An Open Letter to Jonathan Paul, another involved distant neighbor

More sharing of the process here.....

Dear JonathanPaul,

I appreciate the decency (although minimal) you have to come to us directly for communication, however, it's ironic that I feel safer perched in the crown of my tipi over six men with guns, tazers, mace and handcuffs than I do talking on level ground with you. I continue to be baffled as to what your issue might be with my family and Tipi Village being on this mountain and I get a sense that you may not even know. Can you spell it out for me very clearly so that things can begin to be properly addressed (sans yelling)? I am not interested in aggressive threats towards my family from you or your friends anymore. Enough.

It was Friday (a few days ago) when you came to "check" on us while we were loading the last of our things (with the sheriffs permission none-the-less) from the land we have been evicted from. You smugly took a picture and informed us that you'd be telling the authorities. Well the sheriffs paid our family yet another visit the following day. In retrospect, it probably helped our cause having them see that we are honest and that there are neighbors attempting to sabotage. They said the complaint that was filed was a 'bad call'. So I guess I can say thanks for that. 

Although recent encounters between us have been on the nasty side, I have gotten glimpses of our commonality. I can imagine a day when we have a good, robust and respectful argument with the many valid perspectives all around. 

I heard you say that I should find another cause to sit in the crown of my lodge for, another way to spend my time. What other cause would that be? Animal rights? No GMO's? Climate Change? Yes, these are worthwhile causes and are also all symptoms of the dominant paradigm; the one that is currently pushing my family and community around. There is a pattern repeating itself here, one that is rooted in white-settler land-ownership consciousness. How did you get to 'own' your 'property' in the first place? Consider what it is embedded in. You shout for us to leave the mountain. How have we offended you so? The only time we enter your space is when driving by your house and cameras on our weekly trip to town. The less savory parts of myself are tempted to speed on by, ignoring the 'slow down' signs and your wish for no dust, but I resist. I'll stretch myself for the sake of neighborly respect, giving what I wish to receive. If I may be so arrogant as to advise you on something, how about finding something else to do with your time besides passive aggressively pushing and threatening families who are living a quiet, simple and direct life in the woods? 

The mainstream paradigm has no regard for future generations. It is completely absorbed in itself. I will not feed my children to it! I will instead lead a way that I believe to be wholesome. A way that regards all our relations, including unborn ones. A new old culture is emerging through people all around the world. What a time to be alive! If peacefully resisting eviction by living in the top of my lodge can help this movement in any way, although small, it's a worthwhile cause. While seated up there, a sheriff asked me what kind of example I thought I was being for my children in not obeying the authorities. I felt a gentle smile emerge and then reminded him (and myself) that the highest authority is Mother Earth. She's in charge and continues beneath our feet. We belong to her, not the other way around. The most power we can have is in our ability to adapt to her and dance with her seasons. Anything else is an attempt to control the outside world, which is futile. 

Jonathan, it is your birthright to have a place on the earth, to build a nest as the bird does. There is no arguing that. Every human has that right. There is enough space on this mountain to share. Contrary to the mainstream 'conservationist' thought, humans are actually an integral part of the natural world. We are living in a time where we humans must find a way (by remembering the old ways) to live in harmony with the remaining wild places. A healthy bio-diversity is dependent on keystone species. Humans are just that!

The mainstream way is one of isolation and separation. We all know this. It does not live as tribes or bands any longer. It lacks an understanding that we are woven together and have a responsibility to each other and the future. I understand you do not have children of your own. But as folk who live within a few miles of each other out in the woods, you do. They live here with us. And they could use your help in assuring their future is imbued with a culture of regard, of empowerment through direct living, of songs and stories that are grounded in a place. You have a part in this story. Which role would you like to play? 

In love,

Kayla

Another Open Letter to Bob and Suzi Given, our distant neighbors

Here is one of the latest of many letters written a few days ago to our neighbors. They are in escrow to buy the land we have called home for seven summers now with the intention to pass it onto the government. This letter has gone unanswered along with the others. It is our hope that through sharing these letters and stories with a wider community (the public) the parties involved will be motivated to act with integrity and accountability. Please Bob and Suzi, talk to us. We are here on the mountain with you. Let us sit in a circle on the ground we all love and find some consensus. 

Dear Bob and Suzi,

Today the sheriffs confiscated our family's shelter. We returned home just before dark with hungry and tired children to find our clothes, rugs and beds in an open meadow wet with the rain that comes and goes as I write. I had the thought to drive to your place and ask you to accommodate us tonight, seeing as you have had a role in our displacement. We don't have a dryer. We have the sun, which is shining on the other side of the earth right now. 

I heard recently (from an attorney) that the law is designed to protect the interests of the rich; it isn't moral, fair or just. 

