A Year’s Worth of Trash – Trash Museum

This man, Dave Chameides, collected all of his trash for a year in his very tiny basement. And lo and behold, it is now part of a museum collection. He worked very hard to minimize his personal waste. And it’s impressive and a bit sobering to realize that I’m not going to be creating that little amount of waste.

It also seems that Dave must not have cats. For cat litter is my biggest amount of waste that my household produces. And I tried using kitty litter years ago that was rabbit pellets but my cats just ended up peeing on the furniture in rebellion. Turned out that the pellets hurt their paws. So, at least I tried.

I salute Dave and his educational attempts here. We do have a long ways to go, still.

 

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/a-years-worth-of-trash-at-the-museum-of-trash.html

Snake Medicine

A friend from Facebook sent me this question yesterday and I thought I’d post it here and then respond. Plus then invite June Brown to respond, if she has a moment…  It’s fun to talk about these creature teachers and what they are trying to convey to us. ;~)

 

Hi Mare!

I wanted to share with you something that dawned on me today after an unfortunate mishap. I was cleaning up leaves for my neighbor with my lawn tractor (don’t worry, we composted them on her flowerbeds ) when I discovered a little garter snake. I think I might have run over him, although he was not cut or squashed, he was so still and I thought I might have killed him. It was very warm today and he should have shown some signs of movement but didn’t. Anyway, I put him in a rotted and hollowed out tree stump in the hope that if he was alive, he’d be safe and snug or if he was dead, he’d be properly “buried”. Of course I said I was sorry to him if I hurt him or killed him, etc. I’m not fond of snakes but understand their vital link in the web of life and I respect and honor them.

Then it dawned on me how many snakes I’ve had to “rescue” this late summer and fall. Most were garter snakes and I’d pick them up with a stick and move them under a tree or bush or off the road so they wouldn’t be hurt or killed. I’ve rescued 3, unusual for me b/c I usually don’t see them and/or I leave them alone. I know they are more active during the warm fall days, seeking a warm place to hibernate.

I’ve also 2 “dead” snakes this season too. One was the most beautiful green with dark blue spots, the most beautiful snake I’ve ever seen in my life. He was so iridescent in the sun and about the size of a garter snake. No idea what kind of snake he was. The other dead one was this one today.

So I read up on snake medicine in Ted Andrews’ Animal Speak but there was not a lot of information on specific snakes. It talked about our “tough side” like the snake’s scales and the need to be gentle as well. I know the snake is sacred in so many cultures and I feel like this was something I should be paying attention to. Do you have any insights to snake medicine or is the subject to broad based on what little info I’ve given you?

Hope you had a wonderful day, this warm November day, and could do something fun or at least be outside to enjoy it!

Hugs,

L. M.

Dances with Destiny – film

“Each of us is put here in this time and this place to decide the future of humankind. Did you think you were put here for something else?”

-   Chief Arvol Looking Horse

There is a documentary film that is due to come out — (not sure the date) that looks to be quite educational and provoking. I was poking around on the web this morning and discovered it. It speaks to the Earth Changes, 2012, native wisdom, and our responsibility being born as we are today and being conscious adults. It speaks to the truth that the choice is ours — what we support and how we love and how much we are working for earth health and human health.

http://www.dancewithdestinydocumentary.com/

About Choosing Hope

A friend sent me this link to a video clip. It is rather startling and yet real. And it points us toward the choices we can make and need to make to learn to reconnect with the Earth and Wisdom. Powerful. Enjoy.

Hope (Visions of Whitefeather)

 

And here is Willy Whitefeather talking about the short film.

Hair – “Do” poem by mare

well, i’m on a bit of a jag about boobs this morning with the previous post with some of Maya Angelou’s wonderfully fun wisdom and comments on aging and sagging boobs. so I thought i’d post a poem I wrote in 1996, when my boobs were not sagging so much and I would have ventured to go braless more so than now, for sure. ;~)

 

Hair – “Do”

Never ever wear the same bra

the next day

after a haircut, for you never know

when a sliver of hair may have

snuck into a crevice of that harness,

to irritate and irritate in the most public

of itches,

and you are dying with an urge

so unconscious to scratch those mammaries,

or better yet, unwield your chest from

the fetters of customary holds, and let

freedom fall in its own way, while you

contemplate moving ever so slowly so as

not to become the superball of chests, or just

outright dance and leap down the street – letting all

know that you are woman and,

perhaps

they might even admire your new “do.”

