Author: faeriembassy

the faerie embassy is my home space,a beautiful mudbrick castle in a richly diverse forest. which means I am very passionate about wallabies and pythons and mist spiders and twisted angophoras and the sound of the wind and the feel of the rain . we are an ark ,an island of light, a beacon of common sense in a crazy out of control consumption mad world.we have a composting toilet for goddess sake.

NO

On By faeriembassy2 Comments

there is a time and place for NO and then there is another story to this word.

one of the learnings that came to me that calls to me is the shift in perception from NO to something else

note I do not say yes

I am not talking opposites

rather I am referring to a change of perceptual space

a change of focus and use of energy

how often do I want to say

no ! no way!! not happening!!! not in my name!!!!

offhand I can think of a dozen scenarios and I don’t wish to bore you  but  to frame a few :

the continuing incarceration of asylum seekers

the slaughter of our forests

the poisoning of  creeks  rivers oceans  drinking water

the making of weapons

making toxic toys

…….

actually my list is probably quite long and this could be seen in a healthy light or as a sickness.

take your pick.

instead of spirit  crying  NO

I shift I swivel I twirl I turn ever so slightly obliquely subtly but determinedly

and embrace opening my heart and home  to asylum seekers

living in and caring for a forest

 

developing a relationship with earth and spirit based on respect

practicing gratitude for everything

the air I breathe  the sun moon and rain.

catch the rainwater in a tank

grow flowers put them in vases make a beautiful meal and eat with loving people

make herbal tinctures and ointments – weapons of another kind if you will

I loan the wee man my hammer and he bangs the nails back into the verandah as well as nailing any errant bits of wood to posts etc.

he takes his wheelbarrow gathers the wood  races it back to the kitchen and chucks it beside the stove.

still with me?

it is like a  side step

a movement in

an energetic  shift

or to quote charles

make a beautiful world that our hearts know is possible.

and then there are the days when only NO will do…

 

 

 

 

 

make believe

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when Kingston is in residence he says 

will you play with me grandma?

what shall we play? 

pirates 

ok

he made me make a list of what we needed so he could tick off with a X as we went along.

eye patch                       

belt

knife

boots

treasure

scarf

map 

the map gets drawn featuring bolcano island  water  trees  ships  other pirates and a large X marking the treasure.

every game is a bit different but last time he placed two blue cushions on the floor on either side of the carpet and said this is the ocean grandma.

ok, brilliant I thought.

and with our boots belts knives eye patches clip on gold earrings courtesy of my mother from whom I got a  box of old jewellery containing  plastic or what represented plastic in the 60’s necklaces, old silver brooches and heaps of clip or screw on earrings.

after a while they hurt your ear but we suffer the pain for a bit because we are pirates and we are tough .

we sail a ship we built called the Mighty Chowla a cardboard boat with a knitting needle mast and a calico flag having skull and bones drawn on it.

the anchor is a toilet roll on a piece of string and of late a shuttle cock got taped to the top of the mast and some small creature like felted kiwi  sits up there and say beware beware rocks ahead or some sea monster is chasing us.

 sometimes we lurk behind the door and leap out on granddad brandishing our knives and yelling loudly.

he is suitably frightened  but has been known to give chase to us as well.

make believe and the world changes – the previous landscape adjusts and everything becomes some thing else.

as adults  we give up these games and assume a real world stance forgetting  the joy of play and the ease with which we could turn one thing into another by believing it to be so.

 I suspect we  still  do  “make believe” just not so  much of the playful variety  -instead we  suspend responsibility and our own truth by  accepting the stories given to us by  governments and corporations. 

modified seed stock in which terminator genes have been added so that new seed has to be purchased every season is a story that hastens our demise.

coating our seeds with pesticides and fungicides is a really stupid long term plan.

my point being if we are going to engage in make believe and I reckon we all do let us try to get as close to the truth of the earth as possible.

failing that

put on a costume and play around a bit 

you might not have a four  and a half-year old in the house but the child that loves to play is still in residence within you.

 

 

kapiti island dreaming

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   coming ashore in my longboat
           gliding gently into the shallows
           the happy slap of ocean meeting land.

           feet splashing into the water
           hands drag the boat to rest
           high above the tide line
           a wave of driftwood and opened shells.

           gull prints etched in the slate grey sand.

           wind tugs our hair
           tattoos tell stories of who we are
           mullet waters- Waikanae –
           fire on the beach
           children playing  fish eaten and plans made.

 

           Kapiti – bold and mountain blue island
           where maori and european , whale and greenstone met
           symbol of our dreaming.

           like you we too are travellers here
           and call these islands home.

