Half My Life

Now that the new year has passed, my dreadlocks can count their 17th birthday, and I realised (actually a couple of months ago), that I’ve passed the point where I’ve had them for more than half my life.

Given that I started them at sixteen-and-a-half, and I’m now thirty-three (and a half), so here’s a tribute to an epic journey – they’re not quite as long as they used to be – a few years back they were to my ankles, but that proved to be a hazard, so I keep them hovering around knee-length (for more history and dreadlock Q&A, see this old post on my Fifteen-Year-Dreadversary). 

Iran and Israel – Flashback Friday

In 2004, I had a vision - a dream, if you will.

I had a vision that the Rainbow Family Gathering could happen in the Middle East - in a place where both Israelis and Iranians (and Syrians and Lebanese and Jordanians and in fact all the world) could come and gather together in peace.

I shared my dream at the council at the World Rainbow Family Gathering in Costa Rica (this is the council where it will be decided in which country the next World Rainbow Gathering would be). I said Turkey (the country, not the bird).

A lot of people argued against me. A lot of people said I was crazy - they said you can't have a Rainbow Gathering in Turkey - Midnight Express, Muslims, Military state... They said there is no way any Middle Eastern people would come. They said it would be a disaster and that there was no way Israelis would be able to be at a festival peacefully with Iranians.

At that time, I didn't personally know any Iranians, but I held my vision, I spoke my dream. And some people caught on. The council reached consensus, and the gathering happened.

I got myself to the Middle East, I walked my talk and went to Turkey to help find the place for the Gathering to be held. I spread the word, I promoted it. And I went there, with Littletree – she was two at the time.

It was a beautiful place in the mountains of Southern Turkey. There was people from all over the world - Australians, Americans, Canadians, Germans, English, French, Italians, Kiwis, Turks... about 40 countries were represented, in fact. And lots of Israelis. We all had fun, we sang songs and at food together and camped out.

And then one day, about a week into the month-long festival, a big truck drove right up to the main fire area - we ran over to ask the truck driver to leave, because Rainbow Gatherings are car-free zones; there's a car-parking area a short walk away, but we had problems with locals driving in all the time.
But before we could say anything about the truck being in what we feel is a sacred space, people started pouring out.

Iranians.

Twenty-one Iranians, men and women. They'd heard about the gathering and come together, caravanning all the way from Teheran. They'd been travelling for a few days in trucks, and they'd brought a king's ransom of food to share (dried fruits and nuts from Iran, and spices to start a chai tent).

They poured out of that truck, and kissed the ground, and we crowded around them and hugged them, and cried "Welcome Home!" (because that's what you say to newly arriving people at Rainbow Gatherings.)

And before I knew it, there was a mob of Israelis hugging Iranians hugging Israelis. And Germans. And Aussies, and Dutch and South Africans and Turks and Danes and Swiss... And we were all just people.

In the days that came, the Iranians set up a camp and started hosting parties and serving food and chai (in Rainbow Gatherings, everything is shared freely; there is no commerce). And friendships were formed.

Someone called for a "talking circle" (basically a group meeting where people sit in a circle and take turns talking) to discuss Peace. It was mostly Israelis and Iranians that came.

Virtually every one in that circle - Iranians and Israelis alike said the same thing:
"I grew up thinking the others were evil people who just hate us and want to bomb us, and we only want peace, I had no idea that the others are people just like us, who also want peace."

So many tears were shed, so many hugs were shared, and so many deep friendships forged.

This was my vision, and it carries on today - the "Peace in the Middle East" Rainbow Family Gatherings are still happening every year, mostly in Turkey, and I now have many friends from Iran, and from Israel.

Let go of your politics, let go of fear, let go of assumptions and media scaremongering and hate. Let go of fear, and see that we are all just people who want Peace.

And I’m not the only one

http://youtu.be/mYjuUoEivbE

Faerie Mischief

I’m sorry to admit that Littletree has picked up some terrible habits from me. I know, I know! I should have known better than to give her such bad examples; I should have known that she would see me and want to copy.

But I was weak, and I let her see me… baking. Oh the shame! And it wasn’t just once or twice… I made cakes and muffins and cookies and puddings and pies; but I didn’t stop there! Oh no! The horror of it is that I even let Littletree help me some times.

