For the week before I left, I worked on a project I have yet to tell you about. Zigola, an enthusiastic artist of Dendera, invited me to work on a project that Qualia and her were spearheading to paint a caravan (or trailer) with plants and animals that people of Dendera are named after! They lobbied for me to be able to use this as part of my work-trade with them and I painted pretty much every day for a week, a few hours or more a day when it was raining (which it often was). I am so grateful they put their trust in me to work on such a project. For them, it was a significant trailer because Falco, their leader who passed away last year, used to travel around with this trailer on the journeys that are part of Damanhur culture to go out into the world and discover new things to bring back to the community. For me, it was an opportunity to paint something bigger than I had ever painted, and to continuously work on a painting for longer than I ever had before. As I am developing my ability to have longer-sustained energy toward my endeavors and to leap into my creative power, this was perfect! Here are some photos of what it turned out looking like.
I've now said goodbye to Damanhur a few long days ago. I felt so much love leaving Dendera, the nucleo I lived in for two weeks, and that gave me a lot of closure. Lukas and I got big hugs and kisses from everyone there. For the week before I left, I worked on a project I have yet to tell you about. Zigola, an enthusiastic artist of Dendera, invited me to work on a project that Qualia and her were spearheading to paint a caravan (or trailer) with plants and animals that people of Dendera are named after! They lobbied for me to be able to use this as part of my work-trade with them and I painted pretty much every day for a week, a few hours or more a day when it was raining (which it often was). I am so grateful they put their trust in me to work on such a project. For them, it was a significant trailer because Falco, their leader who passed away last year, used to travel around with this trailer on the journeys that are part of Damanhur culture to go out into the world and discover new things to bring back to the community. For me, it was an opportunity to paint something bigger than I had ever painted, and to continuously work on a painting for longer than I ever had before. As I am developing my ability to have longer-sustained energy toward my endeavors and to leap into my creative power, this was perfect! Here are some photos of what it turned out looking like.
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Sunday morning, as Anaconda puts it, "we meet for breakfast at 9:00 and at 9:30, we look each other in the eyes and decide what we will do." This is the process for Dendera each week to get together and do work on the land. On this day I grabbed my gloves and Lukas and I set out following Susan, an eccentric woman from Berlin who arrived yesterday and who stays in Damanhur often over the last decade or so. She's already had me laughing at every little joke she makes. On into the forest we meet up with some folks from Magila, "Magic," the nucleo adjacent to Dendera, stopping near a little house that rotates 360 degrees to follow the sun. It's unclear what work we are about to commence but Lukas is chosen as the only other male to help a man from Magila move a stone from out of the wood and into the wheelbarrow. And off we go, 5 women following Lukas and the stone still further into the wood for unknown reasons, Susan and I cheering, "follow the stone!" We finally came to the altar to the earth, made of a large boulder, a few stone steps up to it, and topped with an ancient looking tree stump covered in lichen. Here we were put to task to build up a stone wall along the lower edge of the altar's boulder. I couldn't have been happier to hear this was the task because, truth be told, I had been saying to Lukas over the last few weeks how much I wanted to build a stone wall, inspired by the stone walls of my youth and all the gorgeous old walls of the Italian mountains. It seems my manifestation powers are quite strong! While the other women set out to move stones and clean up the main boulder of the altar with a rough metal brush, Lukas and I carefully chose each stone to fit both geometrically and aesthetically together, making sure the mossy faces of the rocks greeted the earth worshipper as they approached the altar. I felt as if I found something I could do again and again. What luck: to be outdoors under the forest canopy, using the beauty of the earth to create ever more intentional spaces and playing with rocks like puzzle pieces. It's perfect for me! I felt at ease while we tried placing this or that stone, trying one orientation, then rotating it another way so that it locks right into place. In the end, I felt like the wall looked as if it belonged. And I also had a sense of belonging as well. Back at the main house, a grand Sunday lunch was being prepared by Gazza and Jasmin. We showed up to help set the long table, fit for a squished 25 people. At first, Lukas and I went to the cupboard and pulled out 3 tablecloths to piece together over the entire length. They didn't quite match, though they each had fruit printed on them, and there were fold creases all over them. I eyed them, thinking that they would not be approved by the house, but Lukas thought they were fine so we kept going. Then, from the adjoining kitchen, Gazza yells out, "no, no, they