Standing Rock and the Sacred Stone Camp

I stand with the People of Standing Rock and the Sacred Stone Camp

I have been keeping track for some time of what was going on at the Sacred Prayer Camp Standing Rock Reservation and stand in complete solidarity.  Water is Sacred, Water is Life.  But make no mistake, this struggle goes far beyond this seemingly simple statement "Water is Life."   Water is necessary for all life on this planet; everything that lives and grows needs water.  The  United Nations in 1952 stated that clean water is a basic right of all people in all countries in our world.  Included in this struggle are the sovereign rights of the indigenous peoples.   Treaty rights that were made long ago giving these nations the power to make their own decisions on their land must be upheld now.  The struggle is also about all of humanity’s right to clean water.  The struggle is most definitely about people's right to clean water and a clean environment on every level opposed to the rights of corporations to use and pollute our Earth for their profit. It is about the rights of the next seven generations of human beings to be left a planet that is clean, vibrant and healthy for them.

I've been praying from home with the people of Standing Rock and the Sacred Stone encampment for all the reasons stated above.  Knowing that as it is spoken in prayer that is the way it will be.  I woke up Sunday morning after ceremony on Saturday knowing that I'm not the "ONE" but I am part of the "ONE"  and with that knowing, I knew that I must prepare and leave as soon as possible  for the journey until my feet are standing on that sacred ground.  I then must invest my prayers and those prayers that were sent with me  into the goodness that has arisen at that sacred ground. So I prepared and I left and drove for 3 days as I was driven by my spirit to get there as soon as possible,  which I did.  I could tell you of the beauty I saw there  which started with the same words from every person I met, which were "Welcome, thanks for coming."  It is important for everyone to know of the spiritual Unity of this Gathering of people from the four directions, the Deep spiritual understanding of the purpose of why they came together at this spot and at this time.  I could tell you of the deeply personal signs and things that the Spirits showed me and of what happened to me in rapid time from the moment I walked onto this land. But I won't as that was a gift for me. I can say this Gathering of human beings goes far beyond  the many environmental reasons and justifications to stand together for the protection of the Mother Earth and its resources from the greedy corporate monsters that would destroy the Earth for a few dollars a profit!  This Gathering of people from around the world of the four directions was nothing less to me then the spirit of loving-kindness coming together showing us how mankind can work together to solve our many human and physical and spiritual problems together.

The Gathering at the Sacred Stone Camp has already changed my life and the lives of everyone who has and will show up there to the support Earth. The Sacredness and the Power of these actions will go out to each person who is praying in support and it will spread from contact with people who have been at this event.  If the Spirit calls you should go now!  If you know someone who has been there, gather in small groups to pray and listen to the stories about what is really going on at the Sacred Stone Camp. #NoDAPL is just the beginning.

Please let me share one more thing I saw there and the vision that was shared with me. There were many people from all age groups working and praying and taking action together. I now have very strong hope that from this gathering will come the new generation of young activists that are now needed for the future health of our planet. The vision shared with me is that this Sacred Stone Camp will continue to gather young and old from all the races from around our world to bring into view the many environmental, treaty, human rights and social and political justice, climate change, any and all issues from local to worldwide that need attention if life is to go on..

What are you doing for your Mother on EARTH DAY 2015?

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Socrates

“Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day was founded by Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.It is celebrated in more than 175 countries.” Wikipedia reference

Just as we humans need to protect, nurture, and feed ourselves, we can offer to the planet, our Mother Earth, respect, protection, and nurturance.  “Given the present rate of planetary pollution and destruction, we need to negotiate a detente with nature and ourselves.” Paul Hawken. There are many positive actions taking place all over the world. For instance, there are over six thousand different women’s groups in Africa planting trees and four thousand organizations in North America have adopted a river, creek, or stream. Organic agriculture is the fastest growing sector of farming in North America, Japan, Mexico and Europe.  There are three thousand organizations that educate farmers, customers and legislators about sustainable and biological agriculture. The world is now understanding the need to move away from the dirty carbon based energies of the past 150 years into the clean and renewable energy future.  Solar, wind and wave energy technologies are just a few of the bright stars this future will be based on.

