Wounded Knee Lakota home builders are heading out again this summer (5th consecutive year in relationship with Lakota). This time by invitation to Gran'ma Claudia after she attended the 1000 hummingbird epic gathering in SF Bay Area Coyote Hills through April full moon, attended by her granddaughter, Jacquie. So Gran'ma Claudia wants a cob house..

There's a very particular dynamic about taking the cob house buiding techniques to Wounded Knee. In other places, we do now have plenty examples of cob houses going up in weeks due to a critical number of folks converged with momentum to see that apparition. That has not been the path in Wounded Knee and, if you know its history, you might guess at some of the complexities inherent there.

Cob house building is deeply deeply about relationship.. and so we have been building, building, building..... relationship. And it is beautiful. So here to have an elder 'Send A Voice', is precious beyond words....and we will build, building, building.. and she is planning on being back here for next years 1000 hummingbirds... weaving, interweaving... irridescent ribbons of faith, kinship and relationship.

LET'S GO HOME.....
Can you feel that deep belly sigh
Everyone is worthy
Everyone
Goes Home...
Everyone
Has A Home To Go To
That they love
and feel
that deep sigh up-welling...;
Let's go Home

This movie is from our unforgettable, tender summer with Leola One Feather & family, when Yinka Selley came too, with intent to capture on film some essence of Lakota-we-evolving.

We are thrilled to avail ourselves of the newly imagineered 'TipJoy' giving-stream. We are building escrow with increments of $2 giving, via TimeToShine & 1000hummingbird blogs and Twiterring (& loving people inspired to 'ReTweet'):

TWITTER:
Raise the Roof! http://bit.ly/LakotaHome/1000hummingbird using @tipjoy

TipJoy contributions this summer (2009) will help with all sundries as the building crew commences (from June 15) to build Gran'ma Claudia's cob house. As with previous years, much has been donated, from food to feed the builders, to tools and equipment necessary on-site. But cash-in-hand comes as a great relief each year, making sure that crews are not stranded without gas to get supplies as work proceeds. Some days the cash that WomenRise sent meant that we had fresh fruit to eat (can you imagine our delight in the dust & heat!). Sometimes, the cash meant the difference between having the right tool for the job or doing without. And, ultimately, the biggest single cost is the roof.  So let's see what Tip Joy can do for Lakota this summer!. 

So let's see what we can do this year with TipJoy!
Well, seems like the TipJoy widget doesn't work inside the Gaia software

So here it is in VOX: http://bit.ly/TipJoyWidget

1000 hummingbirds is a program of Natural Villages
Natural Villages is the 501c3 that has evolved out of building with Lakota
http://www.natural-villages.org/

All the pain that you have known.. oh
all the violence in you soul.. oh
all the the wrong things you have done.. oh
I will take from you when I come.....


It was the first time I made that journey to Lakota... 1500 miles by road. For someone who was raised in the British Isles (small land mass!), the distances blew me away. We set off in convoy, 4 vehicles (or was it 5?), the drive orchestrated by the Lakota who had come for us. We set off after we filled each vehicle with gas and after a pinch of sacred tobacco had been put on each tire of each vehicle. It was surreal.. and comforting. It was dusk.

We drove to friends in Sacramento and there we stayed while we loaded up with final essentials for Pine Ridge under canvas. Then we pointed the whole convoy toward South Dakota and, to all intents and purposes, we never stopped again until we pulled into what would be our first year's building camp at Wounded Knee. We drove and drove and drove and drove (.................can you feel it?!). It was utterly immense, single-mindedly focused as this Lakota was, to arrive on-site in time for summer solstice & Lodge.

An old van had been donated for the Lakota and this was part of the convoy. At some point out along the endless highway, I took the wheel and drove the van without passengers...; drove and drove and drove.... drove into some altered state to the point where Sinead's 'This is To Mother You' song fairly erupted in me. I sang it and sang it with tears streaming sang my voice into husky, sang and sang and drove.

All mistakes made in distress
All your unhappiness
I will take away with my kiss, yes
I will give you tenderness
For child I am so glad I've found you
Although my arms have always been around you
Sweet bird although you did not see me
I saw you
And I'm here to mother you...

I can say unequivocally it was the song that drove that van through miles and literally hours, driving with a strength fueled by extraordinary Presence. It was the first time I 'saw' White Buffalo Calf Woman'. It was the download that had to happen before I ever set foot in Wounded Knee.

