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Covid 19 as 2020 Challenge

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When we started this New Year, no one really knew what this year had to offer. We heard via the news about the epidemic of this novel virus in China , and that they were making massive efforts to control the spread. They shut down a good chunk of the country. A few of us watched the Chinese people using fogging equipment to spray down the streets, thinking ...oh propaganda.  Until it spread past China despite the lockdown, they tried. People went around it. It spread to the Middle East, the US, Europe. We knew coping with winter in Canada, it was coming. When it came, back in the spring, I watched our government do a complete about-face in policy . They literally shut down the country. Ironically enough, earlier with the tensions between Indigenous peoples and land rights and the overreaching reaction of the RCMP in Northern BC, the people were in the streets. They stormed the BC Legislature in a show of force and protest . No more were the people going to tolerate the excu
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What does Reconciliation Mean?

I must admit this week the news and political discourse in Canada has been a fascinating view of the "war of words." Polarizing and divisive words can be seen as not productive, but one must still listen to get to reconciliation right. Whether it is at he personal or the larger levels, one must still listen. That requires that one respects enough to hear the words, hear the emotion, and consider the meaning. It means when the other is struggling, asking for and reflecting back what your understanding back to them. The question "help me understand" is then the most powerful acknowledgement that what was said has value and that you are listening and willing to listen more. This is the real "frontline" of healing and reconciliation.  Acknowledging that person or position or belief has some value, even if its ignorance, allows conversation to continue. Then we go from there.  Reconciliation is also a commitment to hang in and stay strong to the proce
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Sovereignty, Land Use and its Collision Course in Reconciliation

I have been viewing the recent  events of Canada and the W'et'swe'wet'in people and Coastal Gas Link pipeline in BC, Canada. The protests started with the raid on the camp after CGL was  granted a confirmation of an interim injunction, and sparked a lot of political action...demonstrations and blockades, across Canada and beyond. The impact of these blockades is high. Disruption.  And at the same time...a host of issues. Attention. And costs...lots of costs. First issue is the Indigneous people on the pipeline route that have not consented. Their sovereignty of title was not respected. So far, the claims look very damaging. The route ...no archeological assessment. No willingness to re route in that territory to protect what they value.  And using the RCMP as a tactical force to force squatter rights after the governments backed the project in principle. What's interesting is the rhetoric  implies that the Indigenous peoples are respected. The assumption both
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The Path is not Always What You Think it IS

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This was taken from the highway I was driving on to get to the OBOD East Coast Gathering in 2012.  I have no idea where exactly this is, but the weekend included my initiation to the Ovate Grade.  My life changed pretty dramatically, and five years later, I will say, for the most part, I am pretty content. The path did not go anywhere I thought it would.
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The Magic of Change

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Cerridwen's Cauldron? Maybe.  The story of her brew and the process of change can provide a way to see transition and change in life and living. YMMV. I have spent a good couple years dealing with the changes from my marriage.  The idea that relationships should last a lifetime, is a bit of a dream.  For some, they figure out a way to make it work.  For others, they suffer through a disappointing horror.  However, somewhere in all of this, I have come to understand that relationships provide us with both the experience of being with another and learning about ourselves. There were many things I learned about me, looking back.  I think it's more about what I was. When I started my business, I did not expect that running it would force me to grow, to reach out and beyond myself.  When you are a self-employed person, there is no one forcing you to do things.  You are the boss and the employee.  What I learned was that the strengths I lacked, held my business back.  I lea
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Catholic Girl, Vodoun, and More

It took me a while to sort out what has been making crazy influences in my life.  Vodoun.  Someone was crazy enough to call on a trickster spirit that is into mind games, torment, and creating self-destruction in the intended victim.  But, it showed itself to me. At least, it showed itself to me using those images.  The thing is,  I know what this is.  I have a passing familiarity with it.  I study and have studied religion and spirituality for close to 30 some odd years now, only because I am interested. And finally, that relief from the Catholic Church visit, and that Welsh parish priest, and his recommendations, all make sense. Vodoun is a synthesis religion, with some practitioners seeing the saints as avatars for the lwa.  And, now that I know, I have a plan to address it. The thing is, some spirits are amoral, and rather neutral.  They do not necessarily favour the one who called them up.  And if the party that sent this after me and my family are dabbling from stuff from t
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Catholic Girl's Redemption

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The Rosary is a form of prayer beads that Catholics, at the Roman Catholics, have been using as a structured form of meditation and devotion.  Reflections on Mary, Jesus and his path on Earth, and the Father in heaven, are all part of the form. However, it is likely the early Christian Monks borrowed this from Eastern practise; monastics in the East were using prayer beads far sooner than in the West. It is a funny thing, to find myself going to attend church for the first time willingly in about 25 years, for me.  I know my father is not well, and I also know that in time, I will find myself spending time in there.  What it was for me was a homecoming I was not expecting. This druid is well aware that specific beliefs on the path require no doctrine, dogma, or books.  We learn directly from our experiences, the book of nature, life itself.  All the wisdom of every story of human experience is out there, whether it be in various religious texts, the lyrics of a heartfelt songste
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