Echoes Then to Now-Part 2
Morning. The trees receive the touch of sun and birds that have huddled in their branches after Monday’s windstorm, and Tuesday’s humanstorm, shake their feathers and head to the feeder. I watch over the rim of my laptop, out my living room window. Take a ragged breath. Nature is wordless, but people are chattering—wildly trying to make story, to find a way to fit what just happened into the narrative we thought we were living. The turn we thought we were in toward a better country, just before the bus went off the rails and over the mountain side. Mourning.
The thing is, we cannot make immediate sense/story after a detonation this huge. We try, because disorientation is uncomfortable. Terrifying. It’s hard not to wake up this morning with the haunting sense that America 2024 just became Germany 1933. But because we know the historical scope of fascism, even in this dire situation, we can make different choices and pull ourselves out of this wreck.
I made an offer, when my book came out, that early readers of The Beekeeper’s Question are invited to gather on zoom this coming Saturday November 9. This offer stands. 9:00 AM Pacific, 10:00 Mountain, 11:00 Central, 12:00 East. Since the invite is to readers who have completed the story, there will be plot reveal discussion. This session will be repeated January 18, 2025.
The video of the Langley book launch, is on the book page. It includes a slideshow of Montana and the 1940s, was attended by 150 people.
We will talk and listen to whatever people want to say about the book, and that time and this time.
Gather if you are moved to be in this circle. I send you love and honey to soothe your heart.
Thank you, Christina. Your ideas, your books have long been beacons to me, I am grateful.
I am jumping at your offer to explore them further.
Your offer to join hands and sustain spirit in this time of great distress.
Bless you.
Therese from Montreal
Ah Therese, I will so look forward to meeting you. Your review of the book on Amazon much appreciated.
Thanks Christina. That’s a lovely reflection and offer. Linette X
Are you able to join in? It would be a delight to have your Aussie perspective… don’t know what time it is there, though. Thanks for all your support around the election… we are going to need it.
Hello Christina,
This was some soul salve tonight. A service technician came today to install internet service. His name was Muhammad. He had a strong Middle East accent. As he departed he saw my Kamala 2024 poster on my porch. He looked at it and said, “I was hoping she would win.” Tears filled my eyes and I told him I hoped he and his family would be safe. Thank you. We will heal at some point.
Healing depends on the wound not getting infected, retraumatized, etc. For us to heal socially will be quite the trick. But I hope we are up to it as a country.
Thank you Christina. I needed some perspective on our bus wreck.
Blessings to all!
David
That’s part of our job now, David, we of many decades… holding out perspective for the young who will live with the consequences of this longer than we do. My downward spiral is the thought: we’ve seen this before and how far unfettered power will go. My upward spiral is the thought: we’ve seen this before and so can push back and help society make different decisions. Grey heads to the streets!–but in throughout ways. What is mine to do, now, under these emergent conditions.
Dear Christina, you have been a beacon of hope for so many years, leading a way toward equality and equity. Again you bring a ray of hope in darkest times. Many thanks. Bright blessings to you.
And to you Roberta. Bright blessings… Like Kamala said, when it’s so dark we can see the stars, we must all shine.
Hello Christina, Ann, and All Extended PeerSpirit Friends:
This is a lovely message and invitation to feel and be together.
Thank you for all the love and caring – the healing stories – you offer to All Forms of Life.
Sending gratitude and belongingness,
Jaune
Gratitude and belongingness… a rock to stand on for the day. Thank you.
So sorry I cannot join the discussion this Saturday…I am enjoying every moment of the book and thank you profoundly, Christina!
Thank you, Brenda. And watch out Canadians–do not follow US.
I would, of course, love to join you so please add my spirit to the circle, but there are many moving parts to process right now. One of those is that a beloved friend has died and services will be during that time. Another is the overrwhelming sense of unreality to all of this when I look at a map of the election results and see that both sides of the country (East and West) went blue while the center of the country was blazing red. In our little pocket here in New England, we are feeling not just grief but also frustration that we could just float off the map and not be noticed because our fellow citizens hold no value in our voices. It’s a strange experience to live in an area where so many people agree but so many others do not.
I’m grateful you’re there, and I hope you know we here are also holding to values that are dear.
Meredith, you are a sister wisdom voice on the Northeast corner. I count on you… I bless your days, your deep heart, your stamina. I am grateful you’re there. And yes, from this very blue corner of the country, I know you are holding shared values… and maybe if we see the blue edges of the red country as a kind of embrace that will help…
Once again, thank you Christina. I thought of you and a small circle of other wisdom warriors during the long sleepless night. I do not question our resolve and stamina to weather this. When I can, I will send you the words of another who spoke about our strength from our ancestors.
I have had a mind to read your book but wanted to find just the right moment for it. This seems it. I will make great effort to read it to the last word so I can join you on Saturday. Blessings to both of you in your lovely home with the nature-infused view.
Oh, Christina, thank you deeply for being the wise owl.
This gray head is focused again and watching for what she can do that would be valuable for my time and place in this country. (Wednesday I just wanted to run far far away.) Yesterday I road my bike in the woods resulting in my finding a semblance of joy and hope (thank you earth, sky and water!) as well as with a bit of resolve about how to personally move forward more positively, day to day. Grateful to be in a very blue state as well, even as it therefore yielded such abrupt surprises about the whole country. For now and until I know what to “do” I have resolved to try my hardest to respond to those that I know voted differently from me, with a kind heart and a real smile. Perhaps they need that more than ever as their expectations of their voting choice will most surely be shattered, with time, as they realize that they were tricked and deceived, big time. Thank you, too ,la.
We are all learning how to be in this world one day at a time. Bless you on this journey.
Dear Christina,
I’ll be walking in my river valley – alone together, as is my way – when you are circling up on Saturday. Otherwise I’d be there in a heartbeat. The walking is my balm…your book (read during my recovery from covid) was deeply satisfying for my senses. A beautiful read – about then, for now. Thinking of you with love, Katharine
Thank you for your beautiful blog thoughts earlier today. Be well, and walk on.
Christina,
I engaged Robert’s opinion about going on the Zoom without us finishing the book yet. I told him about the spoiler alert notice on this blog post. He immediately said, writers want you to experience the book as it is written – they write specifically for that. Writing is hard work, he said, and I think that Christina would not want you to experience any part of the book with a “spoiler alert” experience. His sage advice resonated with me. Therefore, I will honor you, the writer(!) and not attend the Zoom call tomorrow. Robert has your back! xxx
Thank you for this beautiful book Christina. I didn’t want the book to end and I’ll read it again. The story reminds me of an Antonio Machado poem and the stanza:
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamed—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
May we find a way to love those who came before and forgive those who have committed so many atrocities.
And thank you for recording your book launch presentation so we could be a part of it!
Sending love and huge congratulations! xoxo
I have long loved this poem… and there are echoes of it in the book, when the bees heal Leo’s heart. And thank you GG for reading, for your own writing and wild and artful pathways through this hurting world.
Dear Christina, yes, what we need now more than ever is solidarity and the certitude we are not traveling alone. We just founded our local chapter of Omas gegen Rechts. Our women’s circle is still meeting. Trump picked a real Gruselkabinett. I am mourning with you… Kindness no longer seems a political value… And we can still plant it in whatever is possible for us… Remembering you and Ann with love and appreciation!
Ah Regina, how lovely to hear from you. Do not follow in the American footsteps–and isn’t that a strange and heartbreaking thing to say. Here is my favorite song about the power of grandmothers. OMAs Unite. love and honey to you and all you do.https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=holly+near+call+in+a+thousand+grandmothers&atb=v344-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DoT9pxPN7HFM