Carl Jung spoke about money representing non-feeling. I find that without much money, we are vulnerable, raw and trusting and thus comes the inspiration to dive deeply into the richness of life and its' many challenges. It benefits me to take good care of relationships, knowing that this is all I have at the end of the day. Excess money seems to confine and shelter one from the soul's tendency towards deep empathy. 

The amount of money that you and I have seems to be our main difference and I pray that this does not come between our heart's capacity to love and respect one another as well as our ability to communicate directly! 

Bob and Suzi, you both have said several times that you respect me. Today I am baffled by the contradiction of your words and your actions. Ande and I have extended ourselves to you many times only to be hung up on, ignored or avoided. Somehow you have absolved yourselves of any responsibility with the current plight of our family and small community. You are as culpable as Steve for sending men with guns to remove us as well as installing gates on the driveway to lock us out of our home. I have learned that both of these are your contingencies for the purchasing of this land. So it seems Steve is doing your dirty work. The only way to get direct communication from you is to literally follow you around at a festival begging for it, or write an open letter. Tell me, is this respect?

Standing in the meadow this evening was yet another opportunity to rise and meet life's call to empowerment. Dire and epic seem to go together these days. We continue to do what we can. Living intimately with the natural forces of our earth mother gives us a strength far greater than any attorney, court, bank account balance or land deed can ever give. 

We are still here. 

May we all find the strength and courage to continue an honest dialogue. I hope that together we can find a way forward that is good for everyone. 

Kayla

'Rural' Disobedience and The Song of the Diggers

It's a well known English traditional folk song, published here as it's pertinent to Tipi Village at the moment and we've been singing it for the past week or so.

There's been a lot going on what with sheriffs and all and we'll post an update when there's time. Mother Earth endures and we belong here!

Love from Ande

In sixteen forty nine
To St. George's hill
A gallant band they called The Diggers
Came to show the people's will
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs.

"We come in peace" they said
"To dig and sew
We come to work the land in common
And to make the waste ground grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
That it may be a common treasury for all."

"The sin of property
We do disdain
No one has any right to buy or sell the earth
For private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls spring up at their command."

"They make the laws
They chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The gods they serve
The god of greed who feeds the rich
While poor folk starve".

"We work, we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to the masters
Nor pay rent to the lords
We are free, though we are poor
You diggers all stand up for glory, stand up now!"

From the men of property
The order came
They sent the hired man and the trooper
To wipe out the digger's claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed but still the vision lingers on.

You poor take courage!
You rich take care!
This earth was born a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
"We come in peace"
But the order came to cut them down

"We come in peace" they said
"To dig and sew
We come to work the land in common
And to make the waste ground grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
That it may be a common treasury for all".

-Traditional

Mother Earth Continues Beneath our Feet

Version one of an incomplete essay written on the evening of Wednesday the third of September after meeting the sheriff's deputies:

Today the deputy sheriffs came to evict us. Hostile neighbours and land 'owners', you can be proud of yourselves for empowering the Dominant Paradigm. For attempting to displace our children from their place of birth, from the land that they love, we love. The struggle is tenuous right now and we're not (yet?) Conservation Refugees. We belong to the Earth and our connection endures. We are old and strong and we know that we are all a keystone species, like the wolves of Yellowstone.
You 'conservationists' who live in your air conditioned central heated buildings, who think that 'nature' is something seperate, external, understand that human nature is 'nature' and there is simply no getting away from it.

This is no right wing libertarian entitlement to exploit and plunder our mother; this is people living as Homo Sapiens Sapiens and we're happy to get along with you Homo Urbanus; we can complement each other and I'm not to tell you how to live but perhaps when you say you respect and even admire the way that I live, you could be kind enough to walk that talk and at least stop harassing us; it's getting old and we are here, always have been and always will be so you'd best get used to it.
My children are probably about the seventh generation  since the slaying and displacement of the small bands of families who once roamed these mountains before the settler consciousness of ownership arrived. To the descendants of settlers and the supporters of this Dominant Paradigm; I am sorry, you have been told and sold a lie and the life of servitude you have given to your mortgage (mort- death + gage- grip) has only ever been for the profit of the greedy. There is more than enough of this abundant world for everyone and paying for a place on her is detrimental because it separates us from our responsibility and our accountability to her, through the intercession of any landlord, bank or entity which says 'this is the way you are to live, regardless of personal mores and morals'

Always have been; always will be.

Version two, with more about the people and events of that day, two days ago:

Today the sheriff's deputies came and evicted us from the wilderness, even though we'd already moved beyond the imaginary boundaries imposed by the Dominant Paradigm (we were coming back for tidy up).

So we all danced together, with the sheriffs and private detective, we circled and sang together and tears were shed and we made some strong memories and new (old) stories to share on this land, this same earth.