Our indigenous first peoples of the Americas have given the long held wisdom that we should always be thinking of the next seven generations to come in our interactions with Mother Earth. It is said that we do not own the earth, we borrow it from our children.  Many of us are just now coming to understand that the earth is taking care of us and not the other way around. Our actions have far reaching effects and consequences on our planet, climate, oceans and air. Droughts, flooding, super storms, melting of the glaciers and the ice caps in the north and south poles are just some indications of severe climate change.

“Great Spirit, whose dry lands thirst, help us to find the way to refresh your lands.

We pray for the power to refresh your lands.

Great Spirit, whose waters are choked with debris and pollution, help us to find the way to cleanse your waters.

We pray for your knowledge to find a way to cleanse the waters.

Great Spirit, whose beautiful earth grows ugly with misuse, help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.

We pray for your strength to restore the beauty of your handiwork.

Great Spirit, whose great creatures are being destroyed, help us to find a way to replenish them.

We pray for your power to replenish the earth.

Great Spirit, whose gifts to us are being lost in selfishness and corruption, help us to find the way to restore our humanity.

We pray for the wisdom to find the way to restore our humanity.”  UN Environmental Sabbath Program

It was our honor yesterday to help the Cub Scouts of troop 714 of San Clemente Las Palmas school to plant eight California Laurel Bay trees for their Earth Day celebration in their new camping area at Oso Lake. This was the first experience planting trees for this troop. They worked hard digging the holes, preparing the soil and placing the trees in the ground.  As we worked together, we had the opportunity to share the value of planting trees and how this action helps the future of the planet.  The scouts were amazed to learn that trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. As the work continued, their understanding of the cycle of life deepened. As we finished placing the last tree in the ground, a red tail hawk flew directly over our heads making her voice known to all of us.  It was clear that this sign was a good one and the spirit of the hawk was saying thank you.

How can we help to make Earth Day everyday? Here are some ideas:

    Plant trees

    Conserve water

    Walk or ride your bike to school or work

    Use public transportation

    Recycle

    Compost

    Make your home energy efficient

To learn more visit the websites below:

http://www.wattlesswednesday.org/

http://www.earthday.org/2015?gclid=Cj0KEQjwpM2pBRChsZCzm_CU0t4BEiQAxDVFmlR83yiKujlmwwxzuClFLM_WXxTekrzZFZDkx5nj7ScaAnXj8P8HAQ

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/save-earth-top-ten.htm

http://www.plant-for-the-planet-billiontreecampaign.org/

Remember, on Earth Day and everyday, we are all part of the earth.

Love, 

Joyce and Gene

Tree of Life

Tree of Life   

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness”.   John Muir

While hiking through the woods in Sequoia National Park one summer, we came upon a grove of redwood trees.  Entering the group of Standing Ones, we felt ourselves become quiet as the awe within us grew.  The trees formed an almost perfect circle.   Allowing the silence of the place to sink in, we breathed deeply of the forest scent and relaxed into the peace surrounding us.  In this sacred grove of trees, we felt the connection with the Infinite.

In our home, we have on our walls beautiful woven pieces depicting “The Tree of Life”

symbol.   Each was created by a weaver from a different culture: Indian, Guatemalan, Native American.  The Tree of Life is a common image in art from around the world.  This ancient symbol is understood by people everywhere.  The symbol speaks of roots buried in the earth with branches stretching upward to the sky.  The tree serves as a living connection between this and other worlds.  Many myths describe gods and their messengers traveling from one world to another by climbing up or down the tree.
     

Long ago, in many cultures, trees were intensely worshipped. The Native American peoples called them the “Standing Ones.”  They respectfully used trees for medicine, food, fiber, dye, musical instruments, lodges for habitation and ceremony, and many other things.  Something precious was lost once modern peoples no longer viewed trees as living beings.  It became easy to clear cut acres and acres of trees to use as lumber without a thought of how great a loss this created.  For the sake of our Mother Earth, it is time to recall Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s words, “Reverence for all life.”                                          

We cannot live without trees.  Trees are called “the lungs of the world.”  They clean the air we breathe, taking in the carbon dioxide we exhale and we breathe the oxygen they exhale. Trees are needed to produce rain and without the rain, topsoil is blown away, leading to the creation of deserts and hunger from famine.

