Butterfly Dream Vision

Last night I had an uncanny dream. For years I have been working on behalf of the monarch butterfly, actually I do. My friend Sandy Stein and I were visiting what looked like a large vista that reached into the distance without end.  It appeared the land had once been used as a farm, but its relationship with the land went wrong. I somehow understood that the elder, in the dream, knew crops were in trouble in my home country because there were no pollinators.

monarchanna

The old gentleman that I really couldn’t visually see, stayed mostly in the background, but he was consciously  in my mind; I understood his intentions clearly. He knew of my work with the second largest group of pollinators in the world. The reverent elder was the owner of forests and fields that appeared to go on forever.  He made me to understand that 40 acres of land had been prepared for me and the pollinators.  I knew that he was giving me land for the butterflies. I was overcome, I could hardly believe my eyes, I felt so honored for my life’s work.

wild bergamot

It was then, I felt him communicating, “I have admired you for being so tenacious on behalf of the monarch butterfly.”  He went on, “You have been teaching the people about the necessity of native habitat for the monarch and other pollinators. Many times you were all alone in your quest. I do know your dream and am giving this land to you for the butterflies.”

I was stunned when I realized  what he conveyed was real. I could look out into the distance and see the land was prepared for establishing a native pollinator habitat. I can’t tell you how honored and childlike I felt. I wanted to cry because someone really understood my heart and had made  it possible for me to have this  land for an  intended purpose.

When I asked,  “What will you do?”  He let me see vistas of forest that could be consciously and sustainably cut to grow more organic food for people and still have forests for wildlife and plants.

Realizing his truth, I could imagine that people might now listen and understand that we need to live in balance with nature. Could the time have come?

The dream was so beautiful that when I awoke I wondered if I had had a vision dream that gave me a glimpse into the afterlife.  I felt so blessed, humbled and longed to go to this place where I can live forever among the butterflies.

Swallowtail

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Summer Solstice Update Fitchburg, MA

FIRST PARISH UU, 923 Main Street, Fitchburg, MA

This Sunday, June 23rd, will be the third edition of our Sunday Cultural Series.

It will center on Summer Solstice with some history of Pagan origins and thoughtful readings.

There will be a guided meditation by Yogi Fred, emphasizing summer delights.

Hope you can all come and help make this program a success, both for FPC and the City!

Thank you, in advance, for your support!

Dick

First Parish Church UU
Fitchburg, MA 01420
www.fitchburguu.org
www.firstparishfitchburg.blogspot.com

NATIONAL BEE COUNT THIS WEEKEND

Join in some Bee fun this summer.
Gateway Park, Natural Pollinator Habitat
Sheldon and West Street, Fitchburg, MA

National Bee Count 

Saturday, June 22, 10 am to 12 Noon.

Learn why bees are important and what bees are found in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Bee Count will be recorded. Data will be sent to Pollinator Partnership, San Francisco, CA. The nonprofit will coordinate bee counts from around the country to obtain scientific information on bee health.

Bring a light weight chair or something to sit on, sunscreen, water, hat, pad and pencil.

If you are in the area, come on out and help pollinators, which are suffering a decline anywhere from 40 to 90 percent.

Mary Ellen Ryall
http://www.butterflywomanpublishing.com

Photo copyright Cindy Dyer

LCO Tribe Finds ‘Brand New Way’ To Protest: With A Harvest Camp

 

 

This article is being republished here. I am a graduate of LCO tribal college (LCOOCC). I have a great love for my Ojiwe friends and their struggle to keep traditional ways alive. The Harvest Camp is the best of this world where elders and youth can share and learn how to live traditionally.

I pray that Bad River and LCO can stave off the Iron Ore Mine which threatens fresh water feeding directly into 43 pure waterways that wander through Bad River Reservation, through other communityies out to Lake Sperior and are meant for all species. You can learn more about the Penokee Hill Iron Ore Mine in the news and on Facebook.

In 2012, I arranged for Frank Koehn to come to Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College and present a program on the Iron Ore Mines proposed for Penokee Hills. He has reached far and wide and is interviewed in the following article at http://www.uwsp.edu/pointeronline/Pages/articles/Penokee-Hills-Mine-Could-Devastate.aspx

By MIKE SIMONSON

 

 

Credit Jennifer Simonson

Twelve-year-old Conner Beaulieu picks wild onions at the Lac Courte Oreilles Harvest Camp in Iron County.

 

The Lac Courte Oreilles tribe is trying a unique way to help stop the proposed iron ore mine in the Penokees: gathering wild onions and mushrooms.

The new LCO Harvest Camp is set in the backwoods of Iron County, right in the middle of the proposed mine.

Connor Beaulieu of LCO says he’s almost 13 years old and proud to show off this new camp.

“Right here, we’re just building a little wigwam right there and right here is where one of our campers are staying. A little farther back is where we’re building more campsites. Pretty nice here. Peaceful. I don’t know where this leads, but let’s explore!”

The five-acre camp is tucked away in an Iron County forest. There’s no cell phone service here, but there are campsites, trails, wigwams, a community kitchen and lots of young people. Twelve-year-old Mikey DeMain of LCO likes working at the camp.

 

Enlarge image

Credit Jennifer Simonson

One of several wigwams being built at the LCO Harvest Camp. The camp is a unique form of protesting the proposed iron ore mine in the Penokee range.