must look good for this meal!" Slightly embarrassed, I ask for the correct ones and fold up the mess of the ones we had first grabbed. "Okay, use these," Jasmine explains, " but first use these two that match and then put this one at the end." As a German, she said that it took her a while to learn all the ways of table setting because Germans eat directly on their wooden tables and that's the we they like it. When we had artfully finished the tablecloths and all the plates were placed in an alternating pattern, we all celebrated our success to make a big Italian family proud. At lunch there were many toasts in Italian of who made what dish, that the tomatoes and basil came from the land, the wine brought from a lunch guest, and on. Gazza later apologized for not having made an announcement about our glorious table setting. The lunch consumed many bottles of wine, and finished off with homemade pie of two kinds, and coffee. Now stuffed, it's time to get back to my afternoon projects while I still have my caffeine high. Brava! I feel ready to go home now. We are actually leaving Damanhur and ending or international travels on Tuesday when we go to the east coast and I start Phase Walsh Family Vacation. This involves a week long vacation in the Outer Banks (OBX) with 28 of his family members!! I've heard good things so I think it will be a recreational blur of beach playing, ping pong, poker and plentiful interviews with all the cousins, parents, aunts and uncles. I'm actually really excited for this leg of my adventure. It's also almost my birthday month!! I turn 27 on August 10th and have a good feeling about this change. It's like I've been playing checkers for all these years and I'm about to start playing chess. Or maybe I've been collecting seeds for a long time and now I'm finally going to plant some and really tend to them and see what grows. Yeah! That feels right. I've been thinking a lot about what's next. (My future mind rules this brain most of the time, though Moments of Presence get sprinkled in there as well.) What do I care enough about so I can decide what type of garden I'm tending? Before I left on this adventure, I intentionally left behind all the odds and ends I had been juggling for so long to clear the way for what mystery is to come. When I return to California, what focus will I create? This speaks to the change of age I'm feeling. Focus is a key word. So is Courage. I am Ready to claim my power and trust my vision!! I am only just starting to see that I have enough vision to simply BEGIN! I think if I follow these first sparks of passion, more and more will emerge. I must introduce you to two people of importance on my trip. They have already come and gone physically, although I feel we will be connected over time. Meet Esther and Amar, two lovely people who were also staying at Primastalla when we got there. Esther is from Denmark and doing her anthropology thesis on Damnahur and how the connection to growing food changes the way we see all living things (Esther-I'm sure this is not all of it; please give your synopsis in the public comments!) Amar is Spanish and is most jazzed about the guidance he has been receiving from a German teacher about how we can find empowerment over our history and circumstances and live an authentic life. (Again-Amar, please correct me if I'm wrong!) These two found each other on the farm and started a relationship. They are adorable together if I may say so. It was so refreshing to hang with these two whether pulling weeds from the onions or walking back to the caseta after dinner. We covered so many topics and we could be serious or wacky together. It was sad to say goodbye! I'm wishing for them to visit California one day. ...I've lost a few pounds from vomiting last night! Yes, it's true I got sick. Here at Dendera, the nucleo we're now staying at, everyone is so sweet and helpful. I had three people all trying to figure out what was wrong, one of them on the phone to the Damanhur doctor speaking in Italian, asking me questions getting translated to English by another woman. I got set up in their living room and have been quarantined there for 24 hours!! I've been stable since morning and am now eating again. We just watched the Lego Movie and now the really sweet 15 year old came in and now we're watching The Last Airbender with him and playing Texas Hold Em. Adorable bonding situation. Note: It was a great challenge to write this, mostly because of some fear that you may feel a different way. But because I believe more strongly in truth and overcoming fear, I'm going ahead and saying what I feel. I invite any comments below and appreciate compassion and openness in our dialogue. Going to Israel and Palestine has brought up so much for me. The fact that I went there in the first place with a free Jewish tour already brings much complication and had me pondering my Jewish identity. I already felt Jew-"ish" before, and then seeing how far I am from the particular Israeli-Jewish experience as well as much of the rituals and customs of Judaism, I wonder what small sliver of my identity could really claim to be Jewish. Definitely human. Northern Californian, yes. Female, artist, sister, daughter. I relate to all these in my day to day life. However, I now in some way feel less Jewish than before. After going to Palestine and putting faces to the people who no longer have control over their land, homes and access to basic life essentials, I