the earth: August 2007 Archives

As The Captain steered and navigated us along the Atlantic seacoast and up the Connecticut River, I marveled at our isolation.

No, we were not the only people on the water (although many times, especially in the early morning, it felt this way). We were the only people sailing. Cigarette boats, smaller fishing boats and larger cruisers pounded by, sometimes slowing considerately so as not to pummel us with their wake, but not always. How is it, I wondered, that people seek to escape the frenzy of daily life by transferring the same frenetic energy to their recreation? Everyone we met commented on the "speed" (as in lack thereof) or our humble craft. There we were, two women (egads!) on a tiny boat (one kayaker who stopped to chat boasted his boat was longer than ours by two whole feet!), rejecting modernity's rapidity and its characteristic exertion of control over the environment.

Sailing is a wonder. I was blessed with spectacular weather during my stint as crew for Shemaya's Serenity Sail - a bit of rain the first night (for which we were totally prepared), otherwise sun and the vagaries of wind and current. The second night boasted a spectacular sunset, a full moon and an eclipse! We had nice long downwind sails on Day Two and Three. By Day Three I was doing pretty well with steering - having worked out how to work the rudder to keep the bow pointed where we wanted to go. In the little bit of down time just before bed, we read Over the Edge of the World. "By sailing west until they reached the East, and then sailing on in the same direction..." (p. 2), Magellan and his crew changed humanity's conception of the world. While discussing this as we tacked back and forth up the mouth of the Connecticut River (the first time!), I had a flatearther moment. I don't know how else to explain it; I was sitting in Serenity, with water stretching quite a distance in all directions around me, land rising up on two sides and the Long Island Sound behind...I tried to imagine the magnitude of the shift in consciousness required to reject the obvious evidence provided through the perception of my own eyes: the world seemed flat. I comprehended the world as flat (for all of a second or two, just long enough to register).

Having moved from place to place so many times in my life means there is no particular geography that grounds me, no physical location where my people are.

Returning to Albuquerque for a visit evokes memories specific to this place, tightly associated with the short time I lived here and the other times I've visited. The quality of the air, the dry heat, the spectacular Sandia mountain range and mellow (by comparison) but distinctive volcano range known as the Three Sisters outline this region of high desert. The lush vein of greenery lining the path of the Rio Grande through the city evokes a surge of joy: so much life!

I moved here for work (installing cable television), mom moved with me. Less than half-a year later my company lost its contract and I began my years on the road. While here I did some organizing for the National Lesbian Conference (which had its fair share of controversy!), was initiated into the ranks of hot air balloonists (one spectacular ride), and basked in the arid, rough landscape. None of the connections I made with local people have persisted, but I recall them fondly. Laurene and I gave a keynote presentation here at a NAME conference, which is a definite highlight of my academic/activist life.

The specificity of event, time, and location (a convergence of spacetime) strikes me in contrast to that of many of my friends who return to the same place where they and their families have always lived. What memories are elicited, by which selection processes when so much has happened within a circumscribed area? While I often bemoan the lack of such a home, it occurs to me that the ability to disperse my own memories over a temporality linked with movement might be a benefit.

from Shi-choo (Grandmother) the Evil Kachina

"These are our times and our responsibilities. Every human being has a sacred duty to protect the welfare of our Mother Earth, from whom all life comes. In order to do this, we must recognize the enemy - the one within us. We must begin with ourselves..."

(Shi-Choo elaborates): The outside is merely a reflection of our insides. My mind is designed to tell me that I'm not crazy for thinking what I am thinking. Even if I have angry thought, my mind is giving me excuses and reasons why it is OK to think what I'm thinking. I need to be knowledgeable about the laws of harmony and balance. I cannot twist the laws to serve me but I can adjust my life to serve the laws. This is the law - I am here to serve the earth. The earth is not here for me to misuse and abuse. Allow me the insight and knowledge of how to live in

At soccer the other night someone said a stork was flying overhead. I am not sure I have ever seen a stork before! I thought I saw a pair of egrets the other day, near Poor Swamp Farm on the Norwottuck Rail Bicycle Trail, but I didn't notice markings distinctly enough to distingush them from white morphs of the Great Blue Heron. The other option is cranes, but none of them are just white like these two were. Thinking they might be, though, reminds me of watching sand hill cranes dance in Indiana oh-so-many moons ago. Phenomenal.