​“Yeah. I helped ‘em make some wigwams, helped collect firewood and stack it. Think I’m going to hang out there a lot this summer.”

Mikey’s grandfather Paul DeMain says this is also an educational camp.

“You can learn about mushroom gathering, plant medicines, wigwam building. There’s ironwood up there. There’s basket weaving with birch bark. There’s people fishing. There are people doing all kinds of beautiful things and it is so healing. That’s ultimately what it was: The idea of, ‘How can we help mend our communities and come together?’”

This camp is on top of the largest iron ore body in North America with the potential to create hundreds of jobs. But Wisconsin tribes say it would destroy this pristine land.

“Some of us have given our whole lives to fight for the cause and stop mining.”

So this spring, the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe Governing Council voted to designate this spot as a harvest camp. They have that right under the Treaty of 1842 — to hunt, fish and gather. The treaty ceded the land to the U.S. Government in exchange for that right.

LCO Elder Melvin Gasper says Native American harvest camps date back centuries, when tribes lived off the land.

“You start out with a spring camp or maple sugar camp. You will travel next to your fishing camp. Then you travel next to your harvest camp, for harvesting wild game and stuff for your winter. And then you have your winter camp. All of these were different harvest camps.“

And Gasper says there’s another reason. It’s to stop the mine.

DeMain says the mine would poison the Lake Superior and Bad River reservation watershed, so it’s time other tribes join the fight.

“If there are people from some indigenous nation who has relationships to the land up here who want to go camping up at Mount Whittlesey at Eagle’s Peak or on the crest and occupy the range, that’s up to them. What we’ve tried to do is establish a legal framework in which we can exist here and coincide with what’s there now and monitor the situation.”

DeMain says LCO is deliberately getting in the way of Gogebic Taconite, which is currently drilling exploratory bore holes.

“Bad River seems to be taking the brunt of the battle on this mining legislation and organizing it. Frankly, people get tired and they feel beaten up, so there are other tribes who are saying ‘How can they contribute to this way?’“

So, they’ve built this harvest camp. Elder Gasper says even as they pull wild onions from the ground, they are effectively occupying this area.

“Most definitely it is. They were asking us basically ‘How do you protest?’ This is a brand new way. It’s a peaceful manner in which we are using as a harvest area and showing what can be taken out of this and saved. Some of us have given our whole lives to fight for the cause and stop mining.”

Gasper says his ancestors sacrificed for him, now he’s doing the same for Mikey and Connor and future generations.

 

Butterfly 5, feel alive!

Butterfly 5, feel alive!.

 

Take a look at Anasera’s butterfly art and other wildersoul creations on WordPress.

 

A Day in a Life Beyond Death

June 11, I was thinking today about my husband, (d 2010). I guess it is because our Wedding Anniversary is tomorrow, June 12. Today I was writing about the Sulphur butterfly in the Field Guide I am writing. While I was writing the description, I was having flashbacks to my own personal experience with one sulphur species.

It was years ago, while walking down a hill in Minong, WI, I saw a pink-edged Sulpher (Colias interior) get hit by a car while it was flying across the road. I immediately knew the butterfly couldn’t get out of harms way. A second later, there it was left on the road without a thought of concern by the driver, who probably never even noticed. I walked over to the butterfly and saw it was still alive, but permanently damaged. It could not fly. I picked it up and carried it down the hill. All the while I sang an honor song to the butterfly while it lightly tapped my finger with its beautiful pink feet. I couldn’t help but see how beautiful the butterfly was and it made me cry and again today. This is called grieving.

When we got down to the bottom of the hill, I walked over to a grassy area and said goodbye to my insect friend. I put her down in the grass. To this day I will never forget my bond with that  butterfly. Later in the day, I walked back to the site and saw that she was gone.

I miss my husband too and the pink-edge sulphur comes to remind me that even in death we are still attached by an invisible thread connecting us to the cosmos.

Photo copyright Kathy Keatley Garurg, Butterflies and Moths Organization.

A Healing Walk through Canada’s Tar Sands

A Healing Walk through Canada’s Tar Sands Dystopia by Clayton Thomas-Muller — YES! Magazine.

Many of us are grieving for the Earth and what is happening to our beloved home, waters, land and natural resources. The Cree Nation lead by Clayton Thomas-Muller will walk across the Canada Tar Sands to pray for Mother Earth. It is a healing walk.

I have been following Clayton Thomas-Muller for a few years now and his vigilante voice to stop the Tar Sands in Cree Nation. Here is an excerpt from Yes Magazine article, “Highway 63 is the only road to Fort McKay Cree Nation, one of Canada’s wealthiest yet most polluted First Nations, where water needs to be trucked in daily to meet the community’s needs. The highway loops past vast human-made deserts in the form of tailings ponds wet and dry, and then past an archaic Suncor/Petro-Canada facility with black carbon-stained cracking towers that belch hellfire into the morning sky. The highway finally meets the junction that leads to Fort McKay and continues onward past the industrial metropolis that is Syncrude, Canada’s largest tar sands operator, operated largely by ExxonMobil.”

We can put our hearts with the Cree Nation and Mother Earth and walk to heal her and ourselves at the same time. I recently read a powerful essay on the subject of grieving for the loss of the commons by Ellen Friedman http://www.commonsparkcollective.org/

I hope you will find you are part of the solution and why we are working so hard to protect the Earth from the onslaught of destruction.