Grandmother: “Bring gladness”

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

{as promised to dharmasyd}

Okay, enough with the doom and gloom for me, for a little bit at least. (Snap out of it, LL!!)

Sanjay Khanna at YES! Magazine writes “Stories That Light Up The Dark, The experiences of our ancestors offer us wisdom for surviving today’s crises. “:

In August 2008, at 91 years old, my grandmother participated in the first official Khanna family reunion, which my aunt organized and held at her and my uncle’s Mill Valley home.

I was feeling depressed at that family reunion. When you spend most of your time writing and researching on climate change scenarios and the downward direction of the economy, it’s easy to be overwhelmed.

One afternoon, I sat down with my grandmother when almost everyone else was on an excursion.

She saw straight through my unhappiness. She peered into me, smiled calmly, and said two words: “Bring gladness.”

In spite of the specter of rising seas, increased drought, human displacement, and inundated cities prognosticated by climate scientists, I needed to find ways to inspire gladness in myself and other people. It’s that simple.

Now I hope the inner strength I witnessed in my grandmother remains a seed within me. As times grow more difficult, I pray that her ability to heal mind and body is a quality I can develop and call on.

The changes wrought by peak oil, climate disruption, and economic instability will affect all of us. Yet, those who gather strength from stories of beauty, courage, love, kindness, generosity, and good will can, in a social environment of growing uneasiness, store and spread the seeds of human welfare.

I never knew my biological grandmothers.  They both died long before I was born. P/Grandfather too, and M/GFA was a crabby old man who I didn’t really know much before he died when I was pretty young.  My Mom and my Mom-in-Law, however, have/had much wisdom to offer, having come up during the 1920’s, 30’s, & 40’s (“interesting times”!).

The stories, and messages, of the grandmothers and grandfathers, biological or otherwise, resonate still. Whatever your personal history or heritage, it’s those stories that I believe we keep, and nurture. And edit and re-create as needed. And evolve from and with.

Khanna talks about one of my favorite topics here:

As a faithkeeper, Chief Oren Lyons, 78, formally upholds the traditions, legends, and prophecies of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation in upstate New York-one of the Six Nations.

Lyons recounts an oral history of the Six Nations’ historic spiritual guide, the Great Peacemaker, who instructed the Haudenosaunee to “work with nature and be thankful.” Hundreds of years ago, perhaps even prior to the arrival of Columbus, the nations had been at war. But the Great Peacemaker “laid down the whole process of confederation,” urging them to eliminate conflict among themselves and be unified.

“He said our duties as leaders [are] to … protect your relatives, your nation,” says Lyons. “Protect all life, in other words, [the] flower as well as the trees, as well as the people, as well as the animals. Everything, he said, we’re going to put into your hands, the welfare of all life, that’s your duty.”

The Haudenosaunee confederacy was based on three principles. Lyons explains:

 The first point was peace and health. You can’t have peace without health. The names are interchangeable to us. Our greeting is “thank you for being well, thank you for being who you are.”

   Number two was equity, equity for the people, because you can’t have justice if you don’t have equity. Equity is first, justice comes after. So, the Great Peacemaker said, equity for the people-be fair, work for their interests.

   The third was the power of the good minds, unity, to be united. He said, ‘This is going to be your strength.’

In Sweden last year, I heard Lyons speak to a group of young leaders. He said that today, amid “a lot of abuse of positions of authority” among politicians, real community leaders need to emerge. New leaders, he said, need to be courageous and capable enough to help people organize and remain strong as the environment and society change.

But this section was the part I really liked, and sparked me to bring the piece here to DD. Some great tips!:

Reseed your Own Stories

Indigenous stories offer us enduring wisdom, but Hykes Steere, Lyons, Edwardson, and many other indigenous elders have insisted to me that each of us needs to draw on our own ancestral cultures for guidance. When people learn their own cultural and family stories, they gain a deep respect for their origins and for future generations. They can then “know who they are and be who they are,” says Edwardson.

Over the past few years, I’ve distilled five tips for personal resilience from conversations I’ve had with indigenous people:

  1. Seek guidance from people who have overcome suffering with dignity.

  2. Learn from those who have maintained a sense of humor through difficult times.

  3. Converse with grandparents and great-grandparents about their stories of hardship and the lessons they’ve learned.

  4. Reflect on what’s necessary for you to develop more inner strength than you have. If this is hard to do, learn techniques, such as mindfulness, to help you listen to your heart.

  5. Connect with your own culture by developing an understanding of, and sympathy for, the experiences and stories that your ancestors handed down in your family. [bolds mine]

I don’t know if it’s the Irish thing (Mom) or what, but my  family’s generational reboot is slower than most. Heh. Mom was 40 when she had me (her fourth and last child) and I was 40 when I had my daughter, my only. But, as “Real Americans”, my families have lost touch with much of our Old World memories. Elements of those Cultures, however, persist in the strangest ways. That might be another essay.

This source, YES!, dedicated an entire issue to A Resilient Community. There’s several good articles there that might appeal to a few of you. The Editor’s Intro is here.  

But, as you may’ve noticed, I’m none too keen on having people yell at me to ride my bike more, or grow my own food. Heh. I’m sometimes torn (like some other tortured souls!) between wanting to go forward within my own little rippling circles, quietly, steadily, … and  … YELLING LOUDER at the pol’s (and the people who promote them) to wake the fvck up. It’s a little schizo at times.

Many of us live with a sort of schizophrenia as we try to reconcile our lives with what may lie ahead.  {snip}

For a while yet, we may be living in a dual world. In one, business as usual continues, punctuated by increasingly turbulent weather and social breakdowns. In the other, we rebuild our communities and begin to build the foundations of a new world.

In the business-as-usual world, reactions to these changes may get increasingly bizarre as people blame everything from gay marriage to immigration for their insecurity.

But there are responses far better than blame. We can ground ourselves in the hands-on work of growing food, becoming energy efficient, generating green energy, and fostering relationships of respect and appreciation.

We don’t have to wait for an election or a petition to sign. We can just get on with the community work that will allow us to live better, whether or not a systemic collapse happens in our lifetime. ~Sarah van Gelder, YES! Editor

Phew, thanks, I needed that. Okay. If you say so. I know she’s right. Like many, I’m just trying, still, to find my way. Grappling with balancing those multiple dualities.

And … germinating.

So nice to have your company along for the ride… and listening.