Spoken Turning Meditation

A collaborative performance and meditation brought a tranquil and inspiring space for the transition to 2017. Sound vibrations by Gbeda Sundries and the energies of my photographic series Spoken saturated us at CAMBIAart gallery on Saturday evening. It was a beautiful group of people who came out and participated, it was an honor to share the space, images, dance and sound with everyone.

Photography by Javier Garcia

Spoken opening statements

“After hearing my footsteps, walking in to where the path is no longer visible, I exhale.  I begin to sense the trees dancing in the rustle of the leaves, the silhouettes of glowing light and the darkness breathing.  The trees begin calling me, in different ways and in manners that bypass my logical brain.  Welcomed to come and visit with them, I bring my large format camera.  I contort optics and make long exposure, allowing for more to imprint than what the eye could see…possibly our intimate encounter, possibly what was spoken.

“When we refer to spirits we usually are referring to those who have come before us, and occasionally those who will be birthed by us, but generally we speak of entities with the assumed shared human experience.  The forest world has been densely growing and cycling for longer than we have been walking this earth.  These spirits, these ancient beings, have wisdoms and perspectives rooted from the time of the core of the earth.  And they see through me, they see through us.

"To walk alone into the forest is the first step to being able to hear the speaking.  It is not immediate, but per individual.  The next step is to hear your presence in the forest, the breaking of sticks beneath your feet.  Then you hear and feel your breath in this airspace, that it is different than that outside of the woods.  It will be silent at first, still, while you acclimate.  And then as your mind is relaxed, your face will relax deeply and, as if your eyes open wider, you will see how very much alive the beings that surround you are.

SPOKEN is a body of portraits; recordings of wisdom shared.

On display at CAMIBAart, Austin, TX until January 7th.  Closing will be 1-4 January 7th.

Video by Justin Humphrey

Our Waters, our bodies, our Mother

Good Morning!

This intention of focusing on the Sacred Water and making this exploration publicly visible brings many things to the foreground. I am searching to represent the templates of spaces that are living in harmonious relationship with our Mother Earth and the Bodies of Water that flow in and outside of her. I am honoring the intimate prayers of communities and individuals to open more hearts and give more access to our internal waters while profoundly connecting with all waters. I am also giving voice to the many peoples who are fighting to protect our waters in a time where social media is the space that truly represents the people while, unfortunately, the mainstream is being censored.

I was able to spend some time connecting in the Yaqui pueblos in Sonora, Mexico. Here is a video of interviews I made with a couple of the women surrounding the waters and sustainable living.

This is not a unique story of sadness for the people and for the waters. These stories are all over the world. On the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota a call has been made for international community support to fight against tunnels for oil being run under the waters. It is an embarrassment how the US government is handling this. But it has also been a great demonstration of people coming together from all nations to speak up for Sacred Waters!  Yesterday we sang, we prayed, we united.

Many Blessings,

Tahila

Damian Marley- mainstream ancestral connect

The media outlets have so much power and sometimes it so right on. This video!!!!

Tiny House Building through a Texas Winter of RAIN pt 1

Rain and more Rain in Austin these weeks giving me time to write about our Tiny House building these past months.

In leu of floor plans, John and I's first steps were to build a teeny Tiny house made of cardboard. Our first construction had little movable parts including a tiny Tahila with her arms outstretched.

I made lists of what I wanted, felt were my "need to have's", in my space. Windows prominently fill the wall space. I like to sit on the floor so floor space for seating is important and space for stretching, turning and dancing. We decided the wall could fold down for a work table or as needed. That meant space for movement :)

Out on the farm the ducks all came around to watch us as the sun came up and the day began.















We strive to keep wood from going to the dump and the following days were spent taking apart pallets (labeled HT, meaning not chemically treated).

And removed many many many nails
Baby Chicks were born and I went to sleep and woke listening to them peep peeping.



The oak pile grew and grew from the older pallets and the planing began. Our days of sunshine ended a day into this process and then the remaining time we spent in sleet. Texas weather has been abnormal this year and unpredictable.
                             

John

Rodney

Me

It was all worth it for the beauty we found as the layers pealed away.

These will be placed carefully on the Trailer bed to become my floor!

House cleaning of the mind in Gratitude

“And then a man came forth and said, Speak to us of Houses

… But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed. 

Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast. 

It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye. 

You shall not fold you wings that you may pass through doors, nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down. 

You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living. 

And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing. 

For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.”

- Kahlil Gibran, from 'The Prophet'

Without much amazement this morning, I see clearly that a "flushing out" is needed. An internal purging and balancing must take place, as I work through a similar filtering system of my external life and possessions in preparation to move in my Tiny House.

As asked on a tiny house blog for house prep....or in zen texts:

What is essential to me?
What do I no longer need to hold on to?
What is the too much?

Moondancer

 In our prayers we put forth our intentions. We ask to be excused for the mistakes we make unknowingly and that no harm will come to anyone in the process of arriving where we need to be.
In this way I pray. I respectfully am apart of the Kalpulli Teokalli Teoyolotl.

To say I am beginning my preparations would be mis leading, better I say I am continuing my preparations to enter the Moondance circle, the womb, for my second year. My formal preparations began when I made my commitment with my Tobacco offering to my Madrina. I, Xicahuamazatl, with her permission, would make my commitment to dance the year following. I would accompany her to Mexico later that year to support her and learn while she danced her ninth year.

Since joining her circle, walking the red road with her as a navigator, it has been 8 years now. These years and more have been the start of my preparation.

Less then two weeks until one step in front of the other, one woman in front of the next, one fire in front of the next, one heartbeat.

8 days of ceremony, four nights of dancing, open, giving, receiving, praying. together. Tlazokamati