BeautyDialogues

In Time

My women’s group went on a retreat together last weekend. We rented a big house right on the water and it was sublime. Seals and sea birds and total peace; taking the time to remember how to breathe…

Bioneers ~ Day Three

Drummed in by the transformational art of the women of Ojala – they really know how to start a day – I found out that they offer an annual residential drumming camp for women in Point Bonita, CA.

In her very personal introduction, Nina Simons says we are in a crisis of relationship – within ourselves, with the ‘others’ of humanity, and with the natural world. The wounding is deep inside us, the critical mind of the oppressor that we have embodied turning in on us and keeping us from finding and being our true selves.

From the universal resistance experienced by women in the women’s leadership trainings Nina has been offering she says it’s clear that we have inherited some very flawed models of what it is to be a leader, what it means to lead.

Bioneers ~ Day Two

After the soul-grounding performance of all-women percussion and voice ensemble Ojala, the 2nd day of Bioneers again starts with a pre-plenary welcome from Nina Simons and Kenny Ausabel.

This time the roles are reversed and Nina is the one addressing systemic change, publicly acknowledging each Beaming BIoneers satellite location, and Kenny Ausabel speaking emotionally and personally about Bioneer family member John Mohawk who died since the last gathering.

Bioneers 2008 ~ Day One

Thirteen Grandmothers from indigenous communities in the Americas, Nepal, Tibet, Africa, and Japan came on stage to open the Bioneers conference this morning, each one sharing a blessing in her own language - for the earth, its creatures and all of humanity, including the 13,000 individuals gathered here in San Rafael or viewing the program by satellite feed.

Bioneers 2008 ~ Prelude

The 2008 Bioneers conference starts this morning ... I'm up early, partly because I'm excited - this is the first year my reclusive love-monkey will be accompanying me - and partly because I drank a (perfectly-prepared) latte far too late last night.

I'm going to be live-blogging the event again this year, for all you who can't make it to either San Rafael or one of the 18 "Beaming Bioneers" satellite locations.

Hold on to your seats ...

Change

The weatherman says it's going to rain soon; my guy is making sure our garden is prepared and on my walk this morning I saw people busy re-tarring their roofs and cutting those branches precariously situated above power lines. The energy of change is loose in my world and summer's heat has been chased into memory by the last few days' crisp breeze.

What's most fascinating to me about all this, though, is the light, and what is happening to it now that we're moving into autumn.

If a year were to be superimposed on one day, this season would be the first dawning of sunset, the beginning of twilight; my favorite time of the day. The colors are intensified, and the light soft, almost swollen.

Earlier this year, during the Winter Solstice Dreaming ceremony I did with my dear friends Pele Rouge and FireHawk in the Santa Cruz mountains, I wrote this love poem to Light, which I found the other day and thought I would share with you here.