So, today has been a day, and oh what a day it has been!!!
Thank you Universe for bringing your sweet sweet blessing to me with a fresh breath of "Aaah" and Spirit Infusions!
I ran into a friend whom I haven't seen for a while today and we were able to reconnect. She brought to me the ceremony and remembrance of the sacred that I have been calling for, and so deeply needing. This morning we intended to set out on our bikes at 8:00am in order to go down to the ocean-side to collect Nettles from their lovely wild patch. We were not able to do this, however it was the thing that pushed me to get out of bed early rather than lay there as T roamed around, seeking each bit of sleep I could get. This was really good. T and I got up and moved into the day with some grace. We made breakfast, I cleaned the kitchen up, which spread to the living room and hallway as well! Then, after connecting with Kerry and it being decided that enjoying ceremony in the backyard would now make more sense, T and I went outside and enjoyed the amazing and fresh late-spring morning, the kind that lets you know summer is on it's way!! We stretched and hula-hooped and made music with our mouths and hands and danced and it was SO delightful and amazing!
When Kerry came, we all took some sacred smoking herbs that Kerry had gathered herself(red cedar bark and sage) and received(sacred tobacco from Peru, I think). With these in our hands, together we thanked all four directions, Mother Earth, and Father Sky, with Kerry's words, and brought it all back down. Then we offered these herbs to the Earth. After this, we burnt a smudge of Cedar we had all collected on our walk yesterday. So lovely! Tyler is so keyed into this and so receptive. I know I have to include this once more in our daily lives!
Next amazing item of the day, which this morning lead into SO wonderfully, was the Community Kitchen. As a part of the Autonomous Community Support Network that we have started here where I live, we have begun a Community Kitchen project. This is a way for us to come together in community and create stronger connections, while pooling our resources together to make lovely meals, potentially enough to take home and freeze for use throughout the week. Today was the third attempt at having a successful Community Kitchen, and. . . SUCCESS! It was lovely. The five of us made a wonderful Lentil Shepherd's Pie and a Soup, for which T ground up some Rosemary we picked and dried, with the mortar and pestle.
During the cooking, T fell asleep on my bosom in the other room, which was great! I was trying to stop her naps all together because her bedtimes were very frustrating. The result was an unhappy, cranky toddler, and a stressed out Mama! Also, she was beginning to go to bed at crazy and dangerous times(unless you enjoy waking up at 3:00am) like 5:00pm. So, I was hoping to be able to get her to have a nap by 12:00-1:00 at the latest, and wake her up after an hour. Today, she went to sleep at 12:30, and I ended up waking her, pleasantly received--yay, at 2:30.
After some naked play and shepherd's pie out in the yard(yay sunshine!!), it was off to the playground with us. And play we did! Not until three hours later did we arrive home! This was about quarter to seven. Some snackie dinner, bed prep, and then off to sleep with the wee one!
I set my tent up for Kerry, who will be sleeping over tonight, after T's slumber took her, and upon laying in it to test it out received many wondrous zings of joy and excitement. Being in my tent, amid the lovely outside, with the fresh air and the critters and the lovely, lovely Earth SO close beneath me, drawing me into her warmth and grounding--Oh Goddess!!!! Uh! SOoooo amazing!!! So, tomorrow it's my turn with T to sleep in there, and every night after, I do believe!!!
Also, tomorrow we will view a place for the first time. We need to move for May 1st, and this place sounds super nice! Send us good thoughts for this one!!
And so ends an amazing and magical day for these and other reasons!
Tomorrow it's off to the ocean-side Stinging Nettle patch on Bicycle for Kerry, T and I!
Until then,
Lovely lullabyes to all!!
-Sarah Christina
Walking into the garden . . .
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Worn out. Bring it back UP!
My child is now 2 years old. Two years, one month, 21 days that I have been responsible for the providing, protecting, enriching, playing, loving, nurturing, cleaning, dressing, engaging, comforting, nursing, carrying and countless other obligations to care for an infant that has grown nearly into a child.
I have to say, I am feeling close to broken. I do have a lot in me, and I know I can continue to parent her in a present, beautiful and loving way. I also know that as of late I have been impatient, cranky, and unpleasant for T to be around! I need change! I need a healthier more vibrant environment. I need to create this for myself. I need to bring the magic back into my life. I need to have ceremony. I need to remember faith in Universe wherever it is that we are being led. I need to feel good again. I need to be this for myself, and for my child.
And that is all this moment has for me to share.
-Sarah Christina
Thursday, April 8, 2010
On Finding a Home and Classism
Well, here goes, my very first post on my shiny new blog.
And the topic on my mind right now is, ultimately, the flaw (to be extremely gentle) of the society in which we live.
Housing is what has led me to this train of thought. At the moment my toddler (2) and I and our lovely friends are currently living in a beautiful home with a low rent (especially for the city in which we live). We have always known it was temporary. We will have been here for a year and two months when we move; the house was sold. Our current landlord quickly had a new place that seemed highly promising. After admiring the nearby dwelling many times while intentionally walking by it, we were all pretty excited about the potential of this future community space. We could do so much good in a home like this. Large, a yard, relatively quiet area yet accessible, and for the same price we currently pay. And so, we didn't bother to look for a new home as, though we had not yet been given the opportunity to look inside, we were all pretty sure this was the one.
