Bringing new or reviving old ways all has the painful work of birthing. The excitement is followed by pain, deeper and intense pain, discouragement, nearly giving up and then elation as emergence becomes part of life. Doulas and midwives have deep knowledge of how to guide these stages...I wonder if your group(s) might benefit from such an individual to help with the natural, but uncomfortsble parts of birthing a vision.
If I were a piece of furniture, I would be a kitchen table...bringing loved ones around to visit, be nourished, laugh, play games, share sorrows or just drink strong coffee with freshly baked scones.
I don't know that a doula or midwife is the answer so much as there are people in every community who fail to understand the world doesn't revolve around their perspective. 😏
This was beautiful. Relationships of all kinds require work... And we've been taught recently that if they were good they'd be effortless, by lazy writers who want us to be comfortable instead of sitting us on that bench for a talk. I wish I could make the trip this year. Part of my reason for camping for a week in the Pine Barrens this month was to see if I could do it, so I could take this class next year.
How many days are we without electricity? I've got a CPAP and a battery pack that lasts me 3 days or so. I'll probably bring a backup and that'll cover 4-5 days easy. This year is unlikely due to expense, but if you do it next year, I will get to Montana. I'd like to stay over a week, and meet up with Sarah after the canoe trip. I've never been to your state, and this nifty Field Guide I bought has made me want to explore it...
It depends on the trip. This Missouri one, if it does happen, is longer than what I usually do at something like six or seven days. Next year it's likely I'll be back on the Blackfoot, which tends to be only four days off grid, tops.
A friend with a CPAP did a similar float trip last year (just kayaking with some friends, not with a Freeflow trip) but I think he didn’t use it for a couple of days, until he got to the Prairie Reserve cabin and plugged it in. They started from a later launch point, so the trip was only 3-4 days.
That insight about those seven Grandfather Animals all still being in Yellowstone blew me away. We always hear Greater Yellowstone touted as a "nearly in tact temperate zone ecosystem," but your description really puts it into context and gives it a more concrete and spiritual dimension IMO. We can still learn so much from the beings that have been able to keep living there through constant change and disruption.
I would venture to say your presence and care for that special place is helping the healing process along, Chris. It's thrilling to hear about the many commitments bringing you down that way with some frequency these days.
So glad I found out about your talk in time to factor in a Bozeman detour while I was in moving mode! Your talks are always a highlight and I vow to be front and center in the audience for more of them now that I'm back in MT.
“Some of the experience has been rutted and rocky and heart jolting but I’m truly better for every bit of it. This is the work, and sometimes work is hard.” Indeed. I hope you are able to have some quiet, peaceful downtime soon coupled with lots of heart berries.
“Starting anything reveals sore spots, especially when we begin in a painful place. It is through the reciprocal relationships that define everything we do, no matter what our cultures, that we heal them.” Wise words. Thank you for the poem and book rec. I’ve been thinking lately that while a lot of harm is intentional there is much harm that is unintentional which makes education on Indigenous wisdom, reciprocity and understanding ecosystems key. Thanks Chris! Hope you get some real rest soon.
I bought a flat of local strawberries yesterday. This is the beginning of a long 4-day weekend/staycation/holiday for me when I’ll be cooking with them. Now I’ll do it knowing the whole time about the heart berry and it will make this project so much richer. Thank you.
its not just about receiving. so often reminded about this when i teach wildcrafting or just am collecting the medicine. I might ask for permission and remember to also ask the plant people what do you need me to do for you. often the answer is dont sell me and plant my seeds, move my roots tend to my children.
and god damn I would love to do your course. I understand the expense with all the gear and water. hopefully at some point there will be something with less facilitation and more in the $500 -1000 range.
The cost really bums me out too. I'm probably going to do a version of it in Yellowstone this winter, and certainly an online version, probably in the fall. We'll see....