Imagine my dismay to come into the kitchen to find her standing at the oven with a measuring cup and whisk in her hands! I rushed in to stop her, but it was too late… chocolate and butter were already melting on the stove, eggs were cracked, flour sifted.

What could I do? I figured, if she’s going to start experimenting with baking, she should at least do it with me, here in the home, where I can supervise her and answer her questions. Far better that way than to have her out in the streets, trying cakes from unknown bakeries – those places are nefarious with their free samples of sugar-coated pastries that get you hooked.

So I helped her make brownies. Don’t judge! I know there’s a lot of evidence to show brownies are a gateway cake that just leads to gateaux and tortes, but I think we can keep this under control.

And she seems so happy in the kitchen. MMMMM brownies!

Since we’ve been having trouble with pesky pixies lately hiding things about the house, and inspired by The Spiderwick Chronicles, Lady Demelza suggested we make a tea party for the faeries and give them sweet offerings of brownies and other delectable treats.

Littletree loved the idea and set about making a beautiful table setting out in the faerie garden

We made cute little offerings around the garden of brownies for the brownies and honey on crackers for the pixies

And then enjoyed a most luscious afternoon tea – brownies, fairy juice (elderflower cordial), fruit tea, ginger beer, cheese and crackers

Hopefully that will restore some order to the house, so we can get back to baking!

The darkest day of the year

Happy Solstice to all! Here, where the world is upside down and we live in the future, it’s the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year. Or the longest night of the year, depending on how you look at it.

We rugged up warm – it’s about as freezing as I can bear it! Only 21°C (69.8F) today! We lit the fire, and we prepared a special feast – fresh fish, prawns, hand-cut potato wedges and a big salad.

Yum!

Water Dragon

Happy New Year of the Water Dragon

There has been such a constant stream of so many beautiful people flowing through my house recently, with Wind and Coola living in the flat downstairs, and our good friends Belle and Anasho have been staying, since they are temporarily homeless, as well as frequent visits from an assortment of random hippies and my beloved Ocean.

As group of us got together yesterday for a sacred ceremony to honour the new moon and the start of the Chinese New Year.

We all wrote out pages of our intentions and manifestations for the coming year, I chopped some wood,

We lit a sacred fire, ringed with the surprise rose apples we found growing in the back of our rainforest.

Then we said some prayers and set our intentions before giving the pages to the fire

Then we sat around playing music and dancing and singing before having a yummy feast.

Awesome start to the year!

Homemade Harvest

The past month has been such a frenzy of homemade awesomeness. Harvesting yummy veggies from our garden

Including cassava so we can make our own cassava chips (as well as so many amazing delicacies)

Amazing, delectable, organic, home made cherry liqueur, which tastes like an explosion of fluffy bliss bubbles in your brain

Hannukah Sufganiot

Homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream made from local, raw, organic cream, and served with my organic, raw macadamia and honey ice cream

Gingerbread yoni cookies made by my neighbour

And last, but not least, a local farm stall gave us a massive box of “seconds” tomatoes for only $2! What to do with such a tomatoey abundance?

Tomato Chutney!

In between the moments of madness, there’s been SO MUCH AWESOME!

I love eating locally, I love eating food that we grew ourselves, I love making from scratch all the things that even our grandmothers have forgotten how to make :)

Flashback Friday–Victoria Falls

Time for another flashback post :) I was reminded lately of the time I spent in Africa – I travelled and lived for a year and a half in Africa, including a Cape-to-Cairo journey. Looking through some old photos I have scanned in, I came across this gorgeous set that were taken at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, regarded as one of the top three waterfalls in the world.

In 2001 I attended a World Rainbow Gathering in Zimbabwe, which was incredibly amazing. After the gathering, a small group of my friends and I decided that we should go see the sunrise at Victoria Falls on full moon night

The only catch with this plan was that one has to pay to get in to the Victoria Falls Park and go with a guided tour. So we thought better to sneak in and go about by ourselves.

So we waited till it was late night and we embarked into the bush some distance from the official entry gate and climbed over the fence. What fun to be sneaking around in the African wilderness! At night!

At some point, one of my friends came around some trees to find himself face-to-face with an elephant. Another friend got caught by security, and managed to run off and get out, though totally scratched up from running wildly through the jungle and finally jumping a barbed wire fence.

