Wild Serenity

Prana and Permaculture -- The Adventures of Having Pink-Eye at Earth Activist Training

2012-01-14T22:28:00.000-08:00

I’m at Earth Activist Training right now, on my day off from student teaching here with Starhawk, Jason, Laura Maples, and Erik. In spite of the fact that the training is so intense, I feel completely renewed and impassioned – I felt a shift happen on that first day, during our first brainstorm about what this course is about, as I listened to the course participants share what the word "

Rebecca Solnit: Compassion is Our New Currency

2011-12-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

I'm out in Indiana right now, which may be one of the few places that still feels untouched by the Occupy Movement and the other social-justice transformational activism we've seen this year. As I take time to rest, reflect, and be with family, I'm also getting a chance to catch up on all of those things I bookmarked but didn't get a chance to read when they came out. This one that I read today

The Miracle of Chanukah Solstice

2011-12-21T17:54:00.001-08:00

Last night, a miracle occurred for this Pagan-Jewish girl: the Winter Solstice and the first night of Chanukah, sacred holidays devoted to the coming back of the light, happened on the same night.Last year’s Winter Solstice coincided with a full lunar eclipse for the first time in 400 years, and in that moment I felt a tremendous shifting of the energies of the planet and a powerful, beautiful

Murmuration and Occupation - Shutting Down the West Coast Ports

2011-12-14T01:16:00.000-08:00

(photo by Luke Hauser) Yesterday before dawn, I managed to crawl out of bed, fumble my jeans and boots on, and sling my drum and backpack – the one that has become the indefinite home for my first aid kit, a patchwork bag of herbal tinctures, a squirt bottle half-full of milk of magnesia, a bottle of bubbles, and some lavender essential oil – over my shoulder. The night before, Jason and I

Violence, Gunshots, and Candlelight

2011-11-11T03:41:00.000-08:00

Tonight was an evening of candlelight at Occupy Oakland. I never thought about it much before, but in our culture, we light candles to both celebrate life and honor death. Tonight, both felt immediate and present at Oscar Grant Plaza, as people came in ones and twos and little clusters, in both sadness and curiosity, after the news hit the wires that a young man had been shot and killed near

Laying the Foundations for a People's Economy

2011-11-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

By Jason Scarecrow In these past couple weeks, we have seen the Occupy Movement grow, evolve and spread quickly across this country and around the world. One of the most exciting aspects has been a unification of many different sectors demanding either a new or reformed economic system. Some mistake this shared call for altering our current economic model, in part or entirely, and see it as

Following The Law Of Love: Anarchism of the Strong by Emma Goldman

2011-11-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

As we all debate and talk amongst ourselves about the "anarchists" and how they did or didn't mess up the General Strike, I thought I'd share this excerpt (from the Earthling Opinion blog) that touches upon the heart of anarchism as a philosophy.... * * * * * The most vital right is the right to love and be loved. No one can express all their latent powers and potentialities freely unless they

Sundown at the Port

2011-11-03T02:22:00.000-07:00

There we are at the port, after two miles of marching and wondering if what we’re doing is crazy, if we’ll even be able to make it there, if the reason that we haven’t seen any cops all day is that they’re all waiting for us there in a massive strike force, rubber bullets at the ready. The sun is going down over the gray waters of the bay, and the sky looks like melted

Spiral Dancing in the Streets -- on Strike Day

2011-11-02T01:28:00.000-07:00

LAST SATURDAY EVENING, surrounded by several hundred people in a dark stadium, I feel the earth moving beneath my feet, the powerful collective energy of humans alive and those that have passed swirling all around me, and sense an opening of the portal of possibility. In my mind’s eye, I see visions of ancient peoples and the thousands of ways that they protected their kin and their land, and

Deepak Chopra meditation at Occupy Wall Street

2011-11-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Occupation Oakland Raided at 4:30 AM this Morning

