New Beginnings - (and commentary about the Amazon Fires)
I Welcome you all! What a blessing you have arrived into this moment!
I had intended that our first post in our new blog would be more of an introduction - and then the Amazon being ablaze for weeks on end have taken over much of our attention, and I have had a beautiful outpouring of connection with others over their struggle with the current state of affairs of this world. I then realized what better way to introduce us to the global community than to share a raw, heartfelt, unity-driven post that I wrote for those seeking answers from me/this organization. So here you are. May this inspire much dialogue, and action to come.
A great many of you have privately contacted me this last week, asking for my take on the Amazon burning/global state of affairs, and I think more than anything, looking for some words of solace and comfort, or some idea of action. This is a stream of consciousness. Feel me as you read this.
Aside from being very busy with my eco-warrior-ing stuff, I admittedly was not sure what to say to most of you. I wasn't yet sure myself - hadn't yet wrapped my head around it all.But one thing always remained true. Even when I was laying here in fear feeling helpless and frozen... I trust. There is an innermost part of me that feels a balance still. Even though my brain does not, and everything I have been told that would utterly destroy the earth is coming true...I have to be reminded that that voice is ego talking. Not Spirit.
Ego tells me I know what is best for the Earth. It is even ego that tells me that I know better than mega corporations and governments that I perceive to be absolutely wreaking havoc on the Earth, and on humanity, and on all creation, in every possible aspect they can. I feel you. My head hurts with the noise I haven't yet taken the moment to meditate this into comprehensive thought. Because this will be harder to balance, and that challenge feels extremely difficult among all the other busy things I have been doing.
But in truth it is in that meditation that I am most capable of addressing any problem. You cannot truly deal with an issue in life until you have had time to reflect. Time to process, think, ask questions, experience, observe. And sometimes, those individual tasks take longer, or feel harder, than other times. This is one of those times, right? We are all feeling it. My stomach never feels full because it's in so many knots I'm just dumping food through my system. And somehow simultaneously I am constipated because the core of my being is frozen in fear.I HAVE to sit down and consider. When I wear this damage, it wears me. It makes me feel unable to act. And that is not my power talking, but my fear.The truth is, this time is about self-care.
If we take deep, long nurturing breaths...and let out long, negativity expelling sighs, our brain will be better able to calm, and comprehend, and get back to work. We will be more capable of expressing self care on an Earthly level when we are balanced from within the being we are as an individual. We need to focus. We need to organize. We need to lift each other up.
You want to be someone who makes a profound impact? You think it is incredible that people like me (and even more incredible self-sacrificing people) have gone out and delivered our passion unto the world to protect our mother?
We are not "types" of people. We are all one. What is capable in me is capable in you. It is all a matter of perspective and choice. You can choose to say "I can't" (and society will find all sorts of ways to nod it's head and agree with you, or bolster all the reasons you can't overcome something) for whatever logical reason you have.
But this isn't about logic. This is about truth. Truth is not about ego. "Mindlessness" comes from logic/Mindfulness unchecked, unweighted against the balance of Heartfulness. There is absolutely nothing black and white about existence. All things matter. All things. Even those who cause harm. There is purpose. I sometimes ponder the meaning of "reason" and how it might apply, but I know for certain there is purpose, as I see it unfold over and over again, and only in my states of ego do I declare something has no purpose, and then it goes on to defy me.
"Be the Miracle. Be the change you wish the see in the world" These get thrown around a lot as a cliche. It literally means TAKE ACTION.
If you are worried, if you are suffering, if you want better for your country, yourselves, your children - then you MUST ACT. It will be uncomfortable. It will not be convenient. It will lead you to suffer and it will grab you by the throat with your own fear. There is so little about what I have done that was done in bravery. Rather, I have had the courage to be afraid. To be in terror and to find a way to THRIVE ANYWAY! To wildly and passionately pursue what has felt true to my raw, natural self. And every time I have followed that instinct into the thick of destruction, I have prevailed and found the joy and purpose I might once have sworn could not be there. And so, I have learned to trust.
You feel you need some direction and you aren't wrong - we absolutely need to band together, and look to one another. We also need to look to ourselves. We need to ask ourselves what I will do to act? Who does it help? Who does it hurt? Is there a powerfully peaceful way to get it efficiently accomplished ? It it my ego that thinks it is wrong or is it against life, and joy, and then am I willing to fight my own fear and stand up to what takes joy and balance from others? Am I willing to give whatever it is I have to give this day, and am I willing to give more every chance I get?
I will keep my hand outstretched to you. I will keep responding when I can. But we need to build together and give EACH OTHER a voice. I dont need a group of people who bow to my way of thinking. I need people who THINK and challenge each other on our individual and collective ways of thinking. I need a tribe of people who are going to rise together doing the terrifying thing. The thing that feels true to our soul. The thing that fights back against actions that torture us and destroy our dignity. Life is absolutely not MEANT to be complacent, and yet we have all so mindlessly been corralled together and injected with multitudes of lies and poisons that keep us believing we are somehow weak.
