How do we live so we humans are a part of nature...not apart from it?
Duff Badgely, The Venerable Cedar, the young Fir and I invite you to this conversation.
On Sunday February 22nd we convened a compassionate listening circle with all our relations in a sheltered opening under the sturdy, venerable Cedar Tree and the young Fir in Discovery Park, Seattle.
This post is our report of that conversation, and our urgent invitation to join us, wherever you live, in sitting in circle with ALL our relations, listening...
In the center, we placed the image of the disconsolate young Orangutang that joined us on our invitation poster. We placed a small bit of fig bread on it, and each ate a bite ourselves.
Duff opened with intimate drumming. His chanting invited a circle of our relations to join us.
We meditated in silence on the question:
What do you hear when you listen with all your ears?
I heard with my inner ear: "You humans need to stop, listen, and hear all the beings who want you to partner with them. This is a good beginning. We are here with you."
I also heard many many external sounds: many different birds calling, airplane, cars, people, crows.
Duff: "Both of us are hearing impaired, yet it is we who are embracing listening as our path. Those of us who can hear least are trying to hear the most. We are sitting in sacred silence, Only in sacred silence can we really attune to the other beings we share the world with."
Next we asked: What do you see when you look with your inner eye and your two eyes?
I saw a glowing heart in our center, around which we were sitting, with small tendrils of glowing fire spreading out. My vision widened and widened to embrace an image of the planet with small fires springing up everywhere.
Duff: "I had a memory of an incident several years ago in the park when I encountered my first mountain beaver. I was walking slowly and saw a large fern shaking. I went over and looked down and saw a large brown creature eating the fern. It squinted up at me with Mr. Magoo eyes and continued to munch. "What in the world?" I thought, "Could I be having a hallucination?" We stared at each other. then the creature walked slowly away. Since then I found out mountain beavers are usually nocturnal, very shy. So it was quite amazing I saw one. I've become passionate about my relationship with mountain beavers and along with others I am restoring one ravine to better accommodate their presence in the park."
Anne: I told Duff about how the mountain beavers and I live together on my one and a half acres. We talk, and I ask them to confine their eating and tunnel making to the part of the property I do not garden. They've done that. And for three years now, we've have our annual conversation and we've been good neighbors.
We then asked: How do I live so my life contributes to a world that works for all?
Duff: "My name means the forest floor. I come here in all seasons and see how the forest floor changes.
A dog came along the path just at the edge of our sheltered space under the trees and didn't actually notice us. Duff continued: "The path is such a wonderful metaphor of how we could live. It is a place of many lives balanced, literally balancing human activity with all our relations. It skirts trees and small plants, like a river. It is a record of individual choices."
My message was "A world that works for all, is a world of love made visible." That is what I am living into by applying this to my daily choices. and by following the Fourth Way: Starting from within, sitting in a circle in a sacred manner, we develop and heal ourselves, our relations and our world. And I realized that I want to replicate this sacred circle in my normal daily life where I live now, as well as in this special moment with Duff and the Cedar and Fir.
I got that when Duff drums, he is drumming a world that works for all into being.
Duff: "What a radically different pace and place we'd have if everyone listened to their hearts, and to the creatures around them. Maybe that's the essence of what compassionate action is. Maybe that's why I'm involved in the compassionate action network. My calling is to share stories like this, like the First People did. I'm pleased that you and I were drawn here, with the trees, rather than in a more open space on the lawn. Here is a sacred riot of diversity and mutual interdependence. I am called to be part of the collective, not a solitary individual. How do I live that and play it out? Now the emphasis is on the collective. We need to act in such a way that human activity supports all our relations. Dissolve the "me"and become the "we", in order for all to survive. I say this and I realise this is not without fear, because my instincts are focused on me, but in order for me to survive...all need to thrive, and the isolated egoic "me" has to die.. .
We thanked all our relations, and Duff drummed our close.
On Sunday February 22nd we convened a compassionate listening circle with all our relations in a sheltered opening under the sturdy, venerable Cedar Tree and the young Fir in Discovery Park, Seattle.