2011-10-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

“I couldn’t even see in, I could just hear people screaming over the walkie-talkie,” the young woman is wearing a hand-knit green cap. It makes me feel oddly synchronized with her, because it reminds me of a pattern I was just looking at yesterday and thinking about making myself. It’s hard to imagine having either the time or serenity to knit now, though. The very

Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance

2011-10-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

1. If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald. 2. “Fortune” is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions. 3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When

Homecoming & the Shortlist of How to Be Part of the Occupation Without Occupying

2011-10-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

I always get a little transition ennui when I first return home from anything intense, as much as I do love to go home. One of my favorite books is by Robert Housden, 7 Sins for a Life Worth Living, and the sin fin is “The Pleasure of Coming Home.” "Surely we owe it to ourselves to make a home, whether on our own or with another, that is a reflection of the best of who

Occupying Together (Once You Really Get Down to it) & Shadow

2011-10-11T23:53:00.000-07:00

It’s getting late and we really should leave McPherson Park, but it’s hard to tear away from, even though every thirty minutes or so the cops pull up with lots of lights and sound and cars, park for a couple of moments, and then streak off in an equally abrasive and confusing rush. There are at least 200 people in the park, many clustered in a circle near the main space playing music, singing,

Communique` from Occupied DC: Day Five

2011-10-11T09:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Jason, Martin and I were standing in front of the White House with our drums, wondering where the heck the march was. It was the first time I’ve ever seen the White House and it’s overly vibrant green lawns, surrounded by granite and marble buildings that seem imposing and venerable, just as they are supposed to. On one side is the Eisenhower building, which feels oddly gothic and

Occu-Pee / Occu-pie

2011-10-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight, as Starhawk, Eddy and I are finishing up planning the last details of the Non-Violence Direct Action Training we're teaching with a local DC organizer, Jason is talking on the phone with local farmers. For some reason, he's having a hard time getting them to accept the offer of our very nitrogen-rich, urine soaked straw bales. At this point, they are actually just theoretically

The Holonic Shift Will Not Be Televised - But You Can Glimpse it on YouTube

2011-10-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

I woke up to the sound of sirens getting closer, confused, wondering where I was and if they were coming for us. After a moment of tense listening, the fire engines passed. I realized, as I raised up my groggy head from the thermarest and the cold air of the tent helped clear my head, that I didn’t have any reason to be afraid of sirens. There have been times, in times past, that there were

International Protests, Changing the World, and also, Baby Seals Are Really Cute

2011-09-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, stepping into the café, I was greeted by an amazing headline on the New York Times: “As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around the Globe.” The authors go on to draw a line between the protests in Egypt, Libiya, Tunisia, Israel, London, Greece, Spain and now, the Occupation of Wall Street in New York. “They believe life can be more participatory, more

Thinking about this thing called Destiny, Fate... & aren't you Special?

2011-08-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today I listened to a lecture about sourcing our power to realize our own destinies from the greater web of life – for the third time. For something as weighty as the topic of realizing one’s destiny, you really can’t assume that you’ll get it all just by listening to a teleconference over the internet once. I mean, I guess one could say that for a topic as weighty as

Awakening Authentic Power-From-Within

2011-08-20T00:07:00.000-07:00

Right now I’m doing one of the most powerful, innovative things it feels like I’ve done in a long time, and I can sense a power and magic here that is radical, fresh, and invigorating. I know on the outside it doesn’t look like I’m doing much. I’m sitting in a café in Southwest Berkeley on San Pablo Ave., an area patchworked with tire repair shops, dive bars,

Where There is Fear, There is Power

2011-03-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

I could barely hear the man at the podium speaking, and the voices in the hall hushed to hear him. We'd all been sitting there at the public comments hearing at the California Public Utilities Commission meeting for over an hour and a half, and folks were getting restless, their rancor most notably directed at the slightly plump young woman with the bell who's sad duty it was to ding you when

The Gifts of Deep Winter

2010-12-29T17:38:00.000-08:00

I remember as a little girl struggling to create friendships in school, most probably owing to that characteristic disastrous combination of shyness, intelligence, and shabby clothes. Recess was always painful for me, until the day that I somehow integrated some of the other young girls into a pretend game I’d been playing which involved riding pegasuses into all manner

"Anarcho-herbalism"? It's like a dream come true...