I can only be, ultimately, grateful for the experience and the continuing process of the gift of living and the place I now find myself, in the Big Lodge, candle around the hearth children gently snoring on that ground under the sky.

Mother Earth endures, old and strong, beneath my feet, under my backside, sat cross-legged.

We are not Conservation Refugees.

My children are not displaced from their place of birth.

We are here and connected. Always have been, always will be.

Get used to it.

(And be welcome)

-Ande

Read Charles Eisenstein

Thanks for posting about us, Charles: http://www.thenewandancientstory.net/

A common question: how can the average person help?

This is a response to those of you with the question of 'how can the average person help?'

We are experiencing a strong wider circle of folk who don't live here but resonate with the vision/mission and are participating in unique ways. Ranging from the structuring of the trust and conservation aspects, working towards getting codes changed to accommodate low-impact living, to more immediate matters including relevant phone calls/emails. The understanding has begun that this project is for more than the folk living here. Inspired people with activated and busy lives have begun to show up, physically, to sit in council together and vision great things as well as sit in a more left brain way in a 'meeting' with lots of writing and 'brainstorming' (and other left-brainy kind of stuff). 

Someone said recently "how are you guys gonna chop wood and change laws?". An answer: a wider circle of folk other than those living here who see the greater benefit is how! 

Come sit in council, and pass a stick.

Contribute to the magic hat.

Write an article to your favorite publication.

Share the stories of this process unfolding, your own and ours.

Contact any rich folk who would like to give some of that money to a good place and get a deduction.

Sign the petition to get One Planet Development in Oregon under way.

Whatever!

Last summer when we launched this liberation project loads of ideas came flooding in, too many for us here to realistically embody but any dreamer can do the manifesting too! 

So, there is a spectrum. The least one can do to 'help' is to click like, but the most one can do, and this one is radical and has the potential to make a massive world change, is to stop paying your rent and mortgage! Just plain stop. You do not owe anyone anything for your place on this rotating planet. Know that, and claim it. We belong to the earth and we actually owe  *her*  if there is any owing to be done.

And one more...... Those of you who have an arrest to give, consider Tipi Village. Seriously. 

Fearful Gates That Love Can Break

So it appears that some folk are attempting to put a gate at the end of the driveway here. I suspect it is in preparation for our eviction come September 1st. Usually, in the circumstance of eviction from a building, the locks will be changed. This is where we maintain agency and power in our lives because no-one can ever lock us out of our home. We can carry it on our backs and bring it to stand where we like. So it makes sense that fearful folk (most likely the buyers that I won't name yet although  it may come down it to bring some direct communication)  would put a gate across the road. However, I can't shake the feeling of being not only disregarded (no-one asked me about the gate even though we have lived here for the past seven summers, before the monument designation and have a legitimate place here) but also just plain pushed around. Our presence here is harming no-one. We are trespassing no-one. There is no physical or moral harm being done. And actually, from my perspective, I am seeing the forest around me flourish from the touch of the hands of people who care.  If I am oblivious to a harm I am causing, please, bring it to my attention! (And honestly, if its regarding ownership and money, I'm not sure I consider that true harm).

As we approached the place where two new gaping holes have been dug to receive the intended gate, Sequoia, our three year old daughter says quietly "the birds are sad about these holes that people dug, the birds want us to live here".

The really sad part of all this, the part that brings a painful heavy feeling in my gut and heart, is that money and land ownership have become more valuable than human relationships. There was a time in our history when it wasn't an option to be so rude and plain mean to our fellow humans because our life depended on each other. Our relationships mattered more than anything and it was the greatest benefit to maintain healthy and considerate ones. There was a recognition that the woven web of all our relations was (and still is) life itself, and that damaging a strand in that web, damages the self and the whole. At the end of our lives, this is all we have, the quality of our relationships, of how we related to this web of life. Think about it, what else do you imagine caring about on your deathbed? 

The circumstances we find ourselves in and the people involved are not special or unique  here. I'm not sure special and unique even exists. Or maybe its the opposite, maybe it's our uniqueness and specialness that unites us all. Whatever the case, I stand in solidarity with all the people of the world, now and throughout history, who stand strong in the face of so much fear, hatred and oppression. Who speak out for basic human rights, peacefully and powerfully. Who risk and give their lives to make a way for the world's children, the world's future. 

