Do No Harm?

Tags

letting go

Feeling things deeply now…

How to carry on… when the hardest punch is thrown? Otis Gibbs sure knows how to write a good song.

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Drill pressure is such that fluid expands outside the channel – seen when bursting through into bottom of stream, wetland, or land.

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I realized the other night, that they may never listen to us.

When we cannot even listen to each other, how can we hope that the aligned powers that be, will ever have an ear to hear our pleas?

Perhaps they will learn to hear us? When they realize the pain they have caused… in their own heated rush… for self-fulfillment… of a greed that is not truly satisfied… by force?

Perhaps they will realize it is through coherent, collective, collaborative cooperation – where all have enough and all are fulfilled, all are heard and heeded – that we release the old ways and find a new way forward? A way that is truly and beautifully compassionate, loving, and coherent.

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I’m sorry, Nimaamaaaki… for not listening to You when you called to me… asking.

How many more times can You take this failure from us? 
How many more times will You forgive us for not listening?
For not doing what You ask of us – to love and protect you…
…as You love and protect us?

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Giving up Everything

Giving up everything
my hungry ghost of hopefulness

Giving up everything
not haunted by wanting this

Giving up everything

the fortune I was saving

Giving up everything
I mercy-killed my craving

Giving up everything
I’ve opened up my eyes for this

Giving up everything
see the whole magnificent emptiness

Gave what I want for how it is
for the stone inside and the bitterness
for the sweetness at the core of it

Giving up everything
The master plan, the scheming

Giving up everything

my cursed search for meaning

Giving up everything

the compass and the map I was reading.

The hinterlands I’m leaving
I’m finally leaving behind

Giving up everything

the big to-do, the hullabaloo
The tug-of-war for some twisted truth

For the everlasting ache of it
No longer slave, not chained to it

no gate, no guard, no keeper

no guru, master, teacher

See the slow-receding faces
dissolve to black, no traces

Meanwhile, I remain… an Army of One.

I am surrounded by comrades.

And we are Learning to Sit Without Knowing…

We are all Highwomen… hoping all will come to understand how to Do No Harm.

Are we feeling the hopeful desperation… of birthing this new world? It feels we’re almost there.

She’s going to be worth all the pains, pressures, gains, and losses… of this long, hard labor.

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Today’s blog was inspired by and empowered through the work of many fine woman. Some know not their influence, some do. There are too many to name… so the musical ones have my formal recognition here today: Amy Ray & Emily Saliers, Annie Humphrey, Carrie Newcomer, The Highwomen, the incomparable Natalie Merchant, and so many others.

Walz Has No Balz*

So much going on – short blog this week… just remembering what was said… and how it no longer seems to matter.

• 

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And why it should still matter…

It seems all great ‘civilizations’ sacrifice their children.

* Some just think he’s a liar. Saying what is politically expedient. Not sure when Peggy was pulled onto the ticket, but perhaps this was his work to entice her?
I’m one of those those who see Walz as a political animal with no conscience to prevent him from using any female who comes along when it’s convenient:

• Peggy Flanagan – whose voice is being stifled by the administration?
• Rebecca Otto – whose hand he grabbed, while holding his four-fingers in the air to assure Erin Murphy would not secure the DFL nomination – as she seemed about to do?
• Hope – his own daughter who he used early on to pretend he GAF about our children?

Those are my top three though the list is longer.

I’ve witnessed him ignoring Native women – on their own land – giving them platitudes and dismissing their words. I’ve watched his entire administration seem beholden to a Canadian pipeline builder – as his citizens live in fear of what this drought is going to do to their manoomin (wild rice), their livelihoods, their livestock, their gardens, their children.

Not to mention all our other Relatives – the flyers, the swimmers, the forests, and most importantly, the nibi (water).

Chief Bemidji – 2013 (credit: Dan G)

Discovery

To hear laughter
From one you admire
As you share a very real terror

To feel dismissed
By one you thought
Was on your side

To comprehend
There is nothing you can say
That won’t just further divide

Is to feel hopeless.
No wonder so many
Choose suicide.

It seems easier
To just let go
And admit defeat

Especially with much
Disappearing each day
Or revealing itself

Seeing the reality
Of the cognitive dissonance
And it’s vastness

To know 100 isn’t an option…
you’ll only get 60…
Or maybe less?

Better than your kids, eh?
Who’ll only get three decades?
Or two? Or less than one?

One realizes
We are each
On our own.

Good luck, everyone.

Doing What I can… With What I Got

Tags

Acceptance, communication, Healing, Honoring Truth, Staying Brave

Just doing a bit of healing this week… with a little re-write of an Ode from Si Kahn

What You Do With What You’ve Got

You must know someone like her
Who, what’s on her mind, can speak
With a brain that’s always thinking
And a past that has been bleak
And a heart that feels for all life
And fears that it may end
She can cry almost the whole day
In hopes for that to mend.

It’s not just what you’re born with
It’s what you choose to bear
It’s not how big your share is
It’s how much you can share
It’s not the fights you dreamed of
It’s the ones you really fought
It’s not what you’ve been given
It’s what you do with what you’ve got

What’s the use of this big love
If she only silent sits
So she writes down all her finest thoughts
Unwinding, for friends, the sticky bits
What’s the use in the words she writes
If not seen by all the rest
So she shares her words out widely
And she hopes for all the best

It’s not just what you’re born with
It’s what you choose to bear
It’s not how big your share is
It’s how much you can share
It’s not the fights you dreamed of
It’s the ones you really fought
It’s not what you’ve been given
It’s what you do with what you’ve got

Between those who stand to protect
The water that gives life
And those in constant power
who bring ongoing strife
Between those who stand together
And those who stand alone
Her hope is with the ones for peace
To save our only home

It’s not just what you’re born with
It’s what you choose to bear
It’s not how big your share is
It’s how much you can share
It’s not the fights you dreamed of
It’s the ones you really fought
It’s not what you’ve been given
It’s what you do with what you’ve got

Will you save our only home?

With Covid, its variants, and insecurities about how jails are taking care… the days of being arrested are over for now. Still proud of holding ground in Bemidji back in August-2018.

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Original:

IT’S NOT JUST WHAT YOU’RE BORN WITH
(Si Kahn)

Chorus:
It’s not just what you’re born with,
It’s what you choose to bear
It’s not how large your share is,
but how much you can share
Oh it’s not the fights you dream of
But those you really fought
It’s not just what your given
But what you do with what you’ve got

You must know someone like him,
He was tall and strong and lean, body like a greyhound,
Mind so sharp and keen
But his heart just like a laurel, grew twisted on itself,
’til almost everything he did brought pain to someone else.

For what’s the use of two strong legs, if you only run away
What good is the finest voice, If you’ve nothing good to say,
What good are strength and muscles, if you only push and shove
What’s the use of two good ears, if you can’t hear those you love.

Between those who use their neighbors, and those who use a cane,
Those in constant power and those in constant pain,
Between those who run to evil and those who cannot run,
Tell me, which ones are the cripples,
And which ones touch the sun?

http://www.lyricsondemand.com/u/unknownlyrics/itsnotjustwhatyourebornwithlyrics.html