Those of us who stayed for the sunrise were treated to spectacular circular night-time rainbows around the full moon, and then the stunning views of the sunrise, while the full moon was setting and rainbows in the mist of the falls.

It was a truly amazing moment, I will remember always.

These three photos were taken all at the same time, at sunrise on the full moon, July 2001. The first view is looking east, to the sunrise, the second is looking north directly at the falls, with me posing and the third is facing west, to the full moon setting behind a rainbow. All taken with a Kodak disposable camera.

Home from Rainbow Land

Just got home from the Australian Rainbow Gathering, which was all kinds of awesome!

We packed up my trusty van, Sunshine with all the gear and tipi poles on the roof and hit the road! On the way we stopped at the Coroborree Land out at Tabulam to pick up the big communal pots – was nice to break the journey and have a nice swim in the river on a hot day!

It took most of two days to drive down to the Blue Mountains, but it was great to arrive at Home and get the tipi set up… right before we all moved to a better site, 2 hours away. Exhaustion much!?

Aaaand then it was time to drive down to Sydney to pick Littletree up from the airport.

Honestly, I have no idea how people manage to live there, I was so wiped out from being in the city for one day, and all we did was drive in to the airport and drive out again!

So it took us a whole week to get down, get set up, move again, set up again and settle in! Phew! But it was really nice to be in the tipi once more, and to be in nature and at rainbow, after a year without gathering on the land.

I Loved being able to go for circles every day, singing and Aumming and eating communally under the big tree

And Food Circle around the sacred fire in the evening

There were so many awesome workshops – someone bought a bucket of avocado seeds and some carving tools, and some people got together to carve an avocado chess-set

Juggling, capoeira and Hula Hooping

I held my usual water-bottle-holder crochet workshop

Random acts of group massage

Face Painting in silence by the creek

Making signs for the kitchen

Fire Twirling

Dress-ups for the production of Alice in RainbowLand, and for the Cabaret

And so much more!

I worked in the kitchen (as I do), but was pretty good at stepping back and not getting burned out

And spent a lot of time lying on a rock in the river, or in my hammock. It was wonderful to catch up with old friends and to make new connections. Great to be back in the bush, watching the stars and the moon, falling asleep at night to the sounds of the drums, making chapatis and doughnuts on an open fire, feeling the rain on my skin.

But not too much rain!

And now it’s good to be home!

More photos can be found on my flickr page HERE

Holding the Space

To the casual observer, it may appear that things are a little dull around here. My blogging has lagged into “filler” posts. And it’s true: I simply don’t have as much time, space, or energy to put into it at the moment. So I’m reduced to the level of “oh my, I haven’t blogged lately… what can I think of? Meh, just post some photos of something cute Littletree did lately”.

Since this is my website and I can say anything I darned well please, and let’s be honest, my life has been interesting enough to fulfil more Chinese curses than one could possibly wish on one’s worst enemy, I’m allowed to post fillers once in a while.

Even the greatest of TV series has a “flashback” episode every few seasons. So I will flash back to a year ago, when I drove down to the Blue Mountains Rainbow Gathering with Littletree.

This particular flashback is apt, because I am currently planning and packing for the next Australian Rainbow Family Gathering, which will be, again, in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney (though not in the exact same location again).

Double Yay and all kinds of excitingness!

I shall even – wonder of wonders – be driving down without Littletree! She will be staying home with Purple, and flying down after Hallowe’en, for which she has many plans. Even though only for a week, this will be the first time I’ve been at a rainbow gathering without Littletree since she was born (since even before that, if you count the three gatherings I was at while pregnant).

So though life is in stasis at the moment – or maybe it’s in flux… hard to tell, since my flux capacitor is on the blink again, I shall soon be relaxing in my hammock by my tipi, enjoying the sun.

Yay for friends

I’ve been slowly coming out of my shell a bit more in the past week, getting out and seeing friends and doing fun stuff.

Last weekend was Rinka’s 40th birthday party, so I made myself get out of the house and go socialise. It was great to see friends and have a catch-up

Also great to see some old clients and see how their babies are growing

And how young love blooms in two of the babies I’ve caught.

And best of all, just awesome to be out in the bush, around a campfire and having a laugh :)

All in all, I’m feeling much better after the last weeks of gloom.