It's hard to believe that it's already December. This year went by soooo fast. I am not much of a holiday person, though I had years where I was. Now it's mostly get through the season, to the shortest day and start heading toward spring and then summer.
There is a time in life where I was more traditional but that's not this time. I look with some nostalgia on those days but life is what it is. I do see people where their lives seem to stay a lot the same for religion, community, family. Do we choose whether that happens or is it what it is?
The next few weeks will be busy for us as we once again head south with our trailer and four cats. Our Oregon home will be lived in by our son as he maintains the herds while he works at his day job. That's a pattern Ranch Boss had most of his working life. He used to say it was like going from a very techie world to a very basic one. I called him a Renaissance man for being able to go from figuring out a laser problem and then come home and split firewood.
Maybe the farm has been part of what kept us from having a more 'normal' life. It tends to do that as the technology of ranch/farm work might involve more modern tools, but the tasks are very much the same. On a ranch, even a small one like ours, fences must be maintained, livestock fed, watered, found when they get out, and sometimes treated if they get sick. It's not an easy life, but it is a satisfying one for having real consequences. I suspect a lack of real consequences is much impacting how many see life today. They think they can avoid what in the end, most of us cannot-- even if it's less obvious than a fence that is down.
I wish more people experienced rural living, as I think they'd better understand that you can't buy everything. We can clean up the air from our own pollution but can't buy an environment that is guaranteed safe. This place we call earth has never worked that way. Some have always claimed we can make it safe by using magick or today environmental changes. Those wanting to believe that don't take into account volcanoes, earthquakes and how the earth is an organism with constant change. We can't control if a meteorite hits somewhere and changes everything. People though in cities maybe see that as more possible as their world seems in control. Mine, out here, on a creek, with predators sharing the land with us, not so much.
In these photos are some spiritual tools intended to fix things. Some we bought and some were gifted.
I think it was somewhere in the '80s when we bought the medicine pipe in Pipestone, Minnesota. I had heard of this place where the tribes could come and even those at war have peace while they dug out the rock to make these pipes. I intended to someday smoke this one, but proper use requires having a sheath to put it in after using it-- usually of deerskin. We don't have that and hence it has remained a future possibility.
The rattle came as a gift from a good friend. It might serve as a way to let one speaker talk at a time or maybe was intended for healings. Again, it's not been used but is a reminder perhaps to let others speak and listen or maybe that we can send energy to those who need it.
The last gift came from my brother. It's a tomahawk and like the others not old and obviously never used. This one could be used in a dance as it doesn't seem it'd be an effective weapon-- although who knows ;).
In the picture on top, there were other things I regard as about positive energy including the ways to do smudges, which I have done.
On the wall by the sideboard is a carving by master woodcarver, craftsman, Raymond Kinman. It represents a piece he had done for someone else, which I loved, where he said he could do it for us. I had a ceramic face from years back, and see it fitting together as serendipity-- as much good in life is. It's what we say when things come together for good. When it's not so much good, we call it fate. Serendipity is better ;)
10 comments:
While I have some artifacts and folk art, I really do not have symbolic understanding of what they may represent. I just enjoy their beauty. I did have a sage smoking ceremony for my house by a friend when we first moved in. It has kept us from injury and debt but the roof has an annoying leak, a year ago the bottom beneath one corner of the garage opened, routine repairs have been predictable.
Lovely post Rain. I grew up in the country both at the coast and in small farming communities and it has stayed with me throughout my life. One of my sisters and I have small collections of these kind of things, she gathers her together for display and calls them altars. Stones, rattles, small photos of our parents, a pine needle basket with amythysts on it. We like Tabor we all our homes smudged with sage when we first moved in. I think it's good to acknolwdge and respect the mysteries the world holds even if we don't entirely understand them.
Excuse my typos, my posting is full of them lately.
I believe you have an important concept of the effect of urban living without experiencing being close to the earth as being determintal to the direction our civilization is taking. Our Guatemalan guide who was a student of the Myan civilization sighted that as one of the main reasons the Myan civilization declined.
People can avoid that though, Diane, even when they live in cities if they go out and fish or get onto the land, like you and your husband do. You see the consequences. Just so many think a city park is getting out.
Very thoughtful. I agree that experiencing life spending time, especially living in a rural or natural environment is a unique experience — allowing a perspective that cannot be gained otherwise. I do think how we humans use our environment has a significant effect — positive and negative — especially as the human population increases in number. We do have the capability of upsetting the natural balance which goes beyond the immediate capability of nature to counter-balance. Consequently, as caretakers of our earth, destructive behaviors identified should be reduced or ceased with new or different technologies used instead, if the services they’ve provided are desired. I believe as indivuals, hence a group, do have the capability and responsibility, to make changes in our behaviors shown to alter factors vital for plant and all life. Perhaps the most fundamental are the air we breathe and the water we drink.
I also think people can do more together, Joared, but our problem today is sorting out fact from fiction. There is so much information, but it can be twisted to suit agendas. Suppositions can be presented as facts. Anything that would threaten the supposition can be omitted. This is true of climate as well as social issues.
Most people get their info from sources that make them comfortable, and the bubbles just get bigger but not more well informed about what might be reality. Humans want to think control is possible. I think it's been our success but can be our downfall at the same time.
I am not sure control is possible, or needed. Explaining that further, put our world into the hands of scientists and their schemes may be terrifying. Small movements are beginning, for instance in my daughter's town, they have started 'Edible Todmorden', which basically grows food on any spare ground in the town. I also notice that American towns can have very independent people as part of the 'doing and speaking out culture'
I love the world serendipity it has such a joyous nature!
Control is probably not possible but humans sure want it whether through religions or science. I think it's been our nature from the start.
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