This morning I called the landlord to arrange for us to see the place--at last the time had come. Yet it would never be. Apparently the men who had lived there had a cat, maybe a herd of them. He told me that to walk into the place was disgusting for the saturated stench of cat urine, a smell they thought before trying they could remove. He assured me that he would not want his child to live there, and surely I would not want mine to either. Disappointed, I agreed.
And now I am experiencing the jolt back into the world where rent is ridiculously jacked and inhumane. We had a good thing going with our rent, comparatively. Not only that, being in one place for this long has affected me. I have never lived in one place for more than a few months since leaving my home with my parents, even with a new baby I was constantly moving around. Now that I am comfortable to commit myself to one place, to feel confident that I am where I am supposed to be, to be determined to work through complications rather than running from them, now that I have achieved this, I must search for a new home because the one in which I live has been sold by an owner who has never lived a day in it, who rented it out to us the day after purchasing it.
This world is cold and paying for a place to sleep makes absolutely no sense.
I feel raped in the way that I feel raped nearly every time I am required to go to the Welfare office yet again for some other complication if I am to get my monthly check. Withholding ones means of survival, let alone comfort and dignity, is disgusting. That many of us have adapted to and become comfortable with such a reality is disturbing!
One aim in creating a community support network (more about that later) is to create free/rent=non-compulsory housing. My plan for this is to locate some of the many uninhabited houses and buildings and confront the "owner" with my idea--for this person to allow us to utilize the space (free of charge or perhaps payment of land taxes) for housing while improving it through fixing it up, growing food, and filling it with good energy--making it alive while supporting a crucial project and need of the people! This has been made as a longer-term goal, however today I have felt very compelled to make it happen by the end of the month. Now as the day has wound down and I feel the weight of the task more fully, I am unsure as to whether or not I should focus my energy on finding a home with a price-tag on it or seeking out a little old fashioned revolution. . .
And here I leave you. We're off to an anti-poverty rally tomorrow, where I may be speaking. We shall see.
Much love and thanks for reading!
Signing off,
~Radical Mama Me
And the topic on my mind right now is, ultimately, the flaw (to be extremely gentle) of the society in which we live.
Housing is what has led me to this train of thought. At the moment my toddler (2) and I and our lovely friends are currently living in a beautiful home with a low rent (especially for the city in which we live). We have always known it was temporary. We will have been here for a year and two months when we move; the house was sold. Our current landlord quickly had a new place that seemed highly promising. After admiring the nearby dwelling many times while intentionally walking by it, we were all pretty excited about the potential of this future community space. We could do so much good in a home like this. Large, a yard, relatively quiet area yet accessible, and for the same price we currently pay. And so, we didn't bother to look for a new home as, though we had not yet been given the opportunity to look inside, we were all pretty sure this was the one.
This morning I called the landlord to arrange for us to see the place--at last the time had come. Yet it would never be. Apparently the men who had lived there had a cat, maybe a herd of them. He told me that to walk into the place was disgusting for the saturated stench of cat urine, a smell they thought before trying they could remove. He assured me that he would not want his child to live there, and surely I would not want mine to either. Disappointed, I agreed.
And now I am experiencing the jolt back into the world where rent is ridiculously jacked and inhumane. We had a good thing going with our rent, comparatively. Not only that, being in one place for this long has affected me. I have never lived in one place for more than a few months since leaving my home with my parents, even with a new baby I was constantly moving around. Now that I am comfortable to commit myself to one place, to feel confident that I am where I am supposed to be, to be determined to work through complications rather than running from them, now that I have achieved this, I must search for a new home because the one in which I live has been sold by an owner who has never lived a day in it, who rented it out to us the day after purchasing it.
This world is cold and paying for a place to sleep makes absolutely no sense.
I feel raped in the way that I feel raped nearly every time I am required to go to the Welfare office yet again for some other complication if I am to get my monthly check. Withholding ones means of survival, let alone comfort and dignity, is disgusting. That many of us have adapted to and become comfortable with such a reality is disturbing!
One aim in creating a community support network (more about that later) is to create free/rent=non-compulsory housing. My plan for this is to locate some of the many uninhabited houses and buildings and confront the "owner" with my idea--for this person to allow us to utilize the space (free of charge or perhaps payment of land taxes) for housing while improving it through fixing it up, growing food, and filling it with good energy--making it alive while supporting a crucial project and need of the people! This has been made as a longer-term goal, however today I have felt very compelled to make it happen by the end of the month. Now as the day has wound down and I feel the weight of the task more fully, I am unsure as to whether or not I should focus my energy on finding a home with a price-tag on it or seeking out a little old fashioned revolution. . .
And here I leave you. We're off to an anti-poverty rally tomorrow, where I may be speaking. We shall see.
Much love and thanks for reading!
Signing off,
~Radical Mama Me
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