Author: Dena Eakles

Enjoying Life. Plan on keeping it that way.

As We Bow Our Heads

The beauty of Thanksgiving is that we celebrate the fruit of the harvest. It is a perfect time to do so, before the dark and cold winter days become too much of a burden, before the best of the surplus is gone.

Many cultures celebrate giving thanks in one form or another around this time of year.

The narrative of Pilgrims and Indians was an added construct and a peculiar twist given to a celebration of bounty. It’s twisted in the fabrication of myths it extols.

The celebration of harvest has always been, but the Pilgrim and Indian narrative was introduced after the Civil War to a country in need of healing. The truth is that the Pilgrims, who were not known as pilgrims but as separatists, took control of Wampanoag land after the village was wiped out by small pox the previous year.

It is worth a study of the origins of the twisted narrative but more importantly of the truths regarding the first settlers and the tribe.

Squanto, the famed Indian helper, was captured by the English in 1614 and sold as a slave. He returned from Europe in 1619 to find his entire community dead.

In 1637, it is estimated five hundred Wampanoag women, children and men were slaughtered in retaliation for the life of one separatist.

There are truths and there are falsehoods. Lies make us sick. They keep us from our becoming. 

Perhaps as we bow our heads and give thanks we can pray for the strength to end the lies. We can hold the sanctity of life as priceless and we can recognize all people as one. 

Healing demands truth. And if there is anything this moment in time will teach us, it is this: the lies of yesterday and today are killing us.

Never Ever Give Up

One would think with all that we face, the politics of division would run its course, but splintering continues and divide and conquer maneuvers are at an all time high. 

It’s as if we thoroughly enjoy seeing the human race fail. We don’t have to hate one another. We don’t have to fear one another. As far as I can tell our needs  – not our wants – are the same and we would get a lot further with just a bit more respect and a touch of compassion.

People are dying. People are missing their loved ones and people are wondering if they will have a roof over their heads as winter looms. Some are not sure if they can continue to feed their children. And as the covid numbers surge, some will not be able to receive the care they need regardless of the disease that stalks them. 

We are succumbing to addiction and domestic violence and for too many suicide is the final solution. We have opened the door to madness and it seems we are unwilling to try and close it again.

But through all of the ugliness and all of the loss I choose to believe we can turn this around. The tears that come so easily these days are reminders of a heart still capable of loving. The efforts to create and to discover new paths are a testament to the resilience that we all share.

Our foundation is being cracked and that is as it should be. It was a house of cards. The winds have come to tear it down and for those who are ready to see there will be new growth, new life and new ways.

Love one another through this horrible nightmare, and never, ever give up.

Snap Out of It

I learned of a relative who is waiting on the results of a covid test. Her son sat next to a child in school who tested positive. A single mom, she will have to quarantine and miss work for nearly two weeks or longer if she falls ill. Many workers are not receiving any compensation for unworked hours and must spend vacation days – if they have them – to recoup. Our front line caregivers are facing harsh realities as the virus escalates and no safety nets are in place to help them.

Also, Wisconsin hospitals are warning they will soon be unable to help those in need due to the escalation. This, while the Republican legislature goes to court once again to revoke the virus precautions ordered by Governor Tony Evers.

Hitting back at the ignorance of the current administration, the CDC issued another finding that masks do help keep the wearer from either spreading or contracting the disease. 

No health care for too many, no safety net for the working class and a government so enmeshed in division that it cannot or will not help its people. This is what we are facing, as well as a host of people unwilling to wear a mask while in public.

While it’s easy to hunker down in division, we are not helping ourselves as a nation, if we pretend this virus is going away any time soon.

Snap out of it.

Your president was able to get socialized medicine at Walter Reed Hospital, but you won’t have that luxury. And if you are one of the millions without health insurance or live in a state like Wisconsin, you may not get any help at all.

This is no time for fairy tales. Sober up. Wear a mask.

Healing the Divide

As of this writing we’re no closer to knowing the outcome of the election. What we do know is that while more people voted for Biden, much of that vote was anti-Trump, not a ringing endorsement of Democrats.

What we do know is that the majority of us do not trust the government or the two parties that currently hold power. We don’t believe the government is working in our best interest.

What we are discovering is that there is more that unites us than separates us. In recent polling over 90% of us want clean air and water, protection of personal data and the right to a quality education.

Similarly, we want to see racial equality, affordable health care and we believe in the right to a job. 

