Tending our Souls together(in such a time as this)

Bayo Akomolafe,

Because modernity centralizes rationality/human experience, and instrumentalizes the nonhuman world as resource for human ends (that is, refusing to see the nonhuman world as powerful on its own terms), power and enchantment are always in short supply relative to deepening demand. One has to make a great effort to leave the homogenizing lull of suburbia for some distant, exotic location in order to feel alive, for instance. As the deadening rationality of modern civilization spreads, and as its circumference expands, the intimate magic of a relational world becomes even more contraband and expensive, reduced to a ‘high’ on a street corner….Isn’t the material world (the one we in our hubris seek to save) infused with agency, power, longing and electrifying possibility – which the Yoruba people of West Africa that are observant of the Ifá nature religion call ‘asé’, a matrixial web of change that enlists human and nonhuman bodies in the co-production of reality? Cannot the world speak for itself?

Bayo Akomolafe

This summer I am taking an herbal medicine intensive class with Indigenous elders. The School, Native Roots, was begun as a labor of love by a one time student, to preserve wisdom from land-based elders that is so quickly being lost in these times we live.

In the 21st c. even as we are all caught in an economy of endless growth and securing our profits, our true treasure and wealth is disappearing moment by moment. There are species disappearing daily from the planet. We will never lay eyes upon most of them. Our hearts would burst with grief if we really knew how much is lost each day. The land is being developed without regard for all non-human inhabitants. Because humans are also of Madre Tierra/Mother Earth, we all feel her heartbeat, whether we recognize it or not. Estranged from Mother Earth, each other and our non-human cousins, our own hearts ache as we face a tidal wave of gun violence, fear, physical and mental illness. The illusion of separation comes at a high price in these unprecedented times.

But it is also an amazing time as young leaders are being raised up. There are new seeds being planted now. Beneath the rotting foundation of our western delusions, these seeds are sprouting. They are seeds of loving, communal consciousness. An organic farmer friend of mine once told me that the main thing he grows on his farm is consciousness. The way he does this is by keeping the gate to his farm always open for school children. He has mentored generations of young people in a loving consciousness of the soil, water and air. They have learned the import of our human relationships in connection to the whole web of life. It was on his farm that I began teaching my beekeeping students in the summer of 2016.

We are all waking up together. It is a time of collective soul tending! A call to open our heart and souls to new voices and life-giving ideas—the voices unexpectedly living outside our usual boxes that keep us comfortable and safe. Go looking and see whom and what you find.

The following has been making its rounds… I quote it with care, honoring the voice of the elder in the oral tradition to which it has been attributed. It feels so wise at this time in history. May it help us all examine our lives.

“You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.  And there are things to be considered . . . Where are you living? What are you doing?  What are your relationships? Are you in right relation? Where is your water? Know your garden It is time to speak your Truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader. “Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time!”    “There is a river flowing now very fast.  It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.  They will try to hold on to the shore.   They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.       “Know the river has its destination.  The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water.   And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate.  At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, Least of all ourselves.  For the moment that we do,  our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.      “The time for the lone wolf is over.  Gather yourselves!  Banish the word struggle from you attitude and your vocabulary.  All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.     “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” — attributed to an unnamed Hopi elder Hopi Nation Oraibi, Arizona