2010-09-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

‎"The development of a new medical system, or the recovery of ancient models, will be another link in our safety net when industrialism fails. It will keep us alive and kicking out windows now in the system's last days when so many people have no access to industrial medicine. And it will reestablish our connection to the real medicine that is the Earth." THIS IS ANARCHO-HERBALISM:Thoughts On

Nourishing the Revolution...

2010-09-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm sitting in my kitchen, feeling joy and peace. I've been back from my summer travels for a little over a week now, and although they were exciting and powerful and deep and everything else you could want from an adventure, I feel so happy to be home. My garden is in shambles, but I'm working on it to turn it around again. I'm starting to root down again, into my home and my work

Magical Children

2010-08-18T10:57:00.001-07:00

This is a short video documentary about the program that I'm going to be teaching starting in a couple weeks at a local elementary school in San Francisco. I'm such a lucky girl and this is such an adorable video. Magical Arts with Dori Midnight from Dori Midnight on Vimeo.

A Day of Ritual, A Day of Action: TOTB Day 4

2010-08-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

As the sun begins to rise, we gather by the ritual fire. Mateo and his wife, Michelle, who are not originally from this land but were adopted by the native people here and now call it home, have invited us here to this sacred ceremony. Michelle holds an infant in her arms as Mateo steps around to each of us and smudges us with sage. In the custom of their teacher, who has passed away, they

The Ancestors Walk With Us (Think Outside the Bomb Day 3)

2010-08-06T10:04:00.001-07:00

Hello my dear ones, Here's yesterday's report from New Mexico. We had a huge storm last night, knocking out our internet and much of our phone service, so I wasn't able to post. Right now, I'm sitting in a cafe next to Ashley Pond, where our big march to the Las Alamos Nuclear Lab will start. We'll have a ceremony at the beginning of the event and invoke the ancestors from here and Hiroshima

TOTB Day Two: Banner Drops and Promises of the Land

2010-08-04T22:47:00.000-07:00

I was pretty convinced that I’d missed by chance to do the banner drop by oversleeping my alarm, because I felt too good and the inside of my tent seemed too sunny for 5:30 in the morning. Luckily, however, when I prodded my starving phone into service, it revealed to me with its last moments of juice that it was 6:20 – late, yes, but not so late that I’d missed my chance

Nuclear Guardianship

2010-08-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

"To call this stuff "waste" is a misnomer, it is hardly an accurate term, because the strange and almost mythic character of the poison fire -- uranium -- and our processing of it has been that at every stage of the fuel cycle, everything that we have employed, every glove, every boot, every truck, every reactor, every facility, every mine, every heap of mill tailings, everything becomes not only

The Messages of the Desert: Thinking Outside the Bomb Day 1

2010-08-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

"The Tradition tells us that we should believe the messages of the desert. Everything we know was taught to us by the desert." -- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist I had no idea last week that I’d be in New Mexico this evening, but the fates decided otherwise. And so here I am at the Think Outside the Bomb Encampment, on less than four hours of sleep, in a large tent made of tarps and alit by

Settled

2010-08-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s done. It’s been two years since my arrest at the RNC in St. Paul, and since that time, there hasn’t been a day that it hasn’t come up in some way, whether its seeing a police car pulled over on the side of the road or listening to a story about another protest or dreaming of what I might do with my settlement money (although I tried to avoid doing that too much). Energetically, it’s

Is this the Sound of Settling?

