Author: Dena Eakles

Enjoying Life. Plan on keeping it that way.

Our Changing Nature

There are many who travel from air-conditioned car to air conditioned office and home again. Fabulous grocery stores provide all that is needed and while news of environmental disasters may come, most still escape being rocked by Nature’s upheaval. The glass of water (at least) looks crystal clear and the air, well, it’s good enough, right?

From where I sit this is the breeding ground for climate change denial. Politicians and scientists tell us that Nature is simply doing what Nature does and our lifestyles have no implication in the rising tide of environmental disasters looming before us. By and large, if we are not affected it’s not happening.

But for those who live close to the land, the ones filling your fabulous grocery stores, the realities of climate change do not require scientific validation or corporate slight of hand. It is a daily reality.

The rains come. Fires come. Droughts come. They have and always will. We must not fear Nature. We must live with Nature and we must help one another. It is time that we acknowledge our part in climate change. It is time that we alter our course for our children and those yet to come. We have been distracted by the lure of creature comforts and the unwillingness to change, but change is part of Nature as are we, and she is rocking our collective boat.

I do not know how the people of our precious region will resolve living with unprecedented flooding. But you know what people are made of when you witness how they face hardship. The human spirit, when given the chance is resilient. And at its best it is humble. We are being humbled, now let us be resilient, and let us be wise.

 

This piece aired on WDRT‘s Consider This, Thursday, August 30th following the furious rains and severe flooding of the Kickapoo Valley and other parts of Wisconsin. You can listen to it here.

View drone footage of the flooding of Ontario. Taken by Aldis Strazdins of Wilton.

Neighbors helping neighbors and seen through the eyes of the award winning The County Line.

Beyond Prison Reform

On August 21st, inmates in 17 states began one of the largest prison strikes in our history. The two-week peaceful protest will end September 9th. Inmates are abandoning their work duties and some are refusing food to call attention to the exploitive conditions in United States prisons.

We have the largest prison population and the highest per capita incarceration rate in the entire world. Nearly one in every 100 adults is in prison or jail.

Ok, so much of that is known, but how many of us know that corporations and businesses use the prison work force for manufacturing and service jobs? And there is little to no compensation given for injuries resulting from their work. Recent news exposed the story that inmates were given $1 an hour to fight the California fires.

Less widely known is the fact that investment companies enable prison industries to thrive. Your retirement accounts are most likely contributing to these practices amounting to modern day slavery.

This is what we need to know. We need to know these are peaceful protests by inmates asking for their humanity to be recognized and restored. We need to know they are asking for proper wages and for more rehabilitation services. And they are demanding an end to the over-sentencing and parole denials of non-white inmates.

There is much more to this story, like the way lobbying groups fight for more industrialized and privately owned prisons. Much is done behind the closed doors of politics and the media is slow to rise against its master. We cannot fight what we do not see. It is time to open our eyes and unravel this horrible mess we have created.

Support the protest, boycott the companies and divest. It is time.

 

This aired on WDRT’s Consider This, Thursday, August 23. You can listen to it here.

photo is creative commons on Pixabay.

One Thread

Sometimes I can’t help feeling we have gone incredibly off kilter. Far too many are sinking in modern day madness. While scores of statistics remind us of our fragility as human beings and as a culture, we seem incapable of pausing long enough to right the ship. We have not yet learned the truth: What happens to one happens to all.

Discussions on mental health and mental illness are on the rise, yet the inadequacies of our systems are glaringly obvious. Money for the war machine is boundless, yet too many veterans are homeless. Good clean food is important to healthy bodies and healthy minds, but we reward our small farmers by allowing them to fail. “In God We Trust”, or so we have been led to believe, yet we tighten our borders and condemn the needy.

The inconsistencies of our society could drive anyone mad. And it is. But I do not think it is an umbrella of thought that will unite us or drive the demons away. It must come back to this: We are tied together in one thread of consciousness.

What happens to one happens to all. Our fear of “other” is a symptom of sickness, not a course of action we are meant to follow. We are not meant to follow.

As I take time to ponder our willingness to be led by politics, religion and the economic grind, I am heartened by the courage and vision of the many refusing to succumb.

This is the thread of humanity that has held the world together through reigns of tremendous ignorance. It is found in tree sitters halting the pipelines, in police refusing to serve at borders, and in backyards and acres of those growing food for themselves and others. There is a pulse, a thread of consciousness that unites us. And it is on the rise.

 

This aired on WDRT’s Consider This, August 16, 2018.

This is My Heaven

Generally I give people due respect when they offer suggestions, advice or direction even if I don’t agree. Sometimes I will give a counter consideration, if it is needed or if I feel misunderstood.

Recently I had the opportunity to share my thoughts with someone I had never met. She walked up to me, handed me a slip of paper and said, “Please read this, it will help you get to heaven”. She continued on for a few moments with phrases I had heard before. But this time something was different. I listened to her. Maybe I felt her sincerity. As I listened to her certainty, I realized I had a certainty, too.