 

1996

baltimore

mare

Maya Angelou on Growing Older (and Sagging Boobs)

A sister friend sent this to me this morning. And it is a rainy Friday here in Baltimore and I wonder how well I’m dealing with the rain and gray mustiness that has set into my brain. And what would Maya Angelou think of me if she met met this morning since my  mood is rather crappy and I’m feeling challenged on many fronts. Missed phone meeting this morning, dealing with potential hosts in New Zealand and their shifting moods on when I can stay with them when I first arrive there next week. Yes, I fly to New Zealand next week on 11/19 for a three week trip! But the travel logistics are determined to keep on shifting with the sands of whim, it feels. Sigh.

And then there are my breasts, which are not so small. And they are determined to join the race of Maya’s boobs. Not sure if I’d want to compete with hers but mine seem to be determined to have their own plunge at the slow pace that gravity tugs at them. At least they are not at the velocity of a bungee jump. thank god. That would scare me to wake up one morning and discover they tried to plummet to the bellybutton zone overnight. ;~) And no, even though Bungee Jumping was something created by the Kiwi’s in New Zealand, neither myself or my boobs will be doing any jumping on that scale. I like terra firma, thank you very much. ;~)

Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 70+ birthday.. Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older.
And, there on television, she said it was ‘exciting…

‘
Regarding body changes, she said there were many, occurring every day…..like her breasts. They seem to be in a race to see which will reach her waist, first.

The audience laughed so hard they cried. She is such a simple and honest woman, with so much wisdom in her words!

Maya Angelou said this:
’I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.’

’

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.’

‘I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.’

‘I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life.’ ’

‘I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.’

‘I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back….’

‘I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.’

‘I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.’

‘I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.’

‘I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.’

‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’

—–

thank you, Maya… for your brilliance and humor and being the gift whom you are to all of us.

 

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf on Compassion – TED Talk

I need to write this morning about a fascinating website of talks from foremost thinkers from around the world. This is in light of some spiritual struggles that I’m having personally with my ego and strong will and working in group process. I’m really horrible at group process and it is scary to me how large my ego is at times and my will to be right and be the final decision-maker and all those godawful parts of my shadow that keep me from being in my heart when it comes to certain aspects of my life.

A friend of mine, David Eisenberg, of DCAT [www.dcat.org] just introduced me to this website of great thinkers and doers, at www.ted.com. And last Sunday he was visiting with me and we watched together one of the talks on compassion (Robert Thurman who has studied Buddhism for years) that this group has put together (among hundreds of other talks). So this morning, I revisited the website and sought out more talks on compassion from other religious/spiritual teachers. And I discovered this talk from an Imam. He is an eloquent, very humble man with a beautiful calming presence who has clearly done much spiritual work.

It seems what he says at the end of his talk about our egos, including national ego’s, is so much at the heart of so much of the conflict in the world these days. And as I work on calming, rather shrinking my big ego, it really is a journey for national leaders and consciousnesses too. Sigh. very big work. very big work.

So, I thought I would share this and all who read this might be able to find the time to watch it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/imam_feisal_abdul_rauf.html

Indeed, we talk about peace. And there are so many peace groups. But how many of these members of all of these groups really know how to cultivate peace within. For there is where it starts. In one person at a time. In all of us hopefully over time, if we choose it.

Healthy Social Life – quote – Rudolf Steiner

The healthy social life is found when, in the mirror of each human soul, the whole community finds its reflection and when, in the community, the strength of each individual is living. – Rudolf Steiner

hmmm… this quote hits home to me… I am learning with my community, those of us who study closely with the same Cherokee teacher, that when we come from a place of appreciating each other and our differences instead of judging each other, then we can really work well together to dovetail our strengths and passions — to truly ‘live’ in a beautiful way. ‘Walk in Beauty’ – that is how some native american tribes called it… “The Beauty Path” – this really speaks to me.

Oh Moth – poem by mare

In the winter of 94-95, I lived at a very remote, off-the grid center for agroforestry in Belize. I was there to slow down, to stop being a workaholic, and try to figure out the rest of my life. (I also signed up to help with fundraising for the center, but that never panned out.) Just months before, I had quit a job running an international environmental network out of Ann Arbor, MI. And I was extremely confused and wounded and Belize called to me. So I went. I lived for most of three months there with others in a large thatched roof, open air lodge with no glass windows, screens or walls, practically, and bunkbeds on the 2nd floor. Once the day was over, candles or flashlights were how one read at night. And to not use up my batteries in the flashlight, candles were the best option. This being the tropics, all sorts of fantastic night flying insects flitted around and occasionally a moth came too close to the flame. Hence this poem… from 1995.