2010-07-28T16:50:00.001-07:00

I come to you from a plane headed to Minneapolis, the town that changed my life. I suppose quite a few towns have changed my life: Los Angeles, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Copenhagen, and of course, San Francisco. But Minneapolis is special, in a way that's both saddening and amazing. I guess, in 60s counter-culture terms, I was radicalized by my experiences there: I went from lukewarm

Gleaning...

2010-07-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

When I asked Carol where the plums had come from, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. They had appeared, like little purple balloons from bliss, on the dryer last week before I left for California Witchcamp. Tiny, delicate, yellow-fleshed and slightly tart, they were clearly homegrown, not the totally regular, unblemished frankenplums you find at Andronicos. "Oh, there's loads of '

Homecoming...

2010-06-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I practically collapsed as I came off of the BART right in front of my house, having in the past week spent over over ten hours a day teaching teenagers, 60 some hours in the car, 12 hours in airports and airplanes, and a bit of extra grief organizing one of the camps that I'm doing this summer. It's not fun. It may sound somewhat glamorous, but although it was all quite worth it to

Kent State

2010-05-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

Today is the 40th Anniversary of the Kent State shootings, which like Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, is one of those things that I've known about for years without knowing anything about it. We just finished reorganizing our kitchen in honor of our new roommates, who moved in last weekend and needed a place to put their noodles and nutmeg, and as I stood at the sink washing out about

Astrology and Bolivia...

2010-04-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

This morning I headed off to my once-a-week two hour yoga class, which I have only recently started going to. It's a tough class, and although I take other classes throughout the week, I always look towards this one with both a sense of anticipation and fear, kind of similar to how you might feel on a first-date with the super hot person you always dreamed would ask you out. Anyway, at the

Live from Minneapolis...

2010-03-10T08:34:00.000-08:00

Well, dear ones, its been over a year since I've been in this town and a bit more than that since "the incident" at the RNC last year. (I'm never really sure about how much I can say about it online, so if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can always watch this video. But if you do know, I say, why bother? There's no reason to spoil your lunch if you don't have to.) Our criminal

Bolivia, Cancun, all of these exciting places to go...

2010-02-22T20:42:00.000-08:00

And really, I just want to stay home. Just after the Copenhagen conference, Evo Morales from Bolivia announced the Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change to prepare for the upcoming COP 16 in Cancun (which originally was going to be hosted in Mexico City). The COP 16 is 2010's Copenhagen -- an international consortium comprised of delegates from governments, non-profits, and corporations

Work Song, part two: a Vision

2010-01-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

by Wendell Berry If we will have the wisdom to survive, to stand like slow growing trees on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it... then a long time after we are dead the lives our lives prepare will live here, their houses strongly placed upon the valley sides... The river will run clear, as we will never know it... On the steeps where greed and ignorance cut down the old forest,

The Red Carpet Four... plus, Greenpeace makes it easy for you to make a mizvot for the earth

2010-01-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

A little bit of info about four of the activists still in prison in Copenhagen. I was impressed with this video -- it's short, well-done, and potent. They were arrested as they entered the Queen's dinner with all of the heads of states and unfurled Greenpeace banners from beneath their formal attire. Here's an easy way to plug into Climate Justice Action, courtesy of Green Peace. It takes

Something's Rotten in Denmark...

2010-01-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

(Statement from those still imprisoned after Copenhagen) While I sit in my living room, comfy at home with a kitty on my lap and another sitting next to me, there are still people in Copenhagen in jail. Here's a statement from them... impressive... powerful... but a bit sad as well. The most powerful part for me: "We are detained with evidently absurd accusations about either violences that

Copenhagen: Final thoughts... for now.