The two-party system does not serve us. False allegiance does not serve us. Fighting among ourselves does not serve us. It serves the power brokers of both parties and it serves extreme wealth.

It is estimated that $14 billion dollars were spent on this election – and it is not over. 

If you led the nation, what would you do with $14 billion dollars? Feed and shelter the growing number of homeless?  Provide proper PPE for health care workers and provide adequate testing to end the rise of the corona virus? 

You with your heart of love and concern for others, what would you do? And if you say, “Yes, we should help one another”, than I have to ask, “Why don’t we”?

And when you say,  “It’s not that simple.” I will say, “Stop following lies. We are more powerful than we think.”

Sweet Bounty

No need to work on being scared this Halloween. There’s no need to watch movies that will make your skin crawl. Just listen to the news. Doesn’t matter which “side” you’re on. There is hatred and violence brewing everywhere. Fear is in the air and it is more present than the elusive corona virus.

There is a belief that this time of year holds the thinning of the veil between life and death. When you live on the land that makes total sense. The emerald green of summer has long faded and the glorious leaves have gone brown. Soon the decomposition will begin and if you are lucky enough to live where the snow flies, a blanket of white will cover the earth. And as if by magic, when the brilliant white disappears, the early risers of spring will once again breath life into being.

This is what we know. We know this time of death is preparation for what is yet to be. We know there is always waxing and waning and this is the time to shelter and gather strength. Now is the moment to take stock of all that is good, all that has held us and all that will continue to throughout the months ahead.

This is not a time for fear and wasted energy. This is not a time to create havoc and spin tails of woe. This moment is for celebration and for effort, to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to preserve all that we will need to make it through.

This is a time of sharing; to gift one another the sweet bounty of our harvest and to offer good tidings and hope. 

This Hallows Eve we don’t need to be frightened. We need to be grateful and ready. 

Photo: sheep having the final gleaning of the garden.

Love The One Your With

Amid the anger of those who ignore the reality before us there is also a grieving for all that is being lost. Conjecture on when life will “come back to normal” only salts the wound and confuses the issues at hand. 

Reality looms before us: a dysfunctional government, an educational system in jeopardy long before the pandemic, and a clash of fundamental human beliefs will all soon diminish by the onslaught of winter and an increase in homelessness, hunger and sickness, which we will surely face. 

Many are paralyzed by fear. Some insist on acting out of anger. Yet others are engaged in finding and creating new possibilities.  It’s as if we are being given a chance to do over much of what we have had horribly wrong. 

Our resiliency is being tested. And as far as I can tell there is only one solution: love.

Fear and anger cannot dwell in a heart of love. And love is a practice. I can let the caterpillar be killed as it meanders across the busy road, or I can give it a lift to the other side. Not because I should, but because I love. 

When the young man comes to talk to me about being saved, I can tell him it’s not my cup of tea but I can love him for his effort and I can tell him so. I can love beyond my boundaries. I can witness a human being through my righteousness. 

When another friend laments that good is being overpowered, I can hear him, but I can assert my truth that as long as we care, as long as we love, we cannot be defeated.

Love is a powerful asset that does not need understanding to be felt.

It’s time we use it.

Only If You Let It

The fall colors have been exceptional this year. It’s as if Nature is trying every trick to make us pay attention to what is important, to why we are alive.

I live in a sea of color. I also live in a sea of Trump signs. Where I live the predominant thinking is that covid is at best a hoax or at worst a political tool. The state mandate to wear masks is routinely ignored as we watch the number of infected rise. 

The majority of people here speak loudly about their religion, but seldom of their humanity. They are quick to point out their fear of Sharia law, but ignore the fact that they are ushering in their own brand of control.

Yet the colors of autumn are extraordinary, breathtakingly so.  

With very little effort you can understand the cycles of life, the withering of age and the preciousness of each moment. Ironically, most of the leaves will be gone by November 3rd along with much of the political hype. Then winter will set in and the echo chambers of beliefs will continue to be passed in churches, at gas stations, in bars and on and on.

Winter holds it’s own unique embrace. The silence can caress your weariness and the beauty of the snow can wash away your pain. But only if you let it, and only if you notice.

There’s so much we have forgotten to notice. We have forgotten the power of love and our interconnectedness with it and with all life. We have forgotten how to honor relationship; we have forgotten how to dream.

