Celebrating Nature, Culture, and Spirit

latest feature:
United 93: a skeptic's film review
Money will come when you are doing the right thing.
--Mike Phillips
Message from the Hopi People - People of Peace
We have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour and there are things to be considered.
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in a good relation?
Where is your water?
Have you prepared your family?
Can you live from the Earth?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold onto the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and they will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, and push off into the river, keep our eyes open, and our head above the water. See who is in there with you and Celebrate.
At this time in history, take nothing personally. Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over, Gather yourselves!
Banish the word ''struggle'"from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that you do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. "We are the ones we've been waiting for..."
--The Elders, Hopi Nation, Oraibi, Arizona
Update (spring 2006) from Hopi
How to "Corrupt" the World
"The Creator wants us to drum. He wants us to corrupt the world with drum, dance and chants. After all, we have already corrupted the world with power and greed....which hasn't gotten us anywhere - now's the time to corrupt the world with drum, dance and chants."
--Babatunde Olatunji
A New Story
--from Niles Eldredge, Dominion
The People came from the earth and were linked through the recesses of time with all other creatures. They were kin of the bacteria, the microscopic ones, the fungi, the plants, and the other animals. And they were nearest to the Apes: the orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees.
The People, though, became self-aware and through time came to devise artifacts and customs to help them live. In time, they left their ancestral home and spread throughout the world. Everywhere they went they lived in and were dependent upon their natural surroundings, which they acknowledged openly.
Then the People came to control their own food supply. Everything changed. No longer at home in the local natural world, the People now lived in inner-directed settlements. They invented gods and declared dominion over all the natural world: the rivers and seas, the forests, the plains, the deserts, and the swamps.
The People prospered and their knowledge grew. But soon their numbers grew so great that they saw they had not, after all, truly left the natural world. They saw a limit to the natural resources, and to the production of their own food. They came to see that poisons of the waters, soils, and air threatened them. And they understood that the other creatures--their kin--were vital to their own survival.
The People acknowledged their true past and their newfound problems. They decided to use the very same tool that had brought them along so far: their cleverness. They saw that all creatures--including the People--face limitations and depend on the natural world.
The People decided to curb their population numbers. They determined to curtail environmental damage and the loss of other species. They decided to conserve the world's remaining ecosystems. And they embraced sustainable development, matching economic growth to the carrying capacities of their surroundings.
The People lived. And it was very good.