Sagesmoke over the water

I know I haven't been blogging for a while. Not that there wasn't anything to say. On the contrary there was too much to say. Too many e-mails clamoring for attention: yes most of them worthy causes. Too many activities. There was Hoboken goes West: friends of mine had organized and Dave from Scarborough came over for the occasion. He and I went 'junk shopping', checking out secondhand stores. I found Ben Okri's sequel to 'The famished road', I book I devoured. The book 'Songs of Enchantment' just 50 cents. And yes, the first paragraphs did again captivate me. 'The West' in Hoboken consisted of civil war reenactments, even a small field hospital and some Indians with leather robes and beaded patches and tipi's in the park and a Leonard Peltier stand..

 Family visits, and a solemn goodbye to a lady found dead in the water. Her daughters and family, her friends from NAIS, all were there. In a sober way Black Eagle smudged us all. Memories were shared. Questions remained unanswered.

 did she think
did she ponder
or just
did it
by accident
into the cold
water
purse on the quay
or did she let it happen
welcoming the push
was she alone
overcome by the pull of death and bliss
and was someone
watching her
was she standing
before the jump
or did she glide gently
off the quay
who after all this
took her phone
the little money
from her purse on the quay

and then
sage smoke and flowers
and silence for her voyage

The unacceptable

Racism, war, molesting little girls or boys, exploitation of another person, poverty, ruining the planet, Leonard Peltier still in jail, capital punishment... all unacceptable. Our feelings wake up. And I realize that all of this has to do with our values and the judgments based on these values. Yet there is also the unacceptable within myself: traits I don’t like, anger I don’t  want to feel, the dark shadow shrouding my soul, my very private hurts, shortcomings, my darker hidden self which stems from hurt... In the Western world these values are more or less shared  yet abortion, euthanasia, same sex marriage is not accepted in all layers of western population or even illegal in some countries. The more issues are seen as unacceptable, the greater intolerance will become within any given society or political system and thus opposing groups will form. Often the questioning of these shared values will not be tolerated because these values lend an illusionary sense of security. Thus authoritarian attitudes and routine dictate the course of life, suffocating creativity, change, innovation and even our freedom of expression. And still, with all the rules that should be followed, it are always the girls and women who should be decent, less ambitious, not too loud, not too much make up... Actually they are often not allowed to dream or follow their dreams. When young children are killed, we, as a world community know, we feel that this is unacceptable, we grieve with the parents and have to think about how our society functions. Assault weapons are to me unacceptable in the hands of any civilian. Thou shall not kill! Now I have a lot of friends with revolvers, guns, rifles, even uzi’s... I don’t understand the need, nor the fascination of it. I also think of Gaza, of Syria, of  my sister in law’s sun wounded severely in Iraq training paramedics... How many lives lost, maimed. To me violence is unacceptable in whatever guise. Peace on earth always means no war! The light returns... A happy, peaceful New Year to all.

Unciya and Hakata's birthday

 Unciya and Hakata, Grandmother and big sister in Lakota, invited a bunch of people for their birthdays. They are the heart and soul and workforce of the Flemish Leonard Peltier Chapter. Yet they got fed up by all the wannabes they have to deal with  when they visit certain gatherings. Thus they decided on a Flemish theme.

 Breughel and the food of his time became the fare: Black pudding sausages with organic applesauce, white sausages, frikadels with cherries, good dark bread and 10 kinds of regional beers and as a desert delicious safron ricecream with brown sugar. Doesn't Hakata look like the milk girl by Vermeer? Of course among the joy and bustle of dogs running around and the talking Leonard peltier was not forgotten: They passed out postcards to send to the White House to ask the President to commute Peltier's sentence. Good work my friends!

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday it was Leonard Peltier's birthday. Two dear friends, Unciya and Hakata, run the Flemish Leonard Peltier Chapter and decided to do something for his birthday. So in a small literary café Den Hopsack a reading was organized from his prison writings My Life is My Sundance. Of course reading the whole book Is a bit long. I was asked to compose an overview of his thoughts in the book and to read it to the audience. Hakata had made an excellent slide show, running slowly in te background. And Unciya, she rebel roused the people present explaining about AIM and why they do what they can for Leonard. They made some money to be send to the defense team.

Sweatlodge in the rain

 First the lodge was build from fresh willow, growing abundantly in the waterlogged polders of Flanders. here you see the utensils, sage and some other herbs to be used in the water that will be poured over the rocks.

The fire heating the red lava rocks is burning in a friendly way under the watchful eye of the fire woman. The door woman too got a good dose of the pelting rain. Every one got soaking wet, even the stones in the fire pit were under water. The puddles grew, crawled into the sweat lodge, cooling off the participants.

So we had to stop stop after the third round, for lack of heated stones. It was however a good gathering, with a thought for Leonard Peltier, the leader of the sweat singing so that the spirit of Leonard might be free even when his body is still jailed, people praying, meditating for justice.

We also laughed and giggled, one participant cooling off by laying the largest puddle...

Wet stones, rain having doused the fire pit. Fire women is seen here getting soaked through blankets off the structure. Trying to dry them out in front of a blazing stove...

It was a good thing to have warm coffee and stew afterwards...
All was organized by the local chapter of Free Leonard Peltier, a bunch of good hearted folks.