I bring you resonant frequencies from the Great Lakes Region. To create this wave, I will go to the opposite end of the great bowl that is the Great Lakes Watershed, to a bay nearest the East Coast, pluck at a string of history and with luck reverberate meaning through all the time in-between. I will reach back through an age of Wiley and capricious destruction to a humble birthplace of one George Copway,born 1881, whose native Ojibwa name means "He Who Stands Forever". When you need to span a great distance, you need to tie one end of your bridge to a sturdy and solid support. The Oneida people, who I live closer to than any other tribe, are the "People of the Standing Stone". This reference point I am using is a stone of monolithic proportion. A man, who became the first ever, first nations writer, to be published, makes his words "special", if only that they were his, in a time when the voices of nearly all of his people had been all but been wiped out. I respectfully use his words to anchor my message today. Because he was born into a place that I have been, on the opposite end of my world, my bioregion. This giant bowl draining into the Great Lakes has always inspired me, always informed my understanding of "birthplace". I honor the space, the ecology, the niches that surround her great shoreline and the habitat that it provides to many millions of humans. since childhood I have continued to study these freshwater seas in an effort to share my understanding with those who have not yet understood that we, and everything we do has direct and indirect effects on the water, the quality of life that is possible in this basin and on the future for many hundreds of thousands of years. Kahgegagahbowh knew all of these things in the very fibers of his being. His words have been put down for all time and I will use them as my anchoring point.
I was born in Nature's wide domain! The trees were all that sheltered my infant limbs, the blue heavens all that covered me. I am one of Nature's children. I have always admired her. She shall be my glory: her features, her robes and the wreath around her brow, the seasons, her stately oaks and the evergreen -her hair,ringlets over the earth- all contribute to my enduring love for her.
And whenever I see her, emotions of pleasure roll in my breast, and swell and burst like waves on the shores of the ocean, in prayer and praise to Him who has placed me in her hand. It is thought to be great to be born in palaces, surrounded with wealth -but to be born in Nature's wide domain is greater still!
I would much more glory in this birthplace, with broad canopy of heaven above me,and the giant arms of the forest trees for my shelter, than to be born in palaces of marble, studded with pillars of gold! nature will be nature still, while palaces shall decay and fall to ruins.
Yes, Niagara will be Niagara a thousand years hence! The rainbow, a wreath over her brow, shall continue as long as the sun, and the flowing of the river- while the work of art, however carefully protected and preserved, shall fade and crumble into dust!
This level of eternity is what we reflect upon during the holy days at the start of what is now called February. This Imbolc, much of the region has gotten a great storm and in my neck of the woods, the north wind is blowing to beat the ban! Winter is putting up her best protestations, but the advancing sun will eventually win this "war". Pulling the string, anchored upon the words of Kahgegagahbowh, taught across the ages, we have found that his words are true, his estimations, if anything could be prophetic rather than "innocent". his words had the strength of stone and cleave the flow of history as surely as the islands break Niagara into to separate falls.
Science now allows us to test for infinitesimally small percentages of highly toxic chemicals, including prescription drugs that are now in the Great Lakes. We have known for generations that our actions have sped up the silting in of the lakes, (known as eutrophication -a natural process that all lakes face) by over one hundred times. We have tried to clean up the water, but the majority of many contaminants are falling out of the atmosphere directly because the air is full of toxic compounds. all of these contaminants have the staying power of "He Who Stands Forever". Many types and kinds of poisons will be contaminating the food chain forever. They are the wastes, created by the systems that build the palaces, gild the pillars and exact the toll upon our Mother, Earth. Long after the glimmer fades, the wastes will remain. How we choose to react tot his truth is our own decision. We can choose to be a legacy to one world view or another.
