Hurricane Irma Prep

Saturday, September 9th, 12:42 am


Really, this process of preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Irma is a lot like birthing a baby.  You buy lots of stuff, you're not really sure exactly what you're preparing for... not certain you can handle what's coming... and you can never be sure how, when or in what condition you will emerge with this new life...

It takes a lot of energy and effort, because producing life IS a lot of energy!  We forget. We mothers, we humans... so very forgetful!  About how precious life his... how hard we worked to get it here and how much it means to us.  How we depend on one another... How we need to take time to be kind to one another. We are all so addicted and distracted, busy with so many things.  It takes a potentially devastating catstrophe to shake us from our slumber long enough to look up and smile at a stranger.

It's been 525 years since the arrival of Cristobal Colon... 3000+ years since the starting point of the counting of days in the Mesoamerican calendar.  Four and three quarters years since the winter solstice of 2012, marking the completion of a 52 year cycle of baktun year bundles. Two weeks since the solar eclipse, two days past the September full moon, and, less than two weeks from my 45th birthday.

There are wildfires burning in the nine western most states in the US, three category 4 hurricanes in a row and early this morning, an 8.2 earthquake rattled in to Chiapas and surrounding areas.

4:45 pm

The rain is falling, the wind is blowing and yet today is a joyful day for us... the 7th anniversary of the day my son was released from a week long hospital stay and I am forever grateful!

The year I decided to prepare myself to ask to be made Midewiwin, I stood facing the south on the edge of a great ice age cliff overlooking that glacial lake we now know as Wabanew Gamee, Lake Ontario, not to far from where the #TIFF is going on today.  That year, I stood in that spot at least once per day. Gathered my materials, lit a fire, and offered my thoughts of thanks and determination.  That next year, once I'd been placed on the path of becoming Midewiwin, I moved home, to my mother's homeland. I returned to my ancestral roots in Mesoamerica. It was there that I faced hurricane Mitch. Then, as now, I prepared, and waited. Eventually, Mitch held fast, in place, for six days, and skirted around the country of Belize where I was. That was part of my journey to the doorway of the Midewiwin People of the Heart Way Teaching Medicine Society. Now we are here, at the edge of another massive swirl of wind and water.

Once again, I find myself standing on the highest hill, this time it's an elevation of several inches above the surrounding terrain. And I offer my thoughts once again... of compassion... of kindness... of hopefullness... that we, as a community of human beings, will remember that there is but once source of life and in that flow, we are all relatives no matter the diverse origins of languages, or birth places, or the length of time our ancestors have wandered across the beautiful lands of this planet we share.  We all are children of Mother Earth regardless of the races, religions and identities we choose to wear.  As my we'en Bawdwaywidun Banaise recalls his father saying... "all creation stories are true."  It is my hope that these fires, and floods and shaking of the earth will remind us all of our responsibilities to one another to keep growing and learning and creating and caring for this beautiful land we are on... taking an active part in shaping and moulding our path to the future... standing up and being responsible for the actions we are allowing to happen in our selves, our families and our nations... and for each of us to ensure that those decisions on our behalf are resulting in the future we want for our children to inherit. That we will each bring our whole effort to work together and form a world of dignity, justice, equity and liberty, a world in which many fit.