I push my boat off the sandy beach and paddle.
I've still got dirt under my fingernails
And the evening sky is warm and clear,
enough to see the North Cascades,
enough to see the Olympics
and me,
balanced between the mountains.
I'm thinking about my upcoming classes.
I realize I long to be like a rock.
Because when a rock soaks up a way of being
on a mountainside or in a riverbed
it becomes infused with its own history and the story of its location.
Imagine it is pulsing with it.
I want to show up and pulse,
let the energy wash over us.
easily and completely
and recognize that all of our pulses from all of our places
create harmony.
Like an Mbira.
Playing a song on Mbira is like recalling a memory
of when all the voices
represented by the different octaves
were singing together as an ephemeral choir.
The togetherness around the fire
captured and able to be shared
many harmonic frequencies
in one instrument.
Rocks hold a very steady frequency.
When people say, "Crystals
are good for transmitting information."
The term 'information' is kind of used loosely...
When crystals travel somewhere, when they go to a new place
All they do is keep their pulse.
The new place has a pulse, it's different than then its pulse.
And through vibration,
the rock tells the story of where it came from.
Some things are better at being 'programmed' with vibrations than others.
If you become good at feeling them
this is how one can transmit information.
Something about a small cave in the high desert in Central Oregon
wants to be taken to the Southwestern United States,
and my friend picks it up, one rock, that says it wants to go and
doesn't yet know what to do with it
other than listen.
A stone, I thought was for my boat
falls out of a hole in my pocket I didn't know I had.
It had other plans,
using me only to get where it wants to be for now.
Transferred from the its origin to the Salish Sea.
A forest does this to plants,
bringing things where they need to grow,
and the Earth does this to Us,
moving us to places our work is needed.
I'm floating as I cut up cheese and carrot.
eating locally -
to have the same bioregion infused into the food
which becomes infused into the body -
helps strengthen a Being's pulse.
It is why it is important to Live in places that feel good to us.
What am I doing out by the Mill?
I wonder,
and leave a cedar bow
left on my boat from yesterday's ceremony
as an intention of healing,
as a blessing to these waters,
polluted by our industry.
I can feel myself, a nice big rock,
dense and speckled,
floating out in the sea in my kayak.
Nothing but a vibration.
A rock, sitting in the middle of class...
Isn't it incredible
that we're alive at the same time?
Let's forget about age for awhile and relish this:
That you and I may pick from the same exact plant
and find nourishment.
People say, in our culture, you cannot build your own home.
That food is expensive, and you get sick when you're old.
Hitchhiking's dangerous and the soil is bad.
"Live while you're young and single!" So drab.
I can build my own home, and make soil all the time.
We sing around fires and listen to wind chimes.
And I think the only reason I feel satisfied
is I can look up at this nearly full moon in the sky
and feel as though I don't need to know anything in the world.
I watch the firelight on the clouds
as the sun goes down
and feel Welcome here.
We must ask ourselves:
Are we in balance with nature?
And we must consider:
We are nature
and balance is the posture of belonging.
I've still got dirt under my fingernails
And the evening sky is warm and clear,
enough to see the North Cascades,
enough to see the Olympics
and me,
balanced between the mountains.
I'm thinking about my upcoming classes.
I realize I long to be like a rock.
Because when a rock soaks up a way of being
on a mountainside or in a riverbed
it becomes infused with its own history and the story of its location.
Imagine it is pulsing with it.
I want to show up and pulse,
let the energy wash over us.
easily and completely
and recognize that all of our pulses from all of our places
create harmony.
Like an Mbira.
Playing a song on Mbira is like recalling a memory
of when all the voices
represented by the different octaves
were singing together as an ephemeral choir.
The togetherness around the fire
captured and able to be shared
many harmonic frequencies
in one instrument.
Rocks hold a very steady frequency.
When people say, "Crystals
are good for transmitting information."
The term 'information' is kind of used loosely...
When crystals travel somewhere, when they go to a new place
All they do is keep their pulse.
The new place has a pulse, it's different than then its pulse.
And through vibration,
the rock tells the story of where it came from.
Some things are better at being 'programmed' with vibrations than others.
If you become good at feeling them
this is how one can transmit information.
Something about a small cave in the high desert in Central Oregon
wants to be taken to the Southwestern United States,
and my friend picks it up, one rock, that says it wants to go and
doesn't yet know what to do with it
other than listen.
A stone, I thought was for my boat
falls out of a hole in my pocket I didn't know I had.
It had other plans,
using me only to get where it wants to be for now.
Transferred from the its origin to the Salish Sea.
A forest does this to plants,
bringing things where they need to grow,
and the Earth does this to Us,
moving us to places our work is needed.
I'm floating as I cut up cheese and carrot.
eating locally -
to have the same bioregion infused into the food
which becomes infused into the body -
helps strengthen a Being's pulse.
It is why it is important to Live in places that feel good to us.
What am I doing out by the Mill?
I wonder,
and leave a cedar bow
left on my boat from yesterday's ceremony
as an intention of healing,
as a blessing to these waters,
polluted by our industry.
I can feel myself, a nice big rock,
dense and speckled,
floating out in the sea in my kayak.
Nothing but a vibration.
A rock, sitting in the middle of class...
Isn't it incredible
that we're alive at the same time?
Let's forget about age for awhile and relish this:
That you and I may pick from the same exact plant
and find nourishment.
People say, in our culture, you cannot build your own home.
That food is expensive, and you get sick when you're old.
Hitchhiking's dangerous and the soil is bad.
"Live while you're young and single!" So drab.
I can build my own home, and make soil all the time.
We sing around fires and listen to wind chimes.
And I think the only reason I feel satisfied
is I can look up at this nearly full moon in the sky
and feel as though I don't need to know anything in the world.
I watch the firelight on the clouds
as the sun goes down
and feel Welcome here.
We must ask ourselves:
Are we in balance with nature?
And we must consider:
We are nature
and balance is the posture of belonging.