can't ignore this reality. I wonder how the Jewish people, who for so long have experienced being outsiders and having the collective wounding of not having a homeland, could use tactics of systematically tearing down villages and bombing refugee camps? This saddens me and I feel myself wanting to separate from this behavior, from the Israeli government. It was wise for the IDF to enlist all young people so they could get the shared experience of defending their country. This is not to say that each young Israeli enjoys it. Many do not and I talked to a few people about it. That being said, the government gets a direct chance to indoctrinate every person at the age of 18 with the mentality that we should be scared of Arab people, of Palestinians and Muslim people. That they do not belong here and we should always be wary and fearful that they may at any time harm you. Of course there has been violence also committed by Palestinians. This started the fear, one could say, but this does not add up to the apartheid actions the Israeli government has placed on Palestine, or the outright murder it has done in the last week on refugees who have a fraction of the weapons and technology the IDF possesses. Jews have been searching for their homeland for thousands of years, a place to be safe and put down roots and practice their beliefs. This is understood and valid, but I don't believe the fight is worth it when the wounds that need healing get turned around and done to another people. Palestine was not empty when it was declared a Jewish State. Let us accept this truth, firstly; to acknowledge that there are human beings who also need the basic human right to have a home. Today I learned how to have a highly expressive engagement with people who don't speak your language nor do you speak theirs. Step 1: Go out in the asparagus field with them and start collecting previously pulled weeds. Step 2: Work for a few hours with minimal words while you work up a sweat. Step 3: Start singing a song to yourself. Step 4: Get a whole lot louder, signing along with anyone around, melodically yell out someone's name or made up words in a high tone while the others take medium and low tones. Extra Credit: If you get someone to join your work party who wasn't even going to work that day because you were so loud and jovial, great job! Lukas hiding behind some pepperoni plants. It never dawned on me till this farming experience that pepperoni was the pepper that spices the meat. We worked in this greenhouse for a day and a half, tying up the plants while the biting bugs attacked us in the stagnant heat. At least I had the best of company!
I'm now at Damanhur, an intentional community in the region of Piedmont in Italy. Lukas and I are currently staying at a nucleo called Primastalla which is focused on organic food production. We are trading 30 hours of work a week to be well fed and have a caseta by the cow barn a short walk from the main house. Nucleo: the word that means a community within Damanhur. There are over 500 permanent citizens at Damanhur spread out in community homes in various nucleos. The Damanhurian land here is not connected. There are bits of land spread out over many many miles that have been acquired over the years. It takes about 15 minutes by car to get from Primastalla to Damijl, the central area of Damanhur which includes a few nucleos, the welcome center, the school of meditation and the Open Temple, an outdoor space lined with columns that invites rituals of all religions and creeds. There are also outdoor altars to the elements and many labyrinths for various intentions: digestion, optimism, dreaming, memories, and to connect to their larger energy body. This year is the 40th anniversary of Damanhur's founding. When we arrived a week ago, it had been one week since the anniversary of the death of Falco, the main inspiration behind Damanhur. People don't call him the founder -- there was a larger group of founders that he was part of -- but they call him the main inspiration and channel for ancient information that has become the spiritual foundation here. It's all very complex to me. There are rules of citizenship, a sacred language of symbols inscribed all over the land, a school of meditation which all citizens must participate in, and a list of pathways which is chosen as a focus of study. People gather many times a week in groups for various reasons -- house meetings, weekly citizen meetings about social topics and another weekly meeting about spirituality and the various research developments going on here including alternative energy, the songs of plants, gmo research and Selfic art, the Damanhurian craft which incorporates energy of different symbols and metals into wearable objects or sculptures for different purposes. Some protect against radiation from technology, some help connect the wearer to her higher purpose. They have a gallery at DamanhurCrea, which is a center of commerce and other services such as the integrative healthcare and the art studios for painters, sculptors, etc. The society here is very complex and I'm only beginning to uncover some details, which I will report on over time. Con Voi (Con voi means 'with you' in the plural. It is a saying uttered all day long amongst damanhurians. I heard that the common Italian salutation, ciao, was rejected from the beginning for being originally linked to a saying said to slaves.) |
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