2009-12-24T18:19:00.000-08:00

Hello dear friends, and happy christmas eve to those celebrating this day! The other day I went to Solstice on the beach, where I was reunited with my commuity for the first time since returning from Copenhagen. It felt so wonderfully warm, even plunging into the December waters of Ocean Beach, to be so held and received with kind words and attention. People were careful not to overwhelm me (we

Dear Leaders of the World: From the COP15 website

2009-12-16T22:08:00.000-08:00

It's okay. The younger generation does not need you. There is no need to seal the deal since you are inherently incapable of doing so. We will fight our own wars. Decades later, you will be long gone. So when the ultimate doom comes, we will fight on our own. We will never let go of hope, and for every living second we will struggle on, until we perish as Earth does. And we will

Pushing for Climate Justice

2009-12-16T16:00:00.000-08:00

The night before last malignant forces attempted to sabotage our big action yesterday. Jason and I went over to the Rag space for the Rhythms of Resistance meeting, having fully assimilated ourselves into their group for this week and finally accepting that fate. We'd been invited to their evening meeting various times during the week, but weren't necessarily as excited to meet as we were to

I'm so exhausted...

2009-12-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

Trying to get caught up with writing, but really falling-down-sleepy right now. To tide you over, I give you Amy Goodman's report on what's happening out here. In better news, many of the CNN and AP stories I've seen about the protests here have actually been incredibly even handed and good about expressing what our message actually is, rather than some sort of butchered, stupified version of

Request for Magical Support and Prayers

2009-12-15T15:38:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone! I'm sorry to have been silent the last day or two -- its been very intense here, and I look forward to filling you in as soon as I can. Unfortunately, its simply been impossible for me to sit down and write to you all as much as I'd like. Tomorrow (which is tonight for you!) we have the potential for a truly magnificent, magical, historical moment (and I don't say that lightly)

Out of the Kettle, Into the FIre...

2009-12-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the most powerful day yet for me here at Copenhagen. Jason and Tom left early to go on a scouting mission at the Bella Center and take a peak at the fences surrounding her, while I stayed home and wrote to you, dear readers. ;-) I’ve started to feel like I have a responsibility to let y’all know what’s happening here, as much as I can. There’s so much I

Hot and Cold in Copenhagen

2009-12-14T02:17:00.000-08:00

Christania is like a place out of a anarchist-collective fairy tale: it spans both sides of the canal running through the city, living spaces on one side, the other side housing several cafes, the large tent that serves as both temporary mess hall and workshop / speaker space, an art space, a playground – just about everything you can think of, all communally created and

Drums...

2009-12-12T16:58:00.000-08:00

I’m being blown wide open. Alphonsus warned me that this would happen if I came to Europe to protest: “It will blow your mind,” he said. He didn’t mention that it might blow my heart and soul and sense of purpose apart, leaving veins of brightness shining among the shards. I was at a gathering a couple of weeks ago and had a little tiny glimpse of what I’m feeling now. Someone I knew was

Copenhagen: Arrival Part Two. The Church.

2009-12-12T00:17:00.000-08:00

It’s late, way too late for us, we who have been traveling for twenty three hours and who’s biological clocks believe that its close to dawn, rather than a misty and cold evening. Our dinner weighs heavy in our bellies, the first real food we’ve eaten, and walking feels good in spite of how exhausted we are. Besides, Copenhagen almost feels like an overgrown and even-more-charming Santa’s

Copenhagen: Arrival...

2009-12-11T12:26:00.001-08:00

I'm is sitting in a cafe next to her hostel in Copenhagen after a very long travel day yesterday. I would love to create a compelling, rich blog entry for y'all about what this city is like with the Climate Summit here... but I'm just too exhausted. Short version: its amazing. And amazingly cold. More later!

Herbs and Gardens

2009-11-19T14:44:00.000-08:00

This week my marks the end of my first “What’s Your Tree?” group, which is a circle that I’m co-facilitating that meets weekly to help us clarify our purpose and find ways to act in the world that align with our deepest callings. (It is not, however, based on some sort of Celtic Tree Oracle thing, as my friend Esse had thought when I first mentioned it to her. It’s based off of the work of

November morning...