How astonished I was to find wild Harebells there, there in the desolation of Wounded Knee. Harebells quivering in the breeze, or flattened in the sometimes daily(same as Scotland!)gale-force winds. Delicate Harebell; most beloved flower of my own mother and only ever grew wild to my knowledge in our Scottish soil....  If men of Scots/Irish lineage were here, the story would be full of shadows and sharp things, that much I knew... but Harebells caught me completely by surprise and took my breath away, in a wondrous way, just as they always do.

Much to tell you of the stunning inter-weavings of Scots-Lakota.. but here to remember this song came in like a transmission on that first sojourn.

For I'm to Mother You
To comfort you and get you through
through when your nights are lonely
through when your dreams are only blue

This is to be with you
to hold you and to kiss you too
for when you need me I will do
what your own mother didn't do
which is to Mother you

Recent photo of a little boy visiting the White House. He wanted to feel Obama's hair because he wanted to know if the President's hair felt just like his. Obama obliged. Priceless.

This came to me by email with no credits but how could I not post and.. wow, there's a picture for that young boy to have for the rest of his life!

"So the first lesson to be taken away from the Bush administration's two military adventures is simply this: war remains today what it always has been - elusive, untamed, costly, difficult to control, fraught with surprise, and sure to give rise to unexpected consequences. Only the truly demented will imagine otherwise." pg 109/110

Quoting: professor of history and international relations at Boston university, Andrew Bacevich, retired from US Army with rank of Colonel, in his book THE LIMITS OF POWER/The American Empire Project... which Chalmers Johnson calls "this utterly original book".

This morning in that surreal hypnagogic state between sleeping and waking, the day ahead was entering my consciousness; 'space' (I 'heard'); it's something about 'space'... Who are we meeting today... cousin Jerry... what is happening for Jerry later this year...?

S*P*A*C*E....  Then.... boom... I was awake.. and congnizant that the aspect related to both cousin Jerry and us, that I was seeing into was upcoming hip replacement (his scheduled for Fall, 'ours' {Ryan's} not yet for sure).

This blog post is to 'honor my inklings' {I always vow to do!}

Space is a state of consciousness

Time is a construct of wo/man

money's the medium and message

Love indeed comes in a "Can"

 

Say "I can't" and you predict it

Say "I can't" and you concede

Say "I can't" and you surely have tricked it

into playing the game of "great need"

 

Fear is a state of contraction

Despair is a leaky drain

energy prices are raised by the vices

of "exhaust" and "deplete" and "no gain"

 

Royal jesters come forth in the knowledge

that your energy comes from the source

Not 4 Star, Not 5 Star but boundless

Green, clean deep eco of course

 

Armistice proper escaped us

Mother's Day wisdom Hallmarked

Profound Fool Day diminished to play

an April Fool's prank for a lark

 

But heed this true merry-minder

the mark of this day is the mirth

deep bubbling forth

from the south to the north

from your gut to your grin to your girth

 

The mirth is the Knowing remembered

the girth is the World Around

the tumbling Fool is the true wisdom tool

of all stardusty offspring earthbound

 

Do these words have you breathing

and grinning?

Hey presto! You opened the door

You're destined unless you block it

for more and exceedingly MORE

 

Ample is our birthright

Plenty is our Lot

A~bun~dance is a jolly thing

You have already got

 

"dance like nobody's watching

Love like you've never been hurt"

And please embrace the naked man

Who offers you his shirt

 

All Fools All Jewels All Kindred

All Precious All Received

The World we birth; our own Green Earth

By vision-heart conceived.

 

CCR McF

Thank You Thank You Thank You Lori, Ana, Ella, Teresa, Jen, Grace, Kuwumba....;

 

awesome time we had

with these precious four-leggeds

 

May All Be Healed

May All Be Loved

May All Be Fed

xo

Note: this is beginning of the Horse Whisperer to Hymn to the Sea by James Horner

Josh wrote: "this is the finalist video for the youtube slam dunk contest promoted by nissan, it has been a fun ride and at the least i hope i can inspire younger people..."

AND I SAY...: INSPIRE US ALL!!!
"I am Josh Sherrod, this is the finalist video for the youtube slam dunk contest promoted by nissan, it has been a fun ride and at the least i hope i can inspire younger people to work hard for what they want to acheive like i did. a special thanks to the "theverticalsummit" friends to help me to re-evaluate my ambitions and get back in the game, if it wernt for yall i wouldnt be back again or in the jumping shape im in...thank you all for viewing!!!!!!! "

Delivered in what Michelle Obama introduced as "The Peoples White House"

Musical boxes I already loved....

After this particular session, he asked, cocking his head with his twinkly smile;

Ancient Mother I hear you calling