We live in the time of the dying. But death is nothing more than the beginning of rebirth. And now the leaves are teaching us. Pay attention.

Our Unfinished Business

People love him or hate him. Both positions are tiresome. 

How about this? The president is the symptom of our collective unfinished business. He is the extraordinary presence of patriarchy run amuck. 

And while the truth of his fortunes or his losses, may never be known, we can know this with great certainty: our glorifications of greed and power created this perfect storm. We picked the one who most exemplified what we collectively cherish.

It is the culmination of a history filled with the abuse of power. In refusing to rectify our past, we use the excuse of “law and order” to maintain dominance. In climbing the ladder of success we have become numb to those of lessor means. We believe in the god of money and power is the necessary evil we accept. 

The voices that disagree with this assessment are too often mired by compromise. They may want the “Green New Deal”, but are willing to forego it to benefit their pocketbooks and maintain their energy use or so called 
“way of life”. They may know that “Black Lives Matter”, but are sure that equality will come over time. No need to fight for it. 

Too many of us are ready to put these ugly four years behind us and carry on. Carry on with an economy that benefits the rich; carry on with the divide that is the breeding ground for hunger, sickness and death. Carry on with the destruction of the earth. Carry on with the status quo. It’s easy to blame Trump and not deal with our own entanglements and not reconcile our history.

But these compromises will continue to defeat us. 

And reconciliation will continue to await us. 

There is no other way.

***The photo is of indigenous corn. The phrase “Can you grow corn with it?” is asked regarding the practicality of an idea…we have unfinished business. Let’s get on with it.

Inequitable Justice

When a president cannot condemn white supremacy we have arrived at a pivotal moment. When he attempts to whitewash our history by sidestepping the Doctrine of Discovery and governmental acts of racism, we must demand truth.  

When his Supreme Court pick proclaims to be a strict constructionist and pledges allegiance to Constitutional Law, many will find patriotism in her words. But the founding fathers were fallible. Their constructs were laced with racism and misogyny inevitably creating an inequitable system of justice.

When Trump uses the rallying cry of “law and order” we must recognize that the judicial system in this country has always favored property over humanity. It’s not a broken system. It’s a system working as it was designed to work. It protects wealth and maintains control over individuals of lessor means through unjust sentences, impossible fees and physical might.

Change will come when the majority of us understand that we cannot fix this system. It’s stacked against us. Instead we must continue to create new ways of restoring justice. We need to develop better means towards rehabilitation and reconciliation. We need to take the leap towards what has been called “beloved community”.  We need to seek out and conspire with others in this human effort. And we must be willing to let the old system die.

This is why activists proclaim, “Defund the police”. Defunding the police is only one piece of dismantling a corrupt system, which must undergo transformation, if we are to survive as a people.

The farce of an election will play out. Lobbyists and other power brokers wait in the wings to have their say. But it’s not too late; it will never be too late, for we the people to co-create a better day. 

It is time to end the division cultivated by racism. We are and have always been one people.

The poster of the movie, “Birth of a Nation” is public domain. The Birth of a Nation is a silent film from 1915. It is three hours of racist propaganda.

Something’s Happening

There’s something much greater happening right now than an election, and no, it is not the selection of a Supreme Court Justice, and no, it is not the ongoing crisis of a pandemic that never had to be this out of control…

There is something much greater, and much more immediate that’s happening. The intense polarizations are leaving us with a choice. Will we continue to participate in the downward spiral of separation and hatred or will we reclaim our connectedness and our humanity?

The choice is always there. 

I found a young rooster who had been beaten up by the others of his flock. His jaw is broken and it appears that his spine is broken as well, but still he stood and wobbled as he walked. I gave him some water and put food into his broken beak. He responded in a positive way and we have worked out systems that keep him safe and well fed. I bathe him with dust and he grooms himself with it. I am amazed at how much I love him and how my love has grown. His desire to live is a great teacher to me. And I will assist him as long as he needs. 

Our hearts have the capacity to love deeply and without restriction. And love itself is the reward.

That is the choice before us. We can maintain foolish divides or we can allow ourselves to love and to heal.

The status quo is full of contradictions and hypocrisy. The beliefs that we have inherited have made us very sick. But the remedy has always been at hand. Love. Love foolishly, love graciously. And appreciate the fact that you can love. It is a gift. 

Love is our greatest ally and our greatest weapon.

Love lavishly.