Wednesday
Touching the Earth Collective—December 2020 Newsletter
Wild Rice Stuffing and Children’s Day
By Irene Woodard
There are certain things that happen this time of year… A big family gathering with the wild rice stuffing that doesn’t go in the bird. The New Yorker has a turkey cartoon. The Children’s Day King and Queen dolls appear on my shrine. The seasons change, and that feels reliable… change.
A month ago in the United States, we were still in waiting mode, for an election and its results. Amongst friends, we wondered how we would be feeling come Thanksgiving, come the holiday season. But we knew one thing: we would pause, no matter the outcome, and celebrate Children’s Day.
Some of us recently received a letter from Wendy Friedman of the Office of Culture and Decorum, regarding this year’s Children’s Day… “Our major holidays in Shambhala are tied to these seasonal shifts to remind us of our undeniable link to the natural world as human beings living on this planet.” In my thick manila folder labeled Children’s Day, I found a 1988 letter from The Office of Health and Well-Being’s Lamen Kyi Khyap, Mitchell Levy, providing details about what the day is, why we celebrate. Good information.
And this got me thinking…How did we know that we would be celebrating Children’s Day this year, despite all the uncertainty? Here is the good news, because it has become part of the culture of Shambhala. We understand that, come what may, Children’s Day is important. Whether we had a Republican or Democratic elected President in the US, whether there was a vaccine or not for Covid, whatever the cosmic weather pattern, whose pictures were on the shrine… we are a community with a culture.
Author Archive
4 responses - Posted 11.26.20
by John McQuade During this period of the covid-19 event , with its emphasis on social isolation, I have engaged more than usual the contemplative practices of Nalanda Miksang contemplative photography. Through these practices, I realize that contemplative mind is completely free of covid-19 and more decisively ...continue
no responses - Posted 11.19.20
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no responses - Posted 11.13.20
Photo by Bhaskar Agarwal on Unsplash By Halleluiah Strongheart With so much going on in the world and in our lives it’s easy to feel a lack of energy. We go through our days managing work, relationships, health, kids, school, and “life admin” and by the end of ...continue
2 responses - Posted 11.09.20
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no responses - Posted 11.03.20
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2 responses - Posted 11.01.20
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3 responses - Posted 10.28.20
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no responses - Posted 10.17.20
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no responses - Posted 10.13.20
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no responses - Posted 10.11.20
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no responses - Posted 10.06.20
Laudato Si’ and The Shambhala Principle: Points of Convergence By Richard Reoch “A certain way of understanding human life and activity has gone awry, to the serious detriment of the world around us. Humanity has entered a new era in which our technical prowess has brought us to a ...continue
no responses - Posted 10.02.20
Some Background: What is the Process Team and who are its members? The Process Team is a group of volunteers that was originally gathered by the Transition Task Force at the end of 2018. Its members are a diverse group of people from the international sangha, from ...continue
4 responses - Posted 09.26.20
Photo by Adam Bixby on Unsplash By Mike de Give Karme Choling announced in April a fundamental shift in how it operates. Instead of depending on programs as its main source of funding, KCL is inviting people to live on the land and form a new community of ...continue
no responses - Posted 09.22.20
Long time sangha member, Dede Crane, has a new book out! “These madmen — and one madder woman — paint as if suffering seizures! One cannot make heads or tails of the work without taking ten paces back.” From the author: One Madder Woman is an historical novel set ...continue