video, and then take action to stop Keystone.
This is amazing! Thank you for taking the time to organize and share this information. Many settler people mean well but have no idea of the things you explain here.
To my readers-please click thru, read and share this.
Especially those of you who have an interest in Native American spirituality and religions. I know everyone is different but I was raised that the issues discussed in this article are fundamentally important to our spiritual reality.
Because I was taught that spirituality is not some separate fantasy but integral to each moment of our lives.
If you cannot respect others, all living beings and the Mother Earth and ACT on that every day then you are fooling yourself and living in the fake world.
To those who seek the path to spiritual growth thru Native spirituality this is imho a much more clear and true explanation of how to get there than any list of “totem animals”, or store full of feathers and soapstone pipes.
I believe we can all decolonize no matter where our ancestors lived. We need to develop respect, solidarity and support for one another as we all recover from the destruction of our peoples thru colonization.
If we cannot work together to build a new world rooted in ancestral wisdom and inter-relationship with nature then it is quite likely that the indigenous groups now on the front lines suffering and struggling against tar sands, fracking, mining and other resource extraction activities will be the proverbial canaries in the coal mine.
Every single time we speak publicly, or put ourselves out there we are always asked by other Indigenous Nations, settlers, and settlers of color: what can we do. We then go on to outline all the ways those who want to be potential allies can help us out in a tangible way, in a targeted way, and in a general way. Everyone takes notes, asks more questions, and seems really earnest. Then inevitably soon after something happens that we need to utilize these tools and reach out to our settler allies, guess what happens?! Not much. More understandably our indigenous friends and relatives who are resisting the forces of industrial occupation cannot usually leave their fight to join ours unless the situation is very dire. Yet settlers also seem to have problems with moving beyond the round dance rhetoric of the protest industry and…
Thank you Laura! I appreciate seeing not only your experiences but also the various needs and steps to meeting them laid out so clearly.
I have been involved with similar things, including Transition, but a huge challenge-how to participate in and contribute to these community activities when I am unable to physically get to my community?
I know how to grow food, I know how to do lots of things-and even came up with ideas and helped get many things started over the years but every time, after the start, I myself did not get to participate or interact with most of them.
Unlike most disabled people I’ve met I am not the chatty Cathy, the “cheerful cripple” that everyone knows.
Even after decades of activism and involvement in my local community very few people even know who I am and exactly none of them interact with or visit me.
I’m not a jerk-I’m just an Asperger so-no matter how good my intentions I seem to be either invisible, off putting or just not easy for most to relate to or connect with.
For a long time I thought it’s just me so it really doesn’t matter,but I’ve started to notice that the population of both physically and mentally/emotionally disabled people and those who are not disabled but simply very introverted is not exactly small.
So despite my interest, involvement and promotion of the many good ideas listed in your post and others-if the free fish is cancelled I am extremely likely to starve.
I used to think well that’s Darwin for ya-time to become fertilizer for more functional creatures!
But now that I see the situation is more common and not just a personal failing I can’t recommend that as a standard solution:-)
I know that in traditional cultures people like me are not forgotten or left behind but are integrated usually thru family connections into the larger community.
But here in St Petersburg the number of homeless mentally ill and otherwise disabled folks without family to help them is staggering.
If we truly cannot expect to rely on government ( tho I still hold hope for clearing corruption and returning government to being the structure of community it was meant to be in a democracy) then we have to find ways for people like me to be part of it.
I’ve wracked my brains and used all sorts of tools to try and resolve this aspect for myself over the last 20 years without significant success. I hope that there is a more compassionate solution than eugenics by default and I just can’t see it for whatever reason.
I’m not concerned for me because for me death is just a door not a fear but I feel that even if that were true of everyone like me abandoning the misfit toys won’t be very healthy for the rest of Santa’s elves either.
please excuse if this is not worded well everyone but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and this wonderful post of good stuff that is happening, problems that are being solved made me want to bring this one out for a chance at many hands making light work.
But I’m rotten ill and on the phone I can’t read over what I wrote to determine if it is Asperger-irritating-neurotypicals-speak or not ( sometimes I can’t tell even when I can read it over but I try!:-/
Spirit In Action 