20190922_165459

it was International Day of Peace.

It was on the calendar,  the Butterfly Calendar.  It said Church.   Just that word.  Church.   We'd looked around the internet and read about the Unity Church here in Oroville.  You can google it.  It sounds great and so we chose it as the first effort.  You might remember back a while when i talked about how we watched Emrie and her love of people,  human activity,  how she gets so happy when there's  "foot traffic"  on her street,  people setting out to get their drugs for time being,  how she waves and is all happy.  And how Alyssia and i talked about her living such a small life, really,  her house,  this Hill,  grocery, gas station.  She is an extrovert and LOVES  things,  like she loved the evacuations,  both times….the activity,  the many people.  And we thought about needing to give that to her.  So,  Church came to mind.  Reading all the aftermath of the Fire in Paradise,  it's the Churches that continue to provide for people in All ways.  

so we went.  we met up there.   Tay waited in the car.   What do i want to tell here?

We were New.   Different.   We signed in the guest book and made name tags for ourselves.  Stuck them to our chests.  Were greeted by many with great warmth and hugs.  Emrie was Beamed Upon which she took in in her Expansive way….she is such a Gracious Being,    The service began with singing and a piano and it surprised her…her eyes got wide and she beamed and said Music!  and i stood her on her chair so she could see and when the congregation began to sing together,  she BLOOMED and BEAMED and swayed and her hands rose up into those old movements of when she was an infant and we wondered if  it was a sign she might be on "the spectrum",  her hands…wrists spinning,  hands and fingers twirling in complicated Mudras

and when it was time for the Sermon,  or Talk,  or whatever they call it,  the woman who had introduced herself to us came and led Emrie out.   She went.  Carrying her bag of stuff.  Diaper Pullups,  a couple disney figures.    When Alyssia called,  they said, yes.  They had child care.  Ok.  Emrie was the only child.  We had imagined a room of little ones,  little Peaceful ones,  playing together.

The sermon was about Ancient Texts.   I won't talk about this cause it's not worth it,  but…tho nice,  had complete reference to the Bible.  AND how other ancient texts repeat such similar teachings,  but still the bible. 

we won't go again.  And i think.  What was it we were imagining?   What kind of Church do we Imagine?  It's a great thought.  I like it.   What if we could become a Church.   I think how Jaime told me about the Church of the Old Mermaids.  What if we,  Alyssia,  Emrie and I could be a Church.  What would that BE?

am going to think about that.

And it will include Days of Peace and Greta Thunberg will be one of our Saints and we will DRUM and not need to whisper and sing loud and sway.  We will say Peace,  but not a Peace at all Cost.  We will be a little or a lot wild.  I think in my old age i long for Paganism.  Long for it.  Here goes.

 

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20 responses to “what to say”

  1. Joanne Avatar
    Joanne

    In California I think paganism should be easy enough to find just ask at the farmers market

    Like

  2. grace Forrest Avatar

    maybe in Chico. Here, we are pretty staid.
    OR everyone is like us. Keeping to OurSelves. ?

    Like

  3. Mo Crow Avatar

    I can see you and Alyssia and Emrie all drumming and singing & dancing with the spirits of place on The Hill

    Like

  4. jude Avatar

    I’m always confused by flags and bibles. Many have tried to explain. I get it but then not. Mostly I just want to think for myself.

    Like

  5. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    As the eldering process sets a stronger root concerning shifting self-world relationship, matters of Spirit seem like a total no brainer to me. We live Gaia’s house not the other way around. It behooves those of us who stay mindful of that to also worship at her altar.

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  6. Patty Avatar

    I had the same experience with our local UU church. For now I
    continue living as a free range Buddhist who also worships trees.
    The crowd isn’t always the way to follow.

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  7. Irene Avatar
    Irene

    As a happy pagan (with secular Jewish roots), I talk to the critters and the rocks.

    Like

  8. Jackie B Avatar
    Jackie B

    Oh grace, I would love to come to your church! I’ve tried the other and just never fit in. I found that box just too confining.
    My best friend and I were able to make traditional native hand drums in 2017. It is such a magically spiritual instrument to hold,even without drumming. The drumming is other worldly.
    It’s such a sacred instrument and is very beautiful in many ways. Neither my friend or I are Native Canadians, both our families have been settlers for generations.We both have great respect for our drums. And I say our drums even though I just can’t feel ownership, the drum is her own being. Again…magical.
    Much love.

    Like

  9. Laura R Avatar
    Laura R

    I love that you know who Greta is. In my world, living in Placer County, my husband and I seem to be the only ones who know how important she is. I haven’t heard any personal discussions; I’m disappointed at how little coverage she has received this past week. I followed her voyage on her Facebook.
    I am just beginning “A History of Pagan Europe”, by Jones and Pennick. Does anyone know it? It will take me a long while to finish it.
    I grew up in the Pacific NW, and inspired by native Americans, I was more drawn to nature and their spiritual world than church.
    XO

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  10. Dana Avatar

    This is such an interesting post. I feel the tension of my inner life with the spiritual expressions the group. It is very hard to be alone when parsing the unanswerable questions of life, but institutionalized religion so often funnels me away from the longings of my heart. Helping a child navigate in these waters is very difficult. I don’t feel like I managed it very well with my sons.

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    we need to create a particular Space for that.
    FOR that.
    but i also wish for her to see that among the People

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    i’m not confused.
    in Buddhism there is the Buddha, the Dharma (teachings)
    and the Sangha (community)
    i have come to understand the Beauty of Community.
    I have that here.
    I would like Community for Emrie

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    beauty FULL words…we live in Gaia’s house

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    we will find someThing

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes..the multitude of Sentients around us

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    Jackie, thank you for telling this…so good to
    know

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes, Greta.
    There’s so much to be shared about our sense of Fitting,
    our sense of grounded Place

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar

    growing up being Required to participate in
    conservative ignorant Born Again Christian Baptist
    dogma,
    i did not navigate waters with my children at all other
    than to require them to be Kind. Otherwise, there
    were no suggestions at all. They were on their own.
    and we are all on our own. Emrie is on her own. But i
    have found Beauty in the experience of Loving some things and in sharing that love with others who love the same…
    as Here, as in Jude’s world. I am a part of something
    larger. I have Kin. I am no longer uhhhh, threatened
    by the sense of joy in Kinship. I want it. If i could
    find it in this place of Oroville, California, i would
    be joyfull.
    It’s funny…at the laundromat…there was kinship in all of us who were washing our clothes. We smiled. Some talk. There was a youngish man with headphones, dancing near his dryer. It was quite Grand. Just that was enough for one
    day. Most of my days are spent in chosen isolation from
    the world…here on this Hill where you can see nothing of
    the world and don’t exist TO the world. But to have
    those moments, like the Laundromat…they feed something
    in me that is hungry.

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