This post is our report of that conversation, and our urgent invitation to join us, wherever you live, in sitting in circle with ALL our relations, listening...
In the center, we placed the image of the disconsolate young Orangutang that joined us on our invitation poster. We placed a small bit of fig bread on it, and each ate a bite ourselves.
Duff opened with intimate drumming. His chanting invited a circle of our relations to join us.
We meditated in silence on the question:
What do you hear when you listen with all your ears?
I heard with my inner ear: "You humans need to stop, listen, and hear all the beings who want you to partner with them. This is a good beginning. We are here with you."
I also heard many many external sounds: many different birds calling, airplane, cars, people, crows.
Duff: "Both of us are hearing impaired, yet it is we who are embracing listening as our path. Those of us who can hear least are trying to hear the most. We are sitting in sacred silence, Only in sacred silence can we really attune to the other beings we share the world with."
Next we asked: What do you see when you look with your inner eye and your two eyes?
I saw a glowing heart in our center, around which we were sitting, with small tendrils of glowing fire spreading out. My vision widened and widened to embrace an image of the planet with small fires springing up everywhere.
Duff: "I had a memory of an incident several years ago in the park when I encountered my first mountain beaver. I was walking slowly and saw a large fern shaking. I went over and looked down and saw a large brown creature eating the fern. It squinted up at me with Mr. Magoo eyes and continued to munch. "What in the world?" I thought, "Could I be having a hallucination?" We stared at each other. then the creature walked slowly away. Since then I found out mountain beavers are usually nocturnal, very shy. So it was quite amazing I saw one. I've become passionate about my relationship with mountain beavers and along with others I am restoring one ravine to better accommodate their presence in the park."
Anne: I told Duff about how the mountain beavers and I live together on my one and a half acres. We talk, and I ask them to confine their eating and tunnel making to the part of the property I do not garden. They've done that. And for three years now, we've have our annual conversation and we've been good neighbors.
We then asked: How do I live so my life contributes to a world that works for all?
Duff: "My name means the forest floor. I come here in all seasons and see how the forest floor changes.
A dog came along the path just at the edge of our sheltered space under the trees and didn't actually notice us. Duff continued: "The path is such a wonderful metaphor of how we could live. It is a place of many lives balanced, literally balancing human activity with all our relations. It skirts trees and small plants, like a river. It is a record of individual choices."
My message was "A world that works for all, is a world of love made visible." That is what I am living into by applying this to my daily choices. and by following the Fourth Way: Starting from within, sitting in a circle in a sacred manner, we develop and heal ourselves, our relations and our world. And I realized that I want to replicate this sacred circle in my normal daily life where I live now, as well as in this special moment with Duff and the Cedar and Fir.
I got that when Duff drums, he is drumming a world that works for all into being.
Duff: "What a radically different pace and place we'd have if everyone listened to their hearts, and to the creatures around them. Maybe that's the essence of what compassionate action is. Maybe that's why I'm involved in the compassionate action network. My calling is to share stories like this, like the First People did. I'm pleased that you and I were drawn here, with the trees, rather than in a more open space on the lawn. Here is a sacred riot of diversity and mutual interdependence. I am called to be part of the collective, not a solitary individual. How do I live that and play it out? Now the emphasis is on the collective. We need to act in such a way that human activity supports all our relations. Dissolve the "me"and become the "we", in order for all to survive. I say this and I realise this is not without fear, because my instincts are focused on me, but in order for me to survive...all need to thrive, and the isolated egoic "me" has to die.. .
We thanked all our relations, and Duff drummed our close.
Tags: all, compassionate, interdependence, listening, mutual, nature, our, relations, thriving
Views: 3
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Duff Badgley on -
Many, many thanks for your wonderful comments and note-taking, Anne. I have been lifted by our time under the Sacred Trees for days.
In this moment, I am struck by the interaction between events and conditions--as they apply to All Our Relations.