“Oxford University scientists, after years of research, have determined the best technology to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and try to reverse global warming is to plant trees.” (Bloomberg News)

Over the past seven years, we have planted over two hundred trees in Orange County, CA. Man has taken so many trees that it is now time for us to reforest the earth that provides us with the basis for all life.  Your help is desperately needed to replenish trees, locally and around the world. “God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.”  John Muir We must always remember that we are all part of the earth.

Here are some links for free trees and groups planting trees that need your help:

https://www.arborday.org/takeaction/volunteer/

http://www.nwf.org/trees-for-wildlife/about/tree-bank-information.aspx

http://www.plant-for-the-planet-billiontreecampaign.org/

http://www.savetheredwoods.org/

https://www.treepeople.org/ LA area

http://therainforestsite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/trs/home

http://www.treehuggersofamerica.org/

Love, Gene and Joyce

WATER IS LIFE

Water is Life

WORLD WATER DAY MARCH 22, 2015 ACTION DAY

“Water is life.” George Mackenzie Tlicho, NW Territories, Canada.

Water is Sacred to Indigenous peoples around the world because they know nothing on Earth lives without water, and that includes the living Planet Earth. International Decade for action “Water for Life”.  “On 28 July 2010 Resolution 64/292, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights. In 2006, the Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted decision 2/104 “human rights and access to water”.  It’s that face of America that Catarina de Albuquerque witnessed at the end of her U.S. visit.. De Albuquerque, the UN independent expert on water and sanitation, visited the U.S. to examine human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation. What she found was not befitting of the world’s richest nation.” from UN documents.

‘The human right to water and sanitation entitles everyone to water and sanitation that is available, accessible, affordable, acceptable and safe without discrimination. But de Albuquerque found that people of color and Native Americans disproportionately suffer insufficient access to clean water and sanitation services. While less than one percent of non-native American households have no access to safe water and/or wastewater disposal, 13 percent of Native Americans lack access.” from UN documents.

Here are some important facts about water from Water. Org:

1. 1 in 9 people in the world lack access to safe water.
2. Women and children spend 140 million hours a day collecting water.
3. 840,000 people die each year from a water related disease.

From our personal experience:

We saw the reality of these statistics when we traveled with a group of volunteers to a small village in the mountains of Guatemala to build a medical clinic and provide basic healthcare to the people living there.

Many of the children were malnourished from the scarcity of food, but the main contributor to low weight and poor health was the lack of access to clean water.   Drinking from the streams and ponds caused the children to ingest parasites which created great suffering.  Medication and education about boiling water decreased the problem over time for that village, but the challenge to create a sustainable clean water source is ongoing.

After that experience, we never thought of water in quite the same way.  We saw for ourselves how a beautiful, vibrant child’s potential could be destroyed by the lack of what some Native American people call “the sacred life blood.”  Conserving water and contributing to clean water projects around the world became part of our lives.

On World Water Day, we renew our commitment to support the right of all living things to clean, abundant water.   We know many of you already have the same commitment.  Here are a few more conservation ideas to consider.

LIST & LINKS TO WATER CONSERVATION IDEAS:

1. Never put water down the drain when there may be another use for it such as watering a plant or garden, or cleaning.
2. Verify that your home is leak-free, because many homes have hidden water leaks. Read your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter does not read exactly the same, there is a leak.
3. Repair dripping faucets by replacing washers. If your faucet is dripping at the rate of one drop per second, you can expect to waste 2,700 gallons per year which will add to the cost of water and sewer utilities, or strain your septic system.
4. Check for toilet tank leaks by adding food coloring to the tank. If the toilet is leaking, color will appear within 30 minutes. Check the toilet for worn out, corroded or bent parts. Most replacement parts are inexpensive, readily available and easily installed. (Flush as soon as test is done, since food coloring may stain tank.)
5. Take shorter showers. Replace your showerhead with an ultra-low-flow version. Some units are available that allow you to cut off the flow without adjusting the water temperature knobs.
6. Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Dispose of tissues, insects and other such waste in the trash rather than the toilet.

There are many ways for us to conserve water.  To learn more use the links below for some great tips:

http://www.americanwater.com/49ways.php

http://eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm

http://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/

First, we must acknowledge the sacredness of and the necessity for clean water for all life on our planet. Then we must learn to use this gift wisely and share it equally, respecting the rights of access to the source of all life.  “Water is Life” and we must take action now because “We are all part of the Earth.”

Love, Gene & Joyce

Image by Hamomilaki