Here Stands a Woman of Power

A poem I wrote years ago circulated the internet for a while. I thought I would post it here, attached to its original author, me! It was originally published under my maiden name.

___



Here stands a woman of Power.

She stands with her chest held high and her heart open to the world, for she knows she has the power and strength to handle what crosses her path.

She stands with her feet faced forward, resting solidly on the earth, allowing energy to flow smoothly along her aligned bones.

Her steps resonate gently, and she feels the earth when she walks, for her connection with the earth gives her power.

Her hips sway gently with each step, carrying her power in a basket of strength, for she owns her power as the holder of Life. She rejoices in her sexual power, allowing it to simply be.

She breathes deeply into her abdomen, relishing in her breath, the power of Life. Her organs rejoice as her lungs pull Life deep into her core.

Her neck, shoulders, and chest rest open and relaxed, as her arms swing freely, bringing her creations into the world.

Her face is relaxed and aware as her jaw sits restfully, for she lives truly in this moment.

As she breathes into her very core, living in this moment, standing tall, she knows Herself. She knows that she is a woman of Power, and she allows this to be so.



For she decided to no longer accept certain things.

That she should have a flat belly that fits into the tiniest of jeans.

That she should hide her sexuality and sensuality, that these powers are a threat.

That her breasts are too big, small, pointy, bouncy… and should be hidden and protected by the slouch of her chest.

That broad shoulders look too masculine.

That she looks more attractive with her legs turned out unnaturally.

That she should not ever show anger, but always be nice and quiet.

That the world is a place of pain and suffering, and the best way to feel safe is to make sure that nothing bad will go wrong – to worry.

That she is weak and cannot take what life gives her.

She knows these things are not true.

She knows that her Power sits in her body, the Temple of Herself. She honors this Temple in many ways.

She caresses her body with love each day, lathering a luscious lotion on her precious skin.

She sings to herself, her loved ones, the earth, in her voice powerful and clear.

She takes time to run, dance, and stretch her beautiful body, and does so with joy.

She gives thanks to the beings that nourish her.

She lets herself create her world by dreaming, painting, gardening, loving, birthing.

She fills her world with colors that feel good.

She fills her heart with laughter, and lets it spill over into the world.

She spends time in Nature, learning Her ways and letting Her balm slip over her body and soul.

She gives thanks to the water that she drinks, knowing that what she takes in is holy. She fills her Temple with cleansing, nourishing holy water.

And each day when she rises, she says, “Here stands a woman of Power!”

Plan Now to Save Your Seeds Next Fall

While you peruse seed catalogs and plan this spring's garden, keep the end of the season in mind. Your garden's plants offer more than beauty, medicine, and food, they also offer a promise for the future in their seeds. If you are a slightly more advanced gardener, or want to be, plan to save some of your seeds this summer by letting the plants go to seed. You will need heirloom varieties -- hybrid seeds do not reproduce true to type. Many seeds sold today are hybrids. Check to see that yours are heirloom or F2; F1 hybrids will not produce the same plant you gather them from.

Some seeds are more complicated to save than others. These need to be pollinated carefully (like corn) or are difficult to gather (like tomato). If you have never saved seeds from your garden's plants, start with the easy ones like lettuces, peas, and squash (that were planted far away from any other squash variety).

To learn more about seed saving, check out these books:






Also see this great Australian herbalist's blog for more:

Interview with Glenys Livingstone, author of PaGaian Cosmology

A new online friend and author, Glenys Livingstone, has created this page on her website: PaGaian Cosmology: One Garden at a Time. She is the author of PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, which "brings together a religious practice of seasonal ritual based in a contemporary scientific sense of the cosmos and female imagery for the Sacred."

I interviewed Dr. Livingstone via email (she lives on the other side of the planet from me!), and here is what she had to say.

CD: Where do you get your inspiration for your writing?

GL: Mostly from sitting still. I find that when I meditate, the Well of Creativity gets very active. I am in the habit of taking pen and paper with me to sitting on my cushion ... I had to do it for my doctoral research, since this was one of my methods: I had to note what was happening. So I still do, though I don’t have to write so much thankfully, and I have less desire to note it all anyway. Still, I usually come away from meditation with a list of notes. For me it all centres around the Seasonal wheel, and my ritual celebration of the whole cycle. I start preparing for a Sabbat ritual 3-4 weeks before and it takes about 2 weeks to wind down ... that’s 40 weeks or so occupied with how Creativity proceeds right there. And that is mostly what I write about. That has been my Pathway.


CD: Do you have a garden? What do you grow?

GL: I mostly grow roses these days – and some herbs, and I am only just learning about that! My partner does most of the food growing – including mostly making soil right now. I have done vegetable gardens at times myself, and certainly participate in what my partner does. We grow tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, chillis, beetroots and chard. The herbs I grow are parsley, coriander, mint, oregano, and marjoram. We also have a small fruit bush that is quite abundant, but I can’t remember its name. The possums love it too. The garden is a work in progress at the moment. We await the maturing of some soil plots and worm activity, and the construction of cob walled garden beds, as well as getting the three chooks contained. The three chooks are doing a good job of digging it all up right now .. they are like tractors! So I guess we grow eggs ... they lay well and are probably the happiest chooks on the planet – completely spoilt.