My pagan beliefs are that the gods and goddesses that are alive around each one of us, the gods of the wood, the gods of the water, and the gods of both earth and sky are delighted when we give thanks for their gifts. If I were to continually try to rip and tear at the fabric of life surrounding me, others would be hurt by that process. Every step I have taken toward sustainability has also yield a distancing, of my self, from the destruction of life by waste and or energy creation/ waste. Even after more than five decades, I am still finding ways to ratchet back my waste, get more from less, or reduce wasteful throughput. When we honor the return of Father Sun and the impregnation of Mother Earth, the four corners of the Earth are a huge part of this. The triple goddess is alive all around and father sun is entering, literally, from the South. Earth and sky are one in our transcendent awareness. The enlivened whole is much, much more than the sum of parts. The note plucked across the ages, on the taught sting I have strung is that the same abundant nature exists today, it welcomes all who allow themselves to be born into it and even after the palaces crumble, we will have only earth and sky to sustain us.
Blessed Be!
I was born in Nature's wide domain! The trees were all that sheltered my infant limbs, the blue heavens all that covered me. I am one of Nature's children. I have always admired her. She shall be my glory: her features, her robes and the wreath around her brow, the seasons, her stately oaks and the evergreen -her hair,ringlets over the earth- all contribute to my enduring love for her.
And whenever I see her, emotions of pleasure roll in my breast, and swell and burst like waves on the shores of the ocean, in prayer and praise to Him who has placed me in her hand. It is thought to be great to be born in palaces, surrounded with wealth -but to be born in Nature's wide domain is greater still!
I would much more glory in this birthplace, with broad canopy of heaven above me,and the giant arms of the forest trees for my shelter, than to be born in palaces of marble, studded with pillars of gold! nature will be nature still, while palaces shall decay and fall to ruins.
Yes, Niagara will be Niagara a thousand years hence! The rainbow, a wreath over her brow, shall continue as long as the sun, and the flowing of the river- while the work of art, however carefully protected and preserved, shall fade and crumble into dust!
This level of eternity is what we reflect upon during the holy days at the start of what is now called February. This Imbolc, much of the region has gotten a great storm and in my neck of the woods, the north wind is blowing to beat the ban! Winter is putting up her best protestations, but the advancing sun will eventually win this "war". Pulling the string, anchored upon the words of Kahgegagahbowh, taught across the ages, we have found that his words are true, his estimations, if anything could be prophetic rather than "innocent". his words had the strength of stone and cleave the flow of history as surely as the islands break Niagara into to separate falls.
Science now allows us to test for infinitesimally small percentages of highly toxic chemicals, including prescription drugs that are now in the Great Lakes. We have known for generations that our actions have sped up the silting in of the lakes, (known as eutrophication -a natural process that all lakes face) by over one hundred times. We have tried to clean up the water, but the majority of many contaminants are falling out of the atmosphere directly because the air is full of toxic compounds. all of these contaminants have the staying power of "He Who Stands Forever". Many types and kinds of poisons will be contaminating the food chain forever. They are the wastes, created by the systems that build the palaces, gild the pillars and exact the toll upon our Mother, Earth. Long after the glimmer fades, the wastes will remain. How we choose to react tot his truth is our own decision. We can choose to be a legacy to one world view or another.
My pagan beliefs are that the gods and goddesses that are alive around each one of us, the gods of the wood, the gods of the water, and the gods of both earth and sky are delighted when we give thanks for their gifts. If I were to continually try to rip and tear at the fabric of life surrounding me, others would be hurt by that process. Every step I have taken toward sustainability has also yield a distancing, of my self, from the destruction of life by waste and or energy creation/ waste. Even after more than five decades, I am still finding ways to ratchet back my waste, get more from less, or reduce wasteful throughput. When we honor the return of Father Sun and the impregnation of Mother Earth, the four corners of the Earth are a huge part of this. The triple goddess is alive all around and father sun is entering, literally, from the South. Earth and sky are one in our transcendent awareness. The enlivened whole is much, much more than the sum of parts. The note plucked across the ages, on the taught sting I have strung is that the same abundant nature exists today, it welcomes all who allow themselves to be born into it and even after the palaces crumble, we will have only earth and sky to sustain us.
Blessed Be!
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