Events, as I see them, are stand-alone activities that can certainly affect conditions. Conditions, as I see them, are sets of circumstances that can prevail into a status-quo.
For All Our Relations, the prevailing conditions are disastrous. 8 species per hour are going extinct. The cause is us--humans.
How can we change conditions so that how we live is no longer how they die?
How can we organize a series of events, like Anne and I started last week, that might help new conditions to prevail--so that All Our Relations can live without constant threat of annihilation from humans?
I've a number of ideas to share. But, first, I'd like to see if others resonate to this challenge.
Please let me hear from you so that I might listen.
In peace,
Duff -
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Permalink Reply by GreyWolf on -
I would truely love to join your next drumming circle.......If you read some of my blogs you will see I follow the same path.......Though I have discussions with the tree people........they would love to comune with others........giving loving thoughts to them is a good way to get communication with them........they are the protectors of the earth mother.....and have been here long before we showed up on the mother........and will be here long after we have gone..........Thanks for the friendship Duff I know how hard it is to open to people for most do not view the earth and all the relations.......as we do....and sharing on this level scares most people........I will be building or help building to Lakota Sweatlodges this spring one for serious sweat people,it will be a visioning lodge..........Lakota fashion not ego related,7 stones per round 28 total with two left in the fire for honor.........you will be welcome to come if you would like.........All are welcome but it is not a beginners sweat because much happens in lodge during visioning............the quote from Black Elk"Is not silence the true voice of the creator"..........Keep up the prayer..........we can build a new world........and world views through our actions..........GreyWolf.
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Permalink Reply by anne morgan stadler on -
Thank you Grey Wolf! I believe we know each other. do we? Together we CAN...that is my firm belief!
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Permalink Reply by Duff Badgley on
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GreyWolf said:I would truely love to join your next drumming circle.......If you read some of my blogs you will see I follow the same path.......Though I have discussions with the tree people........they would love to comune with others........giving loving thoughts to them is a good way to get communication with them........they are the protectors of the earth mother.....and have been here long before we showed up on the mother........and will be here long after we have gone..........Thanks for the friendship Duff I know how hard it is to open to people for most do not view the earth and all the relations.......as we do....and sharing on this level scares most people........I will be building or help building to Lakota Sweatlodges this spring one for serious sweat people,it will be a visioning lodge..........Lakota fashion not ego related,7 stones per round 28 total with two left in the fire for honor.........you will be welcome to come if you would like.........All are welcome but it is not a beginners sweat because much happens in lodge during visioning............the quote from Black Elk"Is not silence the true voice of the creator"..........Keep up the prayer..........we can build a new world........and world views through our actions..........GreyWolf.
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Permalink Reply by Duff Badgley on
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Grey Wolf,
We meet again! Our lives and our work and our drumming weave a joint shamanic tapestry.
Please forgive my lack of tech prowess. This website continues to stump me. I'm afraid I somehow deleted my earlier response to you. I hope this reply will go out to all on Living With All Our Relations and reach you.
Yes, let's plan another drumming circle with Anne. The first was very strong for me. I look forward to sitting in Sacred Drumming Circle with you.
Please include me in your plans for the Spring Lakota Visioning Sweatlodges. You honor me with your invitation.
You invoke Black Elk and his powerful vision. Then you say "we can build a new world........and world views through our actions.." This is glorious, necessary stuff. Vision and actions. I am there with you.
My shamanic life includes two steps:
(1) Willfuly altering consciousness to access the power of All Our Relations. Your Visioning Sweatlodges are a wonderful example of this.
(2) Returning to ordinary consciousness and acting from the guidance and strength given to me by All Our Relations.
Our Relations are suffering horribly now. I try, by combining vision and action, to bring Earth Healing to them and All of Us.
I know so well how "sharing on this level scares most people", as you describe it. I regularly encounter fear responses in my activism.
I am a pro-tree activist in a city run by those dedicated to killing as many trees as possible.
I am a climate activist in an Industrial World firecely denying responsibility for the current slaughter of All Our Relations.
You say the Truth: "the tree people... are the protectors of the earth mother.....and have been here long before we showed up on the mother". The tree people are my personal protectors, as well. They care for me as I care for them.
I look forward to sharing drumming circle and sweats with you. And more shamanic dialogue.
In Compassion,
Duff
206-283-0621
eduffb@hotmail.com -
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Permalink Reply by GreyWolf on
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Yes Duff.......Im am healing from knee surgery at this time though soon as I am able to drive again I would love to talk and walk with you...........Learn some of your knowlege and share some of mine.........you know when I say tree people I am refering to the Sasquatchie people.........I am in regular contact with one who is rather jocular.........His name is Alean..........Met him through an author friend of mine who lives in Duval...........They would love to comune with others that share our views...........Many Blessings my Brother............GreyWolf
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Permalink Reply by Duff Badgley on
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Grey Wolf,
Please heal, my friend. And then we will make connection. I, too, look forward to our coming time together.
Duff -
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Permalink Reply by Duff Badgley on
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Does anyone have insights or tales or wisdom about hummingbirds?
Yesterday on my birthday, a hummingbird came to me and hovered about three feet over my head, before zipping away.
To celebrate my birthday, I walked to Discovery Park and my favorite Tree Grotto. This grotto is just across the dirt path from the big cedar where Anne and I first met as our Living With All Our Relations group.
My grotto offers a world apart from the one dominated by us two-leggeds. It has two giant cedars and a towering fir, plus a thicket of smaller trees and shrubs. The lowest cedar branches swoop down, kiss the Earth, arc back up toward the sky, and then erupt in green fronds. These branches create an open, secluded world that is like a cave and like a cathedral. I can see out. But no one can see in—except the birds.
I sit still and silent and the birds come to me.
Yesterday, a sparrow scratched the duff and flitted on the perimeter of the grotto. It kept its distance from me, searching among the cedar droppings for food. A pair of chickadees cavorted in the branches close to me. One chickadee lit on a branch about five feet in front of my face and looked directly at me, unafraid. It flew to join its mate in the next cedar.
Then I saw motion above me. I thought it was one of the chickadees. I looked up. Directly over my head, not more than three feet above my crown chakra, hovered my Birthday Hummingbird! I had no time to be astonished before it darted off and disappeared.
There was no greenery or flowers where this magic bird hovered over me, only the bare bark of the cedar trunk and its big branches. Hummingbird clearly hovered over my head to be near me.
I’m still breathless from this visitation by hummingbird. But it comes to me now that hummingbird was thanking me for defending Our Rainforests and All Our relations.
Our climate activist group, One Earth Climate Action Group, has added a new strategy to our mix of strategies as we try to defend Our Earth from destruction by biofuels. One week ago, we placed Seattle mayor Greg Nickels under Citizens’ Arrest for Crime Against Humanity and Crime Against the Earth. Seattle is a major consumer of biofuels that cause rampant rainforest destruction and massively worsen our Climate Crisis.
Here’s a link to a brief YouTube video of police forcibly ejecting me from the room where Nickels tried to speak at the Green Fest. Despite repeated threats to arrest me, police declined to do that each time I tried to arrest Nickels, on stage and off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Dpm2MtdeM
Powerful experiences continue to come my way. A week ago, we arrested Nickels. Yesterday, my Birthday Hummingbird visited.
Both happened in service to All Our Relations.
In Compassion,
Duff -
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Permalink Reply by GreyWolf on
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Hey Duff A good book on this is Animal Speak by Ted Andrews.......a good friend of mine and part of my journey......The Hummingbird reminds us to find joy in what we do......and to sing it out....Humming creates an internal massage that restores health and balence in our lives...Hummingbirds do not walk they fly everywhere,Hummingbirds have been known to chase off Eagles that get to close to there nests......people with Hummingbird as a totem should get lots of sleep so you dont exhaust your energy supply.......Hummingbird is the symbol for accomplising that which seems imposible,It will teach you how to find the miracle of joyfulliving from your own life circumstances.......GreyWolf Quoting from Animal Speak
Duff Badgley said:Does anyone have insights or tales or wisdom about hummingbirds?
Yesterday on my birthday, a hummingbird came to me and hovered about three feet over my head, before zipping away.
To celebrate my birthday, I walked to Discovery Park and my favorite Tree Grotto. This grotto is just across the dirt path from the big cedar where Anne and I first met as our Living With All Our Relations group.
My grotto offers a world apart from the one dominated by us two-leggeds. It has two giant cedars and a towering fir, plus a thicket of smaller trees and shrubs. The lowest cedar branches swoop down, kiss the Earth, arc back up toward the sky, and then erupt in green fronds. These branches create an open, secluded world that is like a cave and like a cathedral. I can see out. But no one can see in—except the birds.
I sit still and silent and the birds come to me.
Yesterday, a sparrow scratched the duff and flitted on the perimeter of the grotto. It kept its distance from me, searching among the cedar droppings for food. A pair of chickadees cavorted in the branches close to me. One chickadee lit on a branch about five feet in front of my face and looked directly at me, unafraid. It flew to join its mate in the next cedar.
Then I saw motion above me. I thought it was one of the chickadees. I looked up. Directly over my head, not more than three feet above my crown chakra, hovered my Birthday Hummingbird! I had no time to be astonished before it darted off and disappeared.
There was no greenery or flowers where this magic bird hovered over me, only the bare bark of the cedar trunk and its big branches. Hummingbird clearly hovered over my head to be near me.
I’m still breathless from this visitation by hummingbird. But it comes to me now that hummingbird was thanking me for defending Our Rainforests and All Our relations.
Our climate activist group, One Earth Climate Action Group, has added a new strategy to our mix of strategies as we try to defend Our Earth from destruction by biofuels. One week ago, we placed Seattle mayor Greg Nickels under Citizens’ Arrest for Crime Against Humanity and Crime Against the Earth. Seattle is a major consumer of biofuels that cause rampant rainforest destruction and massively worsen our Climate Crisis.
Here’s a link to a brief YouTube video of police forcibly ejecting me from the room where Nickels tried to speak at the Green Fest. Despite repeated threats to arrest me, police declined to do that each time I tried to arrest Nickels, on stage and off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Dpm2MtdeM
Powerful experiences continue to come my way. A week ago, we arrested Nickels. Yesterday, my Birthday Hummingbird visited.
Both happened in service to All Our Relations.
In Compassion,
Duff -
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Permalink Reply by GreyWolf on
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What friend needs healing?....My phone # 206-353-8234.......Call today......GreyWolf
Duff Badgley said:Grey Wolf,
Please heal, my friend. And then we will make connection. I, too, look forward to our coming time together.
Duff -
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Permalink Reply by Deborah Luger on -
Please keep me posted about the Sweat Lodge(s). Thank you!
GreyWolf said:I would truely love to join your next drumming circle.......If you read some of my blogs you will see I follow the same path.......Though I have discussions with the tree people........they would love to comune with others........giving loving thoughts to them is a good way to get communication with them........they are the protectors of the earth mother.....and have been here long before we showed up on the mother........and will be here long after we have gone..........Thanks for the friendship Duff I know how hard it is to open to people for most do not view the earth and all the relations.......as we do....and sharing on this level scares most people........I will be building or help building to Lakota Sweatlodges this spring one for serious sweat people,it will be a visioning lodge..........Lakota fashion not ego related,7 stones per round 28 total with two left in the fire for honor.........you will be welcome to come if you would like.........All are welcome but it is not a beginners sweat because much happens in lodge during visioning............the quote from Black Elk"Is not silence the true voice of the creator"..........Keep up the prayer..........we can build a new world........and world views through our actions..........GreyWolf. -
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Permalink Reply by Arla on -
Anne and Duff, this spoke straight to my heart. I spend a good part of the time in the woods here. Sitting and listening.So much wisdom is held there,from our relatives. I look forward to reading more as you and that part of our family enjoy each other.
Blessing Smiles Arla -
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