We're Home!

Melanie and I are home after being in Kansas City for 3 days. We had a great trip. We had a great meeting and met some wonderful people. But, oh my, it is the best ever to be right here on the Farm.

We stayed at the Country Club Plaza area which is where our meeting was. I remember my Aunt Mary used to take me to the Plaza in the 1950s and 60s. That would have been 30 to 40 years ago. The area was then and is now high on some lists of Folks. All Melanie and I could see was some contrasts.

For years, Melanie and I enjoyed shopping and would go out of our way to shop, shop, shop. This weekend, we passed by some of the same stores we would shop at before. The Names and Logos were familiar. But we just kept right on walking. Mostly, we did not even look in the windows. We don't know what is in style and we don't care. It doesn't seem central to our purpose on this beautiful Planet now.

Several years ago, I had 3 highly creative Students who were known to color outside the lines. Just thinking of them makes me smile. For their group project, they were looking at social justice issues, logos, and consumerism. In case you are not aware, many of the big name logos which are bent on style at a price utilize off shore sweatshops and deplorable working conditions for those who produce products that consumers purchase. Talk about spreading messages of "I don't care" and "ill will" into the World. These 3 Students chose 2 or 3 of the logos which were popular and available in our town. In their report, they shared the realities behind the products. But they went a little further. They composed fictitious letters from a child who had supposedly been involved in the production of the fashions sold. These letters were constructed from real profiles they had read. Then they headed to the stores and put copies of the letters in the pockets of garments. As their teacher, I had not been aware that they would be so creative. I must say that it occurred to me on this fine excursion to the Big City that it would be a fine use of our time to stuff similar letters in the pockets of the clothes. I should think most consumers (especially women) would want to know. But we didn't.

Melanie and I did go into Barnes and Noble. We love books and learning. For years, Richard and I would have walked right in, grabbed a book and some coffee or tea, and sat right down. We would have repeated that several times. We would have carried home a full sack. This time, we did look around a bit. Melanie found the magazine (Piecework) that she had been looking for. But that is all that we bought. The racks simply did not draw us in. Where were the magazines and books on the current state of the environment, anyway?

I am deeply grateful for the access to books and an abundance of ideas over those years. Those ideas stretched us in some directions we needed to be stretched. Now we are pretty focused on some specific magazines, catalogs, and associations that do the same. We get information in other ways, and we seek them out at the library too since we have less need to own them.

Our meeting was superb. The focus was on Energy Medicine and was conducted by author Donna Eden. Energy Medicine is not new. In fact, it has been integral to a variety of cultures, but largely set aside by our own. As important and accessible as the information at the meeting was, it was equally impressive to see the large number of people drawn to healing, their own and others. Change is happening.

I should also note that we met some amazing People. While popular culture would lead us to believe that everything is the "Same-O, Same-O", I would conclude that it is not. Many folks in our time are drawn to living their lives on the path they were intended to walk; they are stepping outside the ruts, treating Life as the Sacred Gift that it was intended. We also went to Sunday Services at Unity Temple which sprouted and thrives in the middle of that shopping and urban extravaganza. I am warmed to the Core.

Yes, it was a rainy, cold, gray 3 days. I could not help but look at the area where our Hotel was and note sadly that the Earth was covered with Concrete and Buildings. Even the small Trees were set in small circles of Soil inside of Cement and Grates and covered with tight coils of holiday lights. It was as if the Earth herself was in a Life Constraining Corset of the making of some of the Two-Leggeds.

The pavement was wet. At this season, typically, we would see Earthworms on the sidewalk and streets. We saw none. None. And we saw none of the hub-bub of Nature that we see right here on the Farm. Where were the Geese flying overhead?

I am reminded that my Mother always told me not to take everything when I was at someone else's for a meal or a snack. Just take a small amount if offered. Apparently, the Folks who designed this place did not have a Mother like mine. Or perhaps they did not listen. The Earth is our Mother. She is our Life Support. It does us and her little good to take so much. That time has past.

We returned to the Farm and it felt very good. After dinner, we headed outside and listened to the sounds. Where we had heard only cars, motors, and the frenzy of shoppers, we heard the sounds of Spring: Chorus Frogs, Foxes, Owls, Geese, Woodcocks with a train hurrying down the track a few miles over.