I keep hearing that this is a powerful time to be living as humans on the earth and every time I hear this I wonder what makes this time more powerful than any other. I'm getting glimpses of it now. It's a ripeness of the altruistic nature in all of us, of the love that binds us together, of the circle that brings power to every person's voice and life to be the guiding paradigm, of the realization that we humans are a keystone species and have a massive effect on the earth and are at a point where we get to consciously live a life that is in harmony with all that is, including the future. We have the beautiful opportunity, right now, to live an absolutely epic, un-compromised life, directly and completely un-mediated through money and false ideas of power and land ownership. As William Kotke puts it: "This  is the watershed logic. For the humans and planet to endure, a completely new human culture must be created. This is not movie and books. This is the whole world view and all of the content by which we relate to each other and to the earth in belief, practice and ritual. This will be a most amazing adventure. If one has heart and courage and can move out of virtual reality onto the fact of the living planet, our future will provide one of the most exciting challenges we humans have faced, with the greatest benefits, if we are successful."

It is our birthright to have a place on the earth. We have the capacity to live with the earth and take care of her. It simply won't work to "save" wild land and keep people off.  Understand this! There actually is no separation between the two!! 

As I sit here in these wild woods, writing to a larger community in hopes of generating beauty, inspiration and support, the cement hardens around the posts for the gate that may lock us out in only three weeks. A community of people, including children who have been born on this soil, who are cultivating a wholesome, connected culture. When I say "us", I mean it. You and me, because you see, there is an open place here that we maintain for any and all who are inspired to collaborate and dance together a new dream. 

Please get in touch, especially if you know a lawyer who is keen on taking on a human rights case. Or perhaps there are other ideas and input. We are asking for it. Thanks.

In love,

Kayla

Moving the Gateposts

The BLM authorised a feller to put gateposts at the end of our driveway on Soda Mountain Road.
Seems like an act of aggression from where I stand.

Police Major Ronnie Robinson, speaking about a shift in tactics following the Ferguson riots said,
“Any time a community and a people are willing to break the law to get the law, you’ve gotta pay attention to that. They have cried out to us and now we need to give them the attention they deserve.”

We're reaching out in a civil way and asking for communication. We know that this blog is read widely and we have been sending messages to the relevant parties with no response. Hopefully we can come to a consensus before calling in mediation. We don't want to break your laws and we don't really want to start naming names, but if you're passive-aggressively denying access to the ancestral homelands of my children, I honestly am running out of ideas of ways forward here.

Getting Along with Living

Look, to the people who define their relationship with the Earth that sustains them as 'property', you people with your acres with which you have little or  no real relationship, you people with your bank accounts with zeros that you worship, I have no quarrel with you. You are welcome to play your game of little pieces of paper of 'ownership'.

But when you start to push me and my family and my community around then I don't know what to do other than make a stand.

You know?

I know that the conception and birth of my children means nothing in your courts when it comes to tenure in a place.

My blood, flesh and tears mingled with the soil are not admissible as evidence in a trial of legitimacy of place.

But I can tell you that not only do I not own land, neither do you. It's not possible, even if you doug up bucketsfull and guarded them day and night with your life until the day you died and buried them with you, you never owned it, because it endures and you don't and you will become one with it again. The best you could hope for is an acknowledgement of belonging, that you belong to the Earth.
Your pieces of paper with your signatures, your abstract constructs of human laws, are unjust and immoral. Justice strives to interpret morality otherwise it is meaningless.

So, with the example of the Tipi People living on the otherwise uninhabited summer spot of remote wilds of Soda Mountain, who's neo-indigenous presence tends and stewards land otherwise neglected. Land that was, until five generations ago, husbanded by bands of families, wiped away, displaced and straight up brutally killed by a new and pernicious consciousness of ownership, settler ownership. In our case, dear reader, I can tell you that even though this is the twenty-first century, that story continues and I find myself, not through choice but through following a life of inspired love, I find myself resisting displacement.

I find myself in court, again, answering to a judge presenting two options; vacate the land where I have a bond of stewardship and deprive my children of the chance of living a connected life, unencumbered by the fragmentation of mainstream industrialisation, or go to trial, with no legal representation.

Under duress (even though the Judge was, on this occasion, open and kind), we opted for the former. So we have until September 1st before men with guns, kevlar vests, mace and cuffs might come out.

No-one here wants to obstruct any sale of land, because we love the currently documented owners with full acknowledgement. However, the prospective buyers, whom we love as adversaries (yet long for this to develop), have a contingency written into their contract that we must be gone. They have told us that they intend to sell or give the land we call home (and hope for the keystone species Homo Sapiens) to the government in exclusion of human habitation.

I think that there are laws to help people to maintain basic human rights, like a place to be with the Earth, but I don't know what they are yet. I think, or hope, that there are laws to give our children the right to grow up in a healthy and wholesome way.

If you are a lawyer or know of one, please get in touch; this is a high profile case that can set a precedent for the future of human place in relationship with Mother Earth. If you are thinking of coming for a visit, now is a good time, though dynamic. Come and witness the front line of the transformation of the paradigm!