a story of thoughts

a small thought of being
'better than'

a seed of disconnection

an innocent perception of being
'better than'

denies one's self - and the other -
of their own unique existance
through comparison

what of co-existing, of one's
distinctness within
all of creation?

not realizing that we can only be
who we are and therefor

can there be comparison? or
only 'difference' and to
accept an inevitable plurality.

...
everything makes sense from everything
...

to transcend duality and dichotomy
which blend diversity into
assimilation

to be one's self is to shine
to reveal a piece of clarity from
deep within

words buoyant from within
one's being
to emerge as light as
one speaks one's truth

to be one's self is the
distinct power of co-being
co-creating
existing
...
'better than'
an obsolete concept when
we become sensitive to the
ways that

I am the only me
and you -
you are the only you

now let's get on with
being

Alive

Nobody is wrong
- ever -
as long as we speak from where we are

though

there are ways in which we conduct ourselves
that disregard the natural laws that

we are a part

acceptance

We need to accept all that has happened
all that has come before

not that anything has been just, right, or OK

but that what has been has been
the past has happened

in this way
we may live more fully in the present
able to decide how best to conduct ourselves.

100 years from now

a hundred years from today
our children
and their children
will acknowledge the work we've taken part of
together.

together
we've been acknowledging our hurt
each of us, in our own way
about the indian residential schools
and the legacy

each in our own way
we accept that what has happened, happened.
in this way
we can live now.

now,
with gratitude having sat in that large circle
I walk taller having left shame and guilt
I walk with love for myself
and I'm willing to continue my work and play
as I belong.


http://returningtospirit.org/

meet the people

Meet the people our state arrested, prosecuted, and now has charged, for....



FuLL Screen Here

L'hedli T'enneh

Snow arrived yesterday.
Today is the first day below -10c .
And I wondered how cold was it
100 years ago?
as those people moved those people
as those in Fort George
moved the L'hedli T'enneh
- people of the confluence -
upstream of the confluence
to a place we now call shelly

I was struck by the memory of
winter, cold ears, as I stood greeting
the sun, standing with trees that
were witness to
the memories I don't have,
knowledge I do

birds flying through still branches
heavy with snow and sunlight
...
The coming coldness
fallen snow, 100 years ago
putting gardens to sleep
smoking meat, pushed from
the name sake, 'people of
the confluence' relocated
up stream to inhabit either
side of the fraser, a new name
sake of a man who 'found' a
watershed home of 13 languages
and peoples who've lived here
for more than 10 000 years
and would have probably had
rich conversation with jesus,
had he been a sailor not a carpenter

100 years ago
the snow fell, and temperatures dropped
and those people moved those other
people to a new place, despite
their namesake, l'hedli t'enneh
and I type this in a prince george
house that I rent on the very place
where people have lived, in good
ways, far longer than the calendar
of jesus christ.
Nov.18 2011

Dogwood initiatives strikes Enbridge

Click HERE
for the full copy version of a memorandum of Enbridge's assesment of spill response, decision making and the whole deal. This is the actual legal document, so if you want an inside into the work done by the people standing up to all this, eat your heart out!

Active Acceptance
(what kind of choices can I make if I don't know)

to accept
is to be in this world as it is
a collective turning over, an ever becoming.
the results of so many phenomena.
by accepting that things are
we become able to approproriately live
in ways that best affect change
a change that is the ever constant, ever emerging,
collective turning that we may call 'now'

To not accept is to render oneself to mere
chance and wonderment.
to not make sense of this place with inquisitiveness,
to not be informed, is to be ineffective in
realizing dreams

as we accept what is, we become more able
to be alive, to guide and change the ever changing

now

to place a finger and pluck a string
is not necessarily rationalizing music and
the ways sound can bring me alive.
learning an instrument is just this,
to take part in the birth of

now

The Warriors Who Turned to Peace by John Mohawk - Haudenosaunee Law of Peace

We're trying to make peace between peoples in which the foundation of the peace is the tradition which they embrace, and it's held up by their honor and nothing else.

The Warriors Who Turned to Peace by John Mohawk - Haudenosaunee Law of Peace
"It would have been interesting if the contemporary war on terrorism had been built on principles of pragmatism. Instead, the model most often heard is the crusader model, which assumes that the other side is wrong and evil. Both sides invoke God, and whatever victories are achieved, however pyrrhic, are attributed to God. The characteristic of such holy war is that it has no endgame until the warriors of one side eliminate the warriors of the other side. That never happened during the Crusades, and it won't happen now. Wishing it so is not practical."