Swept in the spirit of the moment, I said, “I’ve listened to you, now can I have a turn?” And she said, “Yes”. And I said, “The way I see it I am in heaven. This is my heaven”, I said pointing to my heart and then extending my arms to encompass everything. “When I die if there is a heaven as good or better than this, then bring it on, but now, as I live, I am in heaven. And you know, a wise man once said, “The kingdom of heaven is within.”

“Oh”, she said, “well I don’t know what man would have said that”. And I said, “According to Luke*, it was Jesus”. She replied, “Well I don’t know about that…”

And I realized that I did.

I couldn’t have said those words to her had I not felt them. And truth told I don’t always feel them. But in that moment I did. And those moments are growing. Finding heaven within is a worthy pursuit.

 

This aired on WDRT August 9. “Consider This” airs at 5:30pm CST each Thursday.

You can listen to it being read on Soundcloud

For the quote you can read Luke 17:21

Solidarity With Humanity

It’s creeping up on us again can you feel it? It’s the slugfest that we call politics in the United States. Powerful interests spend fortunes to win the favor of just enough of us to keep the game in play.

And what is the game? To divide and distract while a mindset of destruction disrupts our environment and the lives of countless people world over.

While mainstream media is sorting itself out and deciding on which team to play, it is wise to listen carefully. It is wiser still to look for a way that does not include “sides”.

We have all witnessed or been party to the breakdown in communication among friends, family and neighbors. People who would normally embrace one another with civility now begin to cast doubt or anger towards one another. And to what end? A fleeting moment of trumped up values and ideas, fed to us with the best that advertising could sell. If we could begin this sport called politics with a bit more of a pause; if we could stop giving our loyalty to transient and far too often fruitless campaigns; we could spend the time and the money building community and enriching our lives.

We do have a third choice in all of this. We have a choice to put our humanity above all else and encourage others to do the same.

This past week Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi was released after eight months in an Israeli prison. When asked what she would say to her captors she replied, “I really wish they would go back to their humanity.”

It is a simple wish. It is a wise choice. It is the way out of the fray. Humanity first.

 

This aired on WDRT, Thursday August 2. You can listen to it here on Soundcloud.

Everyone Can Teach Us

I have the wonderful opportunity to live in rural Wisconsin. My home is located in the Town of Forest, which is 36 square miles of forests and farms. It is absolutely gorgeous and includes portions of Wildcat Mountain State Park. The closest small village is Ontario with a whopping 554 people. And no, it is not in Canada. The history of the area is kept vibrant by the descendants of the varieties of people who have called this place home and the many who still do…

Like much of rural United States, small towns are struggling. Struggling for identity, for resources and for survival. This year a few of us embarked on a quest to support the needs of our community. We began with a farmer’s market. It is open to farmers and craftspeople, musicians and anyone wanting to pitch in and help in any way. If success is measured in smiles and “thank you’s” the venture is off the chart as successful.

Everyone and everything can teach us. Living close to the land, the nuances delight and the struggles challenge us to our core. Over time it seems the love of the land crosses over to the love of the people who live here. We share the same hardships and the same joys. So what am I learning? There is no need to remake our towns or the people who live here. It is simply to allow the beauty that already exists to flourish.

Michelangelo commented that the statue of David already existed in the marble. His effort was to set it free.

Everyone and everything can teach us. The farmers markets and especially the people are teaching me.

 

This piece aired on WDRT July 26. You can listen to it on Soundcloud.

Walk Towards Humanity

“We do what has been done to us.” A Native elder spoke those words to me over a decade ago. We were discussing how horribly human beings treat one another. The implications were clear. We do what has been done to us. The cycles of injury and trauma, of fear crushing innocence, of swapping roles from victim to oppressor are epidemic.

I have thought about that day, that conversation many times. “We do what has been done to us.” Such a bleak and retaliatory way to live and is it true? Yes. It is. However, there is a caveat. And one day it hit me.

My friend’s mother had endured the Long Walk as an infant. The Long Walk was the forced removal of the Dine people from their homeland by the United States government and military. Thousands of people died. As a child my friend had been taken to boarding school to be stripped of her identity. As an adult she had witnessed and fought against the poisoning of water on her reservation by mining. And then she had kindly opened her door and her heart to me.

She welcomed me as family. She patiently listened and could see my lack of understanding but never treated me with disrespect. She held no bitterness in her heart, nor did she wish harm to anyone from what I could tell.

So while her words were teaching me, “Watch out.” “We do what has been done to us” her actions and intentions told another story. “Yes, we do what has been done to us – until we stop.” I am forever grateful for the path towards humanity that my friend walked for me.

We can stop retaliatory living. We can end the cycles of trauma. We must.

 

This aired on WDRT‘s Consider This July 19.