       

 

 

 

 

Jaime

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jaime is the new kid on the block

strictly speaking he is a man not a kid but lets not get too precious.

he has travelled across the pacific ocean to be here

and here is where he wants to be.

sensible lad we say

a forest is a perfect spot to wash up in.

we did all those year ago with our permaculture book in one hand and a bush saw in the other.

what did we know ?

ideas and visions were plentiful.

lucky for us the forest earth is forgiving and absorbs most graciously our stuff ups though one has to wonder on a global scale how much longer the graciousness can extend?

I kinda feel maybe we have run out of good will but what do I really know?

the birds are still singing in the morning and the wallabies are still having babies.

 permaculture is not such an oddity now with courses popping up all over the place – I am thinking this means  more people are tuning in to the earth.

 

 

so jaime comes to this land on a working visa stopping off in Melbourne and washing dishes.

there he meets bec and one thing leads to another .

then his visa runs out .

reluctantly he returns to chile

promising to return.

bec is busy studying and working and when she finishes she hops on a plane and joins him

meeting family and friends.

they begin the task of paperwork for citizenship.

all the authorities want is cash and to be able to bang their stamp on all the bits of paper.

so much for the digital age -paperwork is alive and well.

 

in the evenings he sits at the table

books spread out in front of him

taking notes and studying plans /designs for a rocket stove.

don’t ask me maybe it does take off.

maybe it is our way outa here when the earth finally tosses us off her back

or maybe it is a super efficient heater .

daytime he is busy building the staircase to the room above so the ladder can be released for other business.

Spanish words are now thrown into our conversations and we repeat them hoping that some will stick and we will achieve some fluency.

it could be that the faerie embassy is coming of age with cultural representatives turning up and I am looking forward to seeing how the wallabies the skinks and the yellow robins take to a bit of Spanish.

 

 

 

Imagine

On By faeriembassy7 Comments

  It is imperative to inquire of the heart

and heal our irrational and irresponsible

subservience to a story

that has outlived its purpose.

 

actually that is putting it mildly –

the story that no longer serves is actively promoting and sanctioning  biocide .

concise oxford english dictionary : biocide  – the destruction of life

 

 

I have a solution

 

    We could imagine pretend if you will

that the real purpose for you and for me

for all of us     humans

is to awaken from our slumber

and learn respect and self-responsibility.

 

I am willing

Are you?

 

 

 

the house of secrets

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                               As a child I lived in a house of secrets. day by day they were stitched into the frocks my mother made for me knitted into my cardys and beaten into the bowl of flour eggs sugar and butter that made up our afternoon teas.

I fancied that they waited on the edge of the room when I entered and lay sullenly under my bed at night while I slept.

sometimes I determined to sneak up on them and stealthily crept along the hallway to the living room when Mum and Dad were chatting.

I tried to breathe silent as a mouse in the doorway listening hard and on rare occasions was rewarded with a snippet of a story.

I would take this into my hoard and puzzle endlessly over these tidbits. on the odd times I bravely sort information I was batted away affectionately enough to be sure but in such a way that I learnt  not ask that question again.

my only recourse was to imagine and this I did lying in bed at night pulling out the pieces and stitching them into a pattern.

I concluded that I was adopted – at the time there was obvious evidence to support this theory –I was the only one in the family with auburn coppery curls and freckles all over her face.

by sixteen I discovered that this was in fact not the case – the truth was slippery and full of holes .

over time my sisters and I sought out aunties uncles and aging friends – tight lipped and friendly we patched at the past as best we could .

mum left the planet and dad has nothing to say.

the full measure of the story remain as secrets resting in the coffin with her.

 

Rebeccas garden

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today

it is raining and the wind is strong

leeches busy themselves attaching to us whenever we leave the verandah.

inside it is snug

bec has made  Feijoa jam

in case you didn’t know it is a type of guava

 with a soft swelling  of the belly and a spring baby to look forward to she has come home 

and wants to garden.

she found a man in south america liked him so much that they married. 

it is no wonder 

her older sister came home with her hubby and baby when he was 10 months old.

precedent set and why not ?

it is a beautiful place to be and we all happen to like each other?

is that so odd?

in some circles it is not the done thing.

I moved countries and never gave a thought to returning to the parental home

but that was then and this is now. 

we are making another world possible

for all of us

 and the commitment is strong.

her room in the tower is finished and looks beautiful with a window added on the southern side to allow a view into the forest and onto the vege garden.

presently they climb a ladder to get there.

the men are working  to build stairs which is a huge thing and the graph paper and pencil come out time and time again to get things right before they cut,  before they make the mark.

already bec has found a wild patch of comfrey apple mint  yarrow that she wants to turn into a herb garden

with judicious fencing.

this is the learning for us that we cannot expect to have food without fencing 

hard as we find this notion in our love of wild and freedom for freedoms sake.

thank goodness the young ones are turning up with their notions and ways

and we can sit back a little

cuppa in hand

and say dear that sounds great.

