Author: Leslie Lindballe

Well, folks.  As with all technology, there’s always a little hurdling to do before it gets going straight.  So this class was not properly broadcast on #ds106radio because the lovely spot on the grass where we were all enjoying the lecture this evening was just a tad too far away from the wifi.  Oh well.  By the second half of class I got the ZOOM audio recorder set up and we get a really nice recording of Craig’s lecture.  It really was an excellent evening of story, sharing, and connection to the land!

I especially enjoyed the reading from Craig’s pioneering family member.  What a gift to have that amazing story recorded.  Not only to understand one’s family, but now I know how I’d go about building a rabbit trap!

Craig Wentland Spirit of the Land part 1

Craig Wentland Spirit of the Land part 2

Rushing back from the city, worrying about the many projects I have on the go, wondering about my life and where it’s going – all these things melted away this evening as I opened my senses to the natural world occurring around me with the gentle guidance of Michael Barr.  His soft, undulating tone coaxing me to let the stress fall away and allow a commune with the wonder of existence.  I shared conversation and excitement for the course and the day with my fellow walkers and captured snippits of video.  I didn’t plan to catch the conversations that I did, but I was pleasantly surprised!

 

And then! When I finished up the video and opened my inbox, there were Kerstyn and Eagle reflecting on the same walk.  What a gift to hear someone else’s inner thoughts after such a joyful and contemplative evening.  Thank you, ladies.

So we just finished our first class for Spirit of the Land and I have to say, I’m really stoked to be a part of this.  While I was, of course, nervous about introducing the digital world in the class, it will certainly be an amazing space to share and grow together.  I can’t wait until next week when we’ll invite the digital community to listen in and interact on twitter and in other spaces as they wish!

I had to put out a bit of a hello, even though we didn’t offer a synchronous space tonight:

 

 

 

After dinner we started out the course by discussing 3 questions – first on our own, then with one partner and finally in small groups. 

 

And then watched the Magic Canoe – giving us a few more questions to be asked:

• Who are you?
• Who are you really?
• Why are you here?
• What are you for?

 

In our meditation following Thich Nhat Hahn’s “Peace is Every Step,” we found a moment to breathe through these questions – focusing on Calmness, Smiling, Presence, and the Wondrousness of Presence.

While this is a pretty utilitarian account of what happened, I’d like to share two moments from our small group discussion.  In one moment I had a vision of the Earth as Gaia.

The Earth has breath – a breath that circulates the essential cocktail of gaseous nutrients around the circumference of the planet, nourishing us all with the necessities for existence.  The earth has blood that flows up from the core, mingling with the breath, serving the living tissues, and then submerging again.  The shifting sinews draw heat from below, while the bone structure holds majesty together.

And Jennifer’s image of cultivation.  We sew the seeds of positivity in the soil of our existence.  It takes time to nurture those seeds, to weed out the negative influences, protect against frost, water with compassion and forgiveness for self.  And then, at last, we harvest. And we must remember to harvest, for if we only sew but never reap, the fruits of the universe lay spoiled, unused, discarded.

Finally, it reminds me of this amazing poem I read once in my friend’s house.  I’ll leave you with the words of Derek Walcott.

Love after Love – Derek Walcott
The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door
in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome and say, “Sit here. Eat.”
you will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself.
To the stranger who has loved you all your life.
Whom you ignored for another who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes.
Peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit, feast on your life.

This delicious post came from Donna Jennison.  It makes my mind flash forward to the fall when our analogue classroom will happen over pot luck meals in homes in our community.  Surely such connection will foster valuable discussion around our land, our communities and ourselves.

 

“what an absolutely beautiful idea. We typically reserved and quiet lovers of the earth need to know one another. Expressing deep and strong feelings of love, connection , awe and mystery about the earth is not something that fits easily into most conversations. To connect with people who know this kind of love is a wonderful gift. My true brothers and sisters will be in this group. Lets cook something up in a big cauldron. Let’s stir the cauldron with a big old gnarly stick, adding a titch of this, a bit of that,…but mostly let’s fill the pot with the love that we know is in the land and in our hearts. Let’s cook it up with devotion and let it boil over and spill out onto everything and everyone. This is meal worth preparing! Worth sharing! I throw my heart and my tender, sweet love for the earth into the pot! and my tears.”

 

We’ve been getting encouragement through the feedback form and wanted to share the inspiration here. Thanks so much for sharing, Rene!

I pledge to honor the two row wampum treaty undertaken by my ancestors in 1613, in it’s full meaning and spirit. I pledge to abandon completely any reliance on fossil fuels. I will continue to practice and advance sustainable permaculture and grow my own natural food in abundance to share in good health, and to inspire and enable others to do the same. To help develop community economies to replace the old and unworkable debt based money system. To ask questions…. such as, ” Should ALL Corporations be publically owned, if allowed to exist at all as persons under the law!”

I wanted to be at the #healingwalk in Fort McMurray last weekend, but I couldn’t justify driving myself in my big van all the way there unless it was to live for a period of time. I hope I can do this later, but in the meantime, I can share through social media the various experiences others have had of this walk that took them into the Belly of the Beast.  This poignant account of the walk connected my heart and mind to what was a life-changing experience for this participant.

Thank you so much for reading and let’s hope we shut down the cloud machines.