CD: Do you have a favorite simple ritual for attuning with the earth?

GL: Well my whole Path is built around that, aligning myself with the Earth-Sun relationship. And it's all quite elaborate. The simplest thing I suppose is walking. We gave up our car 5 years ago, and started doing a lot more walking. We became car(e)free as my partner said. It is a very different reality ... I notice the plants, the flowers and a lot more besides. Walking up town (its about a half hour walk) can sort a lot of things out.


CD: What are you working on now?

GL: I write articles and teach classes. We are building new ritual space in the backyard this year and creating new classes, and coming up to speed with technology. We are creating some videos of the rituals to put on-line. I want to write a new version of my book PaGaian Cosmology. I am also becoming a grandmother – with a one year old already, and more on the way. I am always “working on” my relationship with my beloved partner ... spending time together. That’s where I learn a lot about relationship in general ... and that’s what its all about I think.


GL: What do you think is our hope for healing on the planet?

GL: Learning to care more. Whatever it is that makes you care more. And I like to write it with a capital actually ... Care. It is a Power of the Universe, and what I think the Universe is ultimately on about. Sometimes that takes drastic measures, to open a heart. Sometimes it might simply mean slowing down. I think there is an enormous amount of goodness and intelligence and creativity already making a huge difference on the grassroots level. It is not on the 6 o’clock news – but it is happening. A lot of people do Care, and do their best everyday. I guess that is the other thing: how the story is told ... one can tell it how one wishes. So I think storytelling is very important – how we speak it, spell it. That will be the reality we co-create, that will be the world one lives in.

***
To learn more about Glenys' work and her book, PaGaian Cosmology, visit her website, http://pagaian.org.


***

Gardening Halts Global Warming

Growing locally and in tune with the local seasons and climate (by not growing hothouse tomatoes in December, for instance) can reduce greenhouse gases. You really can make the world a better place by gardening!

First, growing your own food vastly reduces the amount of greenhouse gases produced for large-scale agriculture, food storage and distribution, and packaging. Buying locally from nearby farmers, or sharing with friends also reduces your carbon footprint, or the amount of carbon gases released into the atmosphere from activities that support your daily life.

Second, organic gardening can help reduce and even reverse the negative affects of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere by collecting and retaining carbon in organic soil. The Rodale Institute determined after a twenty-three year-long study that organic soils help retain carbon, reducing and even reversing the overabundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. [Sullivan, Dan. “Organic Gardens Help Fight Global Warming.” Organic Gardening. Jan/Feb 2004, 51(1)]

The UN estimated that in order to stabilize the climate at the current levels of warming (the planet has already heated a degree or more in the last decade from greenhouse gases), we would need to immediately reduce our fossil fuel use by sixty percent. [McKibben, Bill. Maybe One: A Case for Smaller Families. New York: Plume Books, 1999.]

If every neighborhood had a community garden, and we grew at least some of our food in our own backyards using organic principles, we could go a long way towards this goal. Yes - industry needs to change. Yes - we need to drive less and ride our bikes more. But we can begin to do that literally in our own back yards by planting the seeds ourselves.









For more on how gardening can change the world, check out my book Sacred Land. (Thanks!)

Gardening as Sacred Prayer, Sacred Dance

[imported from my old blog]

I came across this lovely article about the priest and priestess path that speaks perfectly to the work I do as a gardener and writer. It’s found on the site Institute for Circlework . Jalaja Bonheim, Ph.D. includes an excerpt from her conversation with guides:

“For thousands upon thousands of years, we have all joined in the one practice of performing ordinary worldly acts as worship. When we pull a baby into the light of the world, it is worship. When we cradle a dying man in our arms, guiding his spirit into the embrace of spirit, it is worship. When we sweep the floor, it is worship. It is worship when we dance, when we sing, when we light the candles. Weeding the herb garden, resolving disputes, cooking rice—all these things and a million more we have practiced, always searching for the light of the Beloved within each moment, always questioning—is it here? Yes, it is. And here? Yes, here too… And here… And here… So that now, we can say to you with complete assurance that there is nowhere where Spirit is not to be found.”

This is why I believe gardening can heal the world. When we slow down enough to sow seeds, water a plant, watch it grow, and harvest our own co-creation, we participate in the Great Love. We begin to see that Force in ourselves. We understand that we depend on the sacred earth for all we do. Gardening becomes a prayer and a rite, both mundane and sacred.

As you plan your garden during these cold winter days, consider the sacred work you do now as a planner and will do this spring as a priestess of the earth.

For more on the process of planning your garden as a sacred process, check out Sacred Land: Intuitive Gardening for Personal, Political, & Environmental Change (Llewellyn, 2007) by Clea Danaan.