2009-11-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

It's early, not as early as I'd like, but just the same the pale blue light of the sun cresting over the eucalyptus hills slants in through our window, making the beige walls seem violet. Jason has already left for work, but Emily is curled up at my feet, and with her keen feline intuition has sensed the change in me from dreaming to waking -- she begins to purr, and then, as I stretch and my

revolution! we are in the midst of a great turning and it is an auspicious time to be alive

2009-10-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

From Ascent Magazine by john malkin adam avruskin The revolutionary movement for sustaining life is unfolding and blossoming here and now. In fact, it is inevitable and exactly what we are made for. This is the message from Joanna Macy, long-time activist, Buddhist scholar and philosopher of general systems theory and deep ecology. Through empathy and compassion

The Silence of the Stars

2009-10-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

When Laurens van der Post one night In the Kalihari Desert told the Bushmen He couldn't hear the stars Singing, they didn't believe him. They looked at him, Half-smiling. They examined his face To see whether he was joking Or deceiving them. Then two of those small men Who plant nothing, who have almost Nothing to hunt, who live On almost nothing, and with no one But themselves, led him away

The Police Are Rioting by David Rovics

2009-10-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

(from Songwriters's Notebook, David's personal blog) If any elements of the corporate media have been paying any attention to what's been happening on the streets of Pittsburgh over the past few days I haven't noticed, so I thought I'd write my own account. There is a popular assumption asserted ad nauseum by our leaders in government, by our school text books and by our “mainstream” media

Going out with a bang... last day at the G20.

2009-09-25T23:54:00.000-07:00

This whole week I’ve been wondering, on and off again, about why I’m here. Today I finally found out the reason. We left around 11AM for a unpermitted feeder march hosted by the CMU kids about climate change. We’d been hoping to do our theater piece downtown earlier that morning, as a sort of distraction action for a banner drop, but as many things are here, things did not go as planned.

This is what a police state looks like...

2009-09-25T22:38:00.000-07:00

Tears and Tear Gas

2009-09-24T22:44:00.001-07:00

Twitter texts transcripts from our Comms people: 12:16 am - Units are responding to hotmetal bridge for reports of protestors gathering. 12:06 am – Student dorms blocked by police with weapons. Lots of police need Fuel, can’t find Fuel. Trying to get Tanker Truck to fuel humvees. 11:51 am – Forbes and S. Craig, protestors breaking out windows. Police not responding to other calls. “All

Theater of the Possible

2009-09-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

Ah, turkey bacon. It's a lovely way to start your day. Especially when it's accompanied by eggs, pancakes, grits, fresh fruit, and orange juice. Lest you believe we out here in Pittsburgh are shivering in the cold, hungry and calling with shrill voices to uncaring ears, let me tell you a bit about my day. We overslept our 8 AM breakfast call, and those of us sleeping at the house on Monroe

Tuesday in Pittsburgh

2009-09-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

I'm here in Anne’s house in Pittsburgh, a packed and messy little place just outside of a nice café-kinda neighborhood. It’s been an up-and-down kind of day. Ever since we’ve gotten here to Pittsburgh, and for several weeks leading up to this week, the City has been involved in an amazingly effective campaign of denying permits, changing their minds on decisions and permits given, and routine

Obsessed

2009-09-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

WOULD ANY SANE PERSON think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday, or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, or that dancing naked around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Then why now, with all

Wild Blackberries Need No Intermediary

2009-08-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

Today, for the first time since I've returned home, I finally found time to reflect on my time with Joanna Macy at the Land of Medicine Buddah. It was a very powerful experience, one that is continuing to have reverberations and aftershocks in my life as time passes. I feel more present with the work that I have long felt called to do in this world: as an earth-priestess, as a healer doing the

The Shambhala Prophecy

2009-08-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

from joannamacy.net... Coming to us across twelve centuries, the prophecy about the coming of the Shambhala warriors illustrates the challenges we face in the Great Turning and the strengths we can bring to it. Joanna learned it in 1980 from Tibetan friends in India, who were coming to believe that this ancient prophecy referred to this very planet-time. She often recounts it in workshops, for