But as a herd of elephants has fought back against poachers; as a mother of pups or kits will defend her babies against the predator; we must rise up and remember that our power and strength comes entirely from within us. We must challenge ourselves to face fear as a challenge - an opportunity to grow. To thrive. To survive. People don't fight with all they have when they don't genuinely feel that life is worth living. Remind yourself why it is. Look to your bonds with others. Those bonds that set a fire inside of you, and ignite new flames in worlds beneath your skin. There is something true and alive and absolutely profoundly incredible about all life - every single living thing. Just the mere fact that we exist at all is a fucking MIRACLE we so often take for granted.
The people responsible for all this pain and degradation; the people behind the mass murderings of LIFE on scales we don't even discuss as a mass murder, can only continue to do what they do because we continue to let them. Our power collectively is so much bigger than their perceived power. We HAVE to disagree with them in ways bigger than a facebook share. YES! It is GREAT that you are spreading the word. However all of us can see that our action has to be so much more profound than that. We have ideas that have been tested and can be implemented on a large scale NOW. We have seen it happen throughout the world. We can be that - those that invent, stand up, fight back, rewrite rules and more to shape our society. It is terrifying to think of people rising because we do not yet know our power. But we all want balance at our core. We all wear damage and we all need to rebalance that damage, or it comes out in destructive ways. It is in healing that we find our real power. We are Beings made of medicine, and if we share it with intent and purpose and love, it is good medicine. Recognize that man-made rules are not here for your protection. They tend to encourage us to share our damage.
Rise to meet Nature's Laws - rise to meet it with all your might. Get out of your mind. Your ego tells you you are human. And in that, we have learned to describe being human as someone who works for others to make them rich. It is so much worse than that. We work to make them Gods. We work to keep allowing ourselves to be blind. We work to always answer "I can't" when the true answer is 'I can".
BE the BEAST. BE the Homosapien. Be the Bear/Wolf/Eagle. BE the beast you literally ARE biologically. Trust that the rawest part of you knows that you SHOULD respond and it will tell you in the moment how to act. And you will be afraid. You might tell it "no". But you will never know how it can help until you start telling it "yes". Speak to your inner beast, and ask yourself - this is against my very being. What can I do right now? Sometimes the answer is to rest. And sometimes the answer is to fight or flee - to act without caution because your house is literally on fire! Severe, extreme action is required of you in this moment to survive it.
Your House Is On Fire. I will mention that I refer to Greta Thunberg as one of my Spirit Animals ❤️ A human listening to her core. To her natural self telling her something is very wrong and she must do something, anything that she is led to in the moment. She is simply being honest with herself.
I will meditate. It may be in the form of writing, dancing, sitting on a hillside....whatever it looks like for you, meditate with me. And then, have dialogue, and act.
Great Mystery - I am grateful. Thank you for this profound opportunity to rise. To grow. To hurt. To stand up and become, to genuinely BECOME the newest version of myself. I thank you that I can shape me, that I can shape every moment I exist within by making choices. Everything that I say becomes the things that I do. Everything I put out there is built within me. I THANK YOU. These tears of pain are so heavily mixed with tears of profound gratitude. Thank you for the night sky last evening. Thank you for the sun this morning. Thank you for this incredible group of human beings who so passionately want to do something that brings balance. Thank you for uniting us. Thank you for the choice to unify. Thank you for those who support me, and thank you for those whose voice will scream over mine and never hear a word I say. Thank you for the balance of life. Thank you, whatever You are, whatever energy that exists within all life. All creation. Thank you that I, that we, that this, is part of it. Thank you for this ache in my being towards wanting to keep that balance. I have such love inside and outside of me, above and below. Thank you.
Together, We Rise. If you want to rise with me and our effort specifically, please start reaching out with intent for action. The website's forum is now up and you can help shape it. It is a space that is meant for THESE conversations. The google of do-goodery. The hub - for those of us looking for a center to unite our passion and inspire/support action. To share what we know. I invite you to unify. We are specifically for all people - we who are seeking balance and truth but have been lied to about what balance and truth are - and are redefining it. Welcome to Zebra Remedies!
Some things that keep me inspired...
Music List - Artists: Flobots Serj Tankian Nahko / Medicine For The People Mike Love Rising Appalachia Trevor Hall A Tribe Called R.E.D.
And the particular songs I would like to share; Trevor Hall - Different Hunger, Dr. Seuss, Good Rain Nahko/Soja - I Believe Nahko - I Mua, Great Spirit, Warrior People, Build a Bridge, We Shall Overcome Flobots - There Is a War Going On for Your Mind, Stand Up Rising Applachia - Scale Down, Medicine
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