Elves move now in the night. They take up positions, they watch and they prepare to sacrifice for Nature's Survival - which is all of our lives into the future. If, you believe in keeping violence to a minimum, then you had better get to work fast.
Prepare to put your life on the line that your mouth talks so much about: the line of Truth - of knowing when a situation has gone too far and something has to be done. Gaia manifests her own defense. The beauty and promise of Nature call strongly to those who know it well.
It is time to choose sides or to forfeit your input about what happens next. If you can't choose the Fields of War, then help us with money and love. Work on your friends and relatives.
Build support (food, gear, safe-houses) for what has to happen.
?Wishing at the Edge?
takes you behind the front-lines of eco-defense, to a time when thousands of people have moved to rural forest areas. They come to defend the wild and biodiversity - they come for survival. Urban areas are exploding in violence and despair as the USA crumbles into chaos.
Refugees clog the roads and threaten to overwhelm endangered areas.
Healers, youth, eco-commandos, and the young officers of the militia move cautiously toward mutual acceptance and tenuous alliance. Every event and encounter is fraught with danger, espionage and assassination.
Into this mix, step Hazel, Sasha and Jarred. Each of them has a powerful network of supporters who work openly or behind the scenes to exert influence and gather information.
Two "good" magics seek unification toward a purpose: to guide the Volkentrough - the collective last wish of all species.
Complex forces arise to seek their own wishes. Wildryns ? spirits of extinct species and all the children lost to toxics, abortion, and hate - are trapped on the Earth.
These Wildryns wait for the time of their optimal release. But dark shadows of evil strive to undo the plans of others and to control the power of these tortured souls, for their own designs.
Hazel's group ?
the Eco-Commandos - have stopped commercial logging and attracted many young forest defenders. Now, they hope to win local elections and begin the restoration of the ecology. Sasha's group ?
the Network ? is playing all sides in this dangerous game. They are mostly young people who live in militia zones, but they tend to favor the