You can listen on Soundcloud.

 

Bring on the Radicals

There is a lot that gives me pause these days. We seem to be ignoring our basic right to common sense.

Common sense tells us that when a Native water protector is sentenced to 57 months while ranchers who triggered a militarized standoff with federal agents are pardoned, we are signaling that justice in the United States is a sham.

Common sense tells us that when the “shoot to kill” training of United States police officers is mixed with a tolerance of racism; people of color will be targeted.

Common sense tells us that oil and water don’t mix; yet the public service commissions of numerous states continue to increase potential contamination of our water by allowing oil pipelines through waterways.

Common sense tells us that refugees the world over are not on holiday when they travel, but are acting out of a will to survive. Our mutual humanity should override our fear. Common sense would guide us to help not hinder them.

Common sense tells us a divided nation will not stand. Yet it seems we insist on being aggravated by our differences rather than awed by our similarities.

There comes a time when common sense is radical. Today we need radicals. We need those willing to suspend current thinking for common sense. We need those willing to put humanity and the love of earth above identities and labels. We need those who will no longer compromise in order to fit in. Bring on those radicals; the ones who love too deeply to intentionally cause harm. The ones who give respect to friend and foe, but never compromise their humanity. The ones who hold the keys for us to flourish not merely survive.

Bring on the radicals and the return to common sense. It’s time.

 

This aired on WDRT‘s Consider This July 12.

You can listen to Bring on the Radicals on Soundcloud.

Photo was taken at an anti-racism rally in La Crosse, 2017.

 

Bienvenidos Seres Humanos

Bienvenidos Inmigrantes! Welcome Immigrants!

How hard is that to say? And if it is hard, why is it hard? What fear, what cowardice lurks within us and keeps us from our humanity?

We spend ridiculous dollars on prisons and bombs, but so frighteningly little on helping one another. How can we justify this? How can we ignore what is being done in our name?

Bienvenidos inmigrantes! Welcome Immigrants!

There is a lot of clamoring these days between the two-headed political monster that drives and divides us. They call for our attention and allegiance. They remind us how everything takes time…and they assure us it is all for good.

Me, I am tuning out the trickle down slogans and sound bites and instead I am searching for the words that feed my soul.

I long to hear the words “human being” or “citizen of the earth”. I long to hear solutions not justifications. I long to witness a return to simplicity and appreciation that wipes out anger, prejudice and hate.

And you know what I am realizing? I am not alone.

People respond to kindness. People respond to hope. People respond to adversity and are very capable of rising a sinking ship – and it is time for people to do just that.

There is no perfume that can cover the stench of ignorance. No platitudes can heal the wounds that human beings perpetrate on one another.

We do not have to entertain ignorance. We have to help one another, now, in any way that we can. We are encouraged to believe we live in a time of scarcity. I do not believe this for one moment but even in scarcity we have something to share.

Bienvenidos seres humanos! Welcome human beings! Welcome to this precious life we share, together on this precious planet. Anything less is less than what we have been born for. It is time to reclaim our birthright.  Find a way. Find your way.

 

This piece aired on WDRT July 5. You can listen here on Soundcloud.

The Flight of the Hummingbird

Once again the news of the week is a lesson in the worst of humanity. The Supreme Court continues to prove that man’s law is fallible with its decision to uphold the bigoted travel ban on Muslims. Our Keystone Cop government is proving incapable of returning nearly 2500 children to their parents after forcibly separating them at the border –incompetency or ignorance, you decide.

A thirty-three-oil train car derailment flooded part of the Mississippi watershed with crude tar sands from Canada. This is further vindication of the actions of water protectors – even as our government is increasing federal penalties on those who dissent. And another unarmed young black man succumbs to a bullet in the back by a police officer in East Pittsburgh.

Despair can come easily in these times for those of goodwill. But it would be unwise to surrender our humanity to despair. Anger can come easily at these times, but it would be unwise to surrender our humanity to anger. Now more than ever we need to revel in life. We need to allow the beauty of this amazing land to touch us. We need to bear witness to the flight of the hummingbird and know that is teaching us that the seemingly impossible is indeed possible. We need to feel the gratitude hidden in the fresh green salad or the gentle rain. And we need to allow the love of a friend to remind us of who we are…for the actions of governments and courts, of corporations and bureaucracies are not meant for the living.

And while we must not remain silent in the face of ignorance and unjust laws, our struggle is not only to end the inhumanity that drives our world. Our struggle is to hold onto the joy, the gratitude and the clarity that is our given right as the living. And it is my firm belief that as we do this, individually and collectively, our nightmares will end.   Man’s laws are fallible and mutable. The gift of life is not. While we breath there is hope. Live. Store up joy. Step into clarity. Capitalize on the gratitude you feel – and fight like hell. No matter what comes, this is our time.

 

This piece aired on WDRT’s “Consider This”

You can listen here on Soundcloud.