(For us Americans) it's here - a gobble gobble and a thanks-taking (as M. refers to it).
A time to remember how we took what wasn't ours from a land that was already inhabited and then silently vanquished the 7 million people who were already here. Ouch. We can re-write this past - we can give voice to it, honor our Native forebears and invite back a renewed way of living in balanced relationship with each other, ourselves and our planet. I beelieve.
During this past week, my sisters have been loving returning home from work to a house filled with the pungent aromas of fresh baked food. They kiss me on the cheek and tell me that I'm the best housewife ever. (YES! ; ) I've been reveling in the kitchen, preparing:
Homemade Hummus - on Sunday, I climbed into the lemon tree and removed some ripe fruit as well as cut branches of basil from our plant in the garden. Now, a fresh pesto hummus, as well as a beet hummus, sit in the cooler;
Butternut Squash & Beet Soup with Red Carrots;
and my "Hodge Podge" Raisin & Chocolate Chip Cookies;
Thanksgiving, here we are! How do you celebrate and revere your life?
On Tuesday night, our front living room was filled with radical activists who are opposed to Wal-Mart's (and, thus, the Walton's) move into our neighborhood. They sat together, plotting out their Black Friday strategies for momentarily distracting the already distracted from their delusion. I teased, as I played domestic in the hearthstone with my sisters, about how I was going to be up at 3am and out of my camping tent so that I could stand in line at the nearest strip mall. Ha! Perhaps, it is no joke, however - this blatant disregard for all that is sacred by taking the boiled down fossil fuel from our mother's belly and barely paying unfair wages to a vulnerable people elsewhere as they are forced to produce cheap plastic products abroad while a meager few profit greatly from the exchange. This is not exchange - it is pillaging.
(Please, I beseech you, consciously consume - According to the Huffington Post, this pat Sunday, the World Bank issued a report suggesting that the climate could warm a
full 4 degrees by the end of this century -- less than 90 years from now
-- even if countries fulfill the modest emissions-reduction pledges
they've already made.)
Last night, a motley crew of local Socialists gathered in our front room to kick off the American holiday. I made myself at home, grabbed a plate of varying food stuffs - quinoa salad, buttermilk biscuits, mashed potatoes and more - and introduced myself to the circle of my peers who, actually, look a lot like Star Trek fans. The lone female in the group, more Goth and punk-like with her array of tattoos and facial piercings, was too absorbed in whatever was in her lap (a Smart phone, perhaps?) to acknowledge my existence. It's cool - I don't need anyone's acknowledgment and I can certainly let people be exactly where they are.
Eager to be known as card-carrying commies, I smirked at the notion that carrying something makes anybody anything. Oh, silly folk - when will we all wake up and realize that EMBODIMENT is all there is. How we live, each and every day, is the most tell tale sign of one's being. All the rest is just blather from an inconsequential talking head and, goddess knows, this is what has gotten us into the mess that we're currently in. So, let's stop all the talk talk talking and start really, truly LOVING - our selves, each other and our planet.