 

 

Oh Moth

 

Oh moth – you have waxed your wings

one last time in the candle I lit for

reading

But now I read

your pain

instead

 

Is this the cost

of my savoring a few more pages of tale

and you

no more flit

you sacrifice wing and flight

and life

 

What other deaths,

what other loss

to create that candle, that wick,

the flame

is this nothing

must there always be this cost and I

TAKE

 

Would it be better

for the costs of light to be

unknown distant

irradiated fish miles from

my lamp

poisoned mountains of coal tailings

so far that no one

watches seedlings struggle

and fail to take root

people and plants

fingerlings fried before ever being lifted

from a stream bed

 

massive river obstructions -

dammed

salmon crying in

frustration

as they try to leap,

to taste their home,

and spend a final spawn

in peace

 

should we not call it

the grid of unconscious,

a constricting net of electrical lines,

choking the biodiverse

to homogenize

the land

 

will we wake to life of living

web of connections and tugs at my heart

strings in this moment of you, oh moth, your death

in my light

 

I choose to close

my book for the toll

taken

 

Jan, 1995 (rev 11/09)

belize

mare cromwell

 

Animal Spirit Guidance, Lizard

Animal Spirit Guidance
By
June K. Brown

Lizard

“Oh Wow!” This was my husband, Bill. “June, look at your shirt. A lizard just jumped on.”

I glanced down and sure enough, a baby lizard was hanging on the bottom of my shirt. “Eeeee!” I kind of jumped and then shook my shirt to make the reptilian hitchhiker get off of me.

“Boy… Some animal chick, you are! It’s just a lizard.”

With my heart racing a little, I said, “She just caught me off guard. This is the third time I’ve had a lizard jump on me today. You know what that means?” My husband shook his head, knowing that I was going to tell him whether he liked it or not. “It means that we can control our dreams.”

“You know I don’t remember my dreams.” My husband always says that. He dreams all night and then wakes up without any memory of it.

I rolled my eyes a little and said, “It doesn’t have to mean the ‘dream state’. It can also mean our dreams… as in goals. You know, like how you want to carve Tiki’s for a living and stop having to build cabinets for people? The lizard is saying that you can do that. That you have control of your dreams.”

“Yeah, but what about money and taking care of family and putting food on the table?”

This is the biggest concern for most parents. We feel bound to a life of misery. We feel like we have to do the stuff we hate, all the time, in order to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. Our kids need clothes on their backs and school supplies. If we have to take on work that makes miserable, so be it.

It really doesn’t have to be that way, though. Sure, maybe at first we get menial jobs to bring in the money. But, you can still work toward your dreams.

My sister works two jobs. One of them is at night, part-time. She doesn’t like it, but she has to pay her bills and take care of her three kids. She has always wanted to go back to college to get her Master’s Degree, but something always got in her way.

First, it was that her kids were too young and she needed to be a stay-at-home mom. Next, it was that she needed to get a job because the kids were all finally in school. Then, she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. She was lucky enough to have a job where she could work from home on her chemo treatment days. She was given the all clear after a year of surgeries and treatment, but then the economy started it’s downward slope. Her husband’s work dwindled and she found herself looking for a second job. With one kid in college, one in high school and one in junior high, money is tight.

What did she do? Just this past October, she started an on-line college course! She dropped her hours at her second job from 18 to 10 per week. She hasn’t stopped doing what needs to be done for her family to survive but is still moving toward fulfilling her dream / goal.

My husband has started making his Tiki’s, preparing for the holiday market sales. He’s still building cabinets for people so that we can eat and has taken on some sub-contract work with another cabinet shop for a steady paycheck, and yet, he’s still working toward his dream / goal.

I am still writing, even though I have a plant nursery to deal with and four kids to take care of. My dream is to publish a novel, a children’s book and a book on Animal Spirit Guidance. As time goes on, I find that I’m carving out odd times to write. Now I get up an hour early every day to fulfill my writing goals. I eat lunch while pounding the keys. If my husband is working late, I head to my computer and start writing.

This isn’t easy. Your dreams are in your hands and, yes, you can control them. You can make them happen. Your future depends on you.

What’s your dream? Have you taken a half step forward? Ten steps? If you are struggling with this, meditate on lizard. See your dreams in your minds eye. Now see them coming into play. Don’t force it, just look. Where will you be when you achieve your dream? Now… go for it!

Moonmother