 

 

the faerie embassy makes a call

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  It is time to honour all that is and all that can be.

 It is time to act courageously with passion on behalf of all those that have no voice in our ‘human world’

 The insects, the flyers, the swimmers, the four leggeds, the rocks, the trees, the crawlers….

 

The Faerie Embassy acknowledges the voice of all relations that dwell in this forest and on this earth…….

 

brush tailed possum, ringtail possum, sugar glider, red wallaby, swamp wallaby, grey kangaroo, goanna, lizard, bandicoot, red belly black snake, diamond python, rabbit, bat, frog, cricket, butterfly, mosquito, moth, rabbit, wombat, echidna, mouse, bush rat, fox, hen,grubs, spider, cicada, tick, leech…….

 

                                           AND

 

Superb blue Wren, Kookaburra, Grey Fantail, Rufous Whistler, Bowerbird, Wood duck, Crested Shrike -tit, Yellow Robin, Crimson Rosella, Magpie, Finch, Warbler, Honeyeater, Quail, Channel billed Cuckoo, Wonga Pigeon, Silver eye, Noisy Friarbird, Wattlebird, Finch, Currawong, Eagle, Olive-backed Oriole, Firetail, Eastern Spinebill, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Fork-tailed Swift, Dollarbird, Gang-gang cockatoo, Galah, White-headed pigeon, Grey goshawk, Whip Bird, Sacred Kingfisher, Restless Flycatcher, Leaden flycatcher, Cuckoo Dove, Bronze Winged Pigeon, Peaceful Dove, King Parrot, Boobook Owl, Butcherbird, Topknot Pigeon, Raven, Thornbill, Tree creeper, Tawny Frogmouth, Welcome Swallow, Grey Shrike -thrush, Yellow Tail Cockatoo, Glossy Black Cockatoo, Common Bronzewing, Brown hawk…….

 

 

                                           AND

 

wattle, eucalyptus, casuarina, wild cherry, angophora, red gum, maiden hair fern, kurrajong, titree, stringy bark, black box, grey box, bloodwood, tree fern, orchid, epiphytes, cutty grass, wonga berry vine, hardenbergia, kangaroo grass, wild raspberry, blackberry, white thornbush, geebung, pea flower, herb, weed, worm, beetle, caterpillar, fungi, damp, decomposing matter, snail, turtle, water dragon, perch, eel, rock, crystal, lichen, moss, flower, rain forest, water, soil, sun, moon, mist, starlight, clouds, rain,spider webs, rainbows…….

 

                                         AND

 

energy, space, fairy, dryad, nymph, sprite, pixie, spirit, angel, deva…….

 

                                          AND

 

 creatures bounding, scurrying hopping leaping climbing soaring ,branches creaking, bees buzzing, birds singing calling , stillness, the breath of old trees, the caress of spirit, commonsense,the footsteps of the Ancestors, the beacon of the future, the Yowie, sacred law, the laughter of children, the nations first peoples, the joys of human, the void,……. 

 

the faerie embassy gives thanks to All of the above

and to the  unknown…….

 

 

Earth

On By faeriembassy10 Comments

 

 

for years now I have ached to tell the story of my country

 my place in the landscape 

the forest in which I breathe.

 

named Avalon some 30 years ago after the myth of the isle that appears in and out side of reality.

also named andelain by my partner 

and called jellybean road by the children and friends.

 

I have wanted to sing the twisted curling limbs of the ancient angophoras with their nesting hollows and rough barked trunks scored by the claws of goanna and possum.

 

I have wanted to capture the dawn chorus in a bottle and spray its full melodic symphony into the halls of parliamentary power, into the barracks of uniforms and guns, into the open hearts and minds of our pre schoolers.

 

I have longed to distill the essence of wild violet and fungi, of milk thistle and wombat berry meandering sprawling their fecundity around the base of stringy bark, bloodwood, black wattle and she-oak.

 

 

 Earth has called me to respond, to listen and weave her story into the fabric of social reality

so that none may ever again forget her, so that no human may ever again be in any doubt

about ‘the one place’ that is our home.

 

I write the story of the mist spider spinning finely wrought mist so that my morning walk in the forest is layered with sparkling webs spinning rainbows in the rising sun.

as I stop and sit with the morning I am entranced with the dance of the mist maidens over the still sleeping hills.

 

I write the joy of the frog chorus that greets the rain

and I like to tell the story of the baby wombat brought up into adult hood by my daughter

and then released to live its wild and busy life in our forest.

 

This my place is earth, this forest this home.

It is a cauldron of possibilities,

a hearth of family and love;

a dreaming of harmony

and a creative exploration of life within sacred lore.