The season is over. Park buildings are neatly buttoned up, many roads are closed. There is snow on the ground and the stretches of asphalt that stay in the shadows are slick with black ice. In thermal areas, wisps of steam rise up and curl over herds of bison and elk. On the shoulder a coyote hesitates, curious and unafraid.
The end of this day finds us at the edge of the current of the Gardiner River where hot waterfalls gush like three separate miracles from the sagebrush plateau. We float in the light of a waxing moon, massaged by the pushing heat, an arm’s length from ice water. We have it to our naked selves, our steaming sulfur turbulence.
Mmm, there's nothing quite like a freshly picked strawberry. Even if it means spending $8 at the farmer's market for a pint, I'll do it in a heartbeat just for the rare taste of a true heartberry.
It's something magical, I think, when the local produce comes to fruition; everyone suddenly becomes a child, whether they tasted these fruits way back when or not. I feel like I have more bright-eyed conversations with folks in this time of year; it sounds like you had some at Yellowstone, even if they didn't always go so smoothly.
P.S. If I were furniture I would be a sturdy floor lamp, ready to illuminate what's around me, but content to wait until someone asks for light.
So beautiful, Chris. In the hard, difficult, and softly loving ways. Sometimes I think that’s what makes you such a unique writer. A good piece of furniture to have around! That bench is there for the long haul once it’s taken root.
Thanks, Chris, for the strawberry sweetness! And for that Susan Marsh quilt poem. Oh, my, those last two lines: "For we lie together with stitches tight / The only escape an irreversible rending of the fabric." Thanks for letting us know about her.
Heart Berry, “the one that helps us move love into action.” My day is far better and my thoughts fuller after learning of this. 🍓
Loved this one so much, too! We need that, sorely.
💚🍓💚
Bringing new or reviving old ways all has the painful work of birthing. The excitement is followed by pain, deeper and intense pain, discouragement, nearly giving up and then elation as emergence becomes part of life. Doulas and midwives have deep knowledge of how to guide these stages...I wonder if your group(s) might benefit from such an individual to help with the natural, but uncomfortsble parts of birthing a vision.
If I were a piece of furniture, I would be a kitchen table...bringing loved ones around to visit, be nourished, laugh, play games, share sorrows or just drink strong coffee with freshly baked scones.
I don't know that a doula or midwife is the answer so much as there are people in every community who fail to understand the world doesn't revolve around their perspective. 😏
Also, speaking of kitchen tables, do you know this wonderful Joy Harjo poem?
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49622/perhaps-the-world-ends-here
A sweet bite of poetry and life, indeed!
This was beautiful. Relationships of all kinds require work... And we've been taught recently that if they were good they'd be effortless, by lazy writers who want us to be comfortable instead of sitting us on that bench for a talk. I wish I could make the trip this year. Part of my reason for camping for a week in the Pine Barrens this month was to see if I could do it, so I could take this class next year.
It would be so awesome to get you out here, man.
How many days are we without electricity? I've got a CPAP and a battery pack that lasts me 3 days or so. I'll probably bring a backup and that'll cover 4-5 days easy. This year is unlikely due to expense, but if you do it next year, I will get to Montana. I'd like to stay over a week, and meet up with Sarah after the canoe trip. I've never been to your state, and this nifty Field Guide I bought has made me want to explore it...
It depends on the trip. This Missouri one, if it does happen, is longer than what I usually do at something like six or seven days. Next year it's likely I'll be back on the Blackfoot, which tends to be only four days off grid, tops.
A friend with a CPAP did a similar float trip last year (just kayaking with some friends, not with a Freeflow trip) but I think he didn’t use it for a couple of days, until he got to the Prairie Reserve cabin and plugged it in. They started from a later launch point, so the trip was only 3-4 days.
I love that little Muskrat as improbable hero with a pawful of mud. <3
Me too.
That insight about those seven Grandfather Animals all still being in Yellowstone blew me away. We always hear Greater Yellowstone touted as a "nearly in tact temperate zone ecosystem," but your description really puts it into context and gives it a more concrete and spiritual dimension IMO. We can still learn so much from the beings that have been able to keep living there through constant change and disruption.
I would venture to say your presence and care for that special place is helping the healing process along, Chris. It's thrilling to hear about the many commitments bringing you down that way with some frequency these days.
Thank you, Jackie. It was so great to see you the other night. I'm going to email you!
So glad I found out about your talk in time to factor in a Bozeman detour while I was in moving mode! Your talks are always a highlight and I vow to be front and center in the audience for more of them now that I'm back in MT.
“Some of the experience has been rutted and rocky and heart jolting but I’m truly better for every bit of it. This is the work, and sometimes work is hard.” Indeed. I hope you are able to have some quiet, peaceful downtime soon coupled with lots of heart berries.
I've been munching them regularly! 🍓🍽
“Starting anything reveals sore spots, especially when we begin in a painful place. It is through the reciprocal relationships that define everything we do, no matter what our cultures, that we heal them.” Wise words. Thank you for the poem and book rec. I’ve been thinking lately that while a lot of harm is intentional there is much harm that is unintentional which makes education on Indigenous wisdom, reciprocity and understanding ecosystems key. Thanks Chris! Hope you get some real rest soon.
Thank you, Mary.
I bought a flat of local strawberries yesterday. This is the beginning of a long 4-day weekend/staycation/holiday for me when I’ll be cooking with them. Now I’ll do it knowing the whole time about the heart berry and it will make this project so much richer. Thank you.
🍓
its not just about receiving. so often reminded about this when i teach wildcrafting or just am collecting the medicine. I might ask for permission and remember to also ask the plant people what do you need me to do for you. often the answer is dont sell me and plant my seeds, move my roots tend to my children.
and god damn I would love to do your course. I understand the expense with all the gear and water. hopefully at some point there will be something with less facilitation and more in the $500 -1000 range.
The cost really bums me out too. I'm probably going to do a version of it in Yellowstone this winter, and certainly an online version, probably in the fall. We'll see....
That bitter root flower!!!! *heart-eye emoji*
They're blowing up! It's the Montana State Flower too, btw....
So gorgeous! Like a firework blossom!
I love that picture, too! I've never seen them before--clearly, I've been missing out.
I would probably suck at watercolor painting but this is still the party I want to be a part of! You look intense while painting though haha !
Me at peak concentration, Swarnali. 😂
Lovely read and what a beautiful photo of you.
Thank you.
"Yellowstone"
The season is over. Park buildings are neatly buttoned up, many roads are closed. There is snow on the ground and the stretches of asphalt that stay in the shadows are slick with black ice. In thermal areas, wisps of steam rise up and curl over herds of bison and elk. On the shoulder a coyote hesitates, curious and unafraid.
The end of this day finds us at the edge of the current of the Gardiner River where hot waterfalls gush like three separate miracles from the sagebrush plateau. We float in the light of a waxing moon, massaged by the pushing heat, an arm’s length from ice water. We have it to our naked selves, our steaming sulfur turbulence.
Mmm, there's nothing quite like a freshly picked strawberry. Even if it means spending $8 at the farmer's market for a pint, I'll do it in a heartbeat just for the rare taste of a true heartberry.
It's something magical, I think, when the local produce comes to fruition; everyone suddenly becomes a child, whether they tasted these fruits way back when or not. I feel like I have more bright-eyed conversations with folks in this time of year; it sounds like you had some at Yellowstone, even if they didn't always go so smoothly.
P.S. If I were furniture I would be a sturdy floor lamp, ready to illuminate what's around me, but content to wait until someone asks for light.
I love this!
So beautiful, Chris. In the hard, difficult, and softly loving ways. Sometimes I think that’s what makes you such a unique writer. A good piece of furniture to have around! That bench is there for the long haul once it’s taken root.
Thanks, Chris, for the strawberry sweetness! And for that Susan Marsh quilt poem. Oh, my, those last two lines: "For we lie together with stitches tight / The only escape an irreversible rending of the fabric." Thanks for letting us know about her.