Thunder Moon

by Rain Trueax

July's Thunder Moon

Because of our times, I wanted to put a warning here. I am going to discuss some cultural issues in this blog. It will appear negative to some. After that will follow what I believe we can do about it, which involves my home. So forewarned is forearmed. If you've had it with negative talk, come on back when Diane posts and next week I'll try to stay away from what is darkening my days. :) Sometimes though, a person just has to voice what they feel about what's going on. It's called venting...

 

 Just a few of our books and DVDs.  A lot more will need a place when we get back to the farm that is loaded with them. The bronze is by Deacon and the art has come from years of collecting. Cat toys, of course.

To me, it's ironic that in a time of such turmoil politically, culturally, and with the virus, that some want to stir up hate to go along with the rest. I guess they are feeding each other what they think is truth. Whether it is or not, it's also hate. What or whom does it actually benefit? And I am not just talking about one side of the political divide. It's on both sides. And if it's not hate, it's fear. I go around to perfectly nice (I thought) friends on blogs or at Facebook, and it's a constant drumbeat of resentments, snark, and blame. Often the facts being relayed are disputed elsewhere, but if you say that, then you are accused of gaslighting. Actual discussions of issues don't happen many places in this acrid environment. 

So I ask myself-- what does this gain the person spreading hate or fear? Does it make their life better? It's not just online. I listened to one person saying that in his neighborhood, if you didn't agree with one side, you are labeled a racist or bigot. He added that his neighborhood was made up of those from both parties. It's a time of chaos to say the least when what we need is a time of peace to deal with a virulent virus.

It's not enough to attack what is happening today. It goes to the Civil War where those who fought for the South are being called traitors, which justifies removing their statues (even if the ones removed turn out to have been abolitionists). Words mean things Words like traitor justify death penalties. 

Except, isn't a traitor someone who betrays their own people, their own country? If being a traitor is wanting to break away from one country to form their own, that means the Revolutionaries that wanted a United States were also traitors. And they'd have been seen so-- if they had lost as the South did. 

How did the South see it? When I was in Georgia over twenty years ago, the bookstores had books about the Northern Aggression. Does either side ever forgive? Today though this battle is about those who never fought on either side but are creating a new need for sides.

As accusatory words are cast every direction (now back to even George Washington), I keep thinking for today, if someone wants to be healthy, especially in a time of plague, why wouldn't building up one's own immune system be key? Does anyone believe that happens when spreading rage? I know. I know. It's supposed to be patriotism to be on one side, but what if there isn't one right or wrong side? What if there is only one side and that's love and living a healthy life emotionally?

For many years, I've believed in making my homes a place of sanctuary. This is from long before recent events. I had a motto that influenced what I put into my homes (and yes,

for many years I had two). Add to my life, only what is true, what is beauty, and what is good. If something didn't fit with that, it didn't come in.

When I look around my Tucson home (our son now lives in our Oregon home), things were chosen for their positive symbolism. This house has a lot of Native American art. It has icons that represent spirituality as well as paintings about nature. The art always has energy that I see as strengthening-- whether it's Native American dancers, those celebrating a ritual or a man on horseback fighting for his life with a bow and arrow. Positive energy is in all of them including the sculptures that I did probably twenty years ago.

On the coffee table is a bowl of round rocks. Most of them I found myself when wading in streams while Ranch Boss fished. A few though are Moqui Marbles, which I learned about and then bought both in Tucson and Utah. They are found in Southern Utah and can be seen as positive energy. Holding them and meditating enriches the experience.Click on the link for more about them, which are also called Shaman Stones.

Round rocks, coasters and the book we are taking turns reading aloud from each morning

Sometimes, I have to rethink something I've been using or repurpose it. I had a Papier-mâché figure of a priest with a cross in one hand and Bible in the other on an old cupboard along with three Navajo made Kachina type dancers. (I know who made them because I know from whom I bought them.) They were all up there to be out of the reach of the cats. It bothered me though-- him seeming to have power over them.

Then came all the talk of statues being symbolic and upsetting to some people, like Father Sera to those who saw the missions about oppression and an attempt to control or even kill indigenous people; the symbolism of the priest above the dancers in size, bothered me more. 

 Dancers, my sculpture, brass bowl (with Japanese symbols as an uncle brought it back as a gift after WWII), Hopi pot, shell, and moqui marble with sage

So, I took him off and replaced him with one of my sculptures of what could represent a spiritual influence. The Father went to a small table by himself, underneath a lithograph. I wondered if it would continue to bother me. It has not as I see him now as someone seeking to give to others what he sees as hope. That the figure, purchased some years ago from a small shop in Tucson, is beautiful adds to my enjoyment of him. I rethink what is in my home for whether it still works. I see a home as a dynamic place, one to be sure it always works for those who live within. The furniture though is all practical and not for anything more than being comfortable and useful. Much of it is old. 

What is in my home would not give energy to all. It's what works for us, and I wanted to share a few photos just as an example of how a home can be a place of refuge, which we certainly need today. Every time I walk into these spaces, I feel happiness. It's what we can create if we think about what matters to us.

 We don't eat at our dining room table very often as we have one also in the kitchen. It's where she comes to cool off from the extreme heat outside. It's running over 110ºF for a while now.

 Hey if the other cats get their photos here, she demanded equal time. She gets on the bookcase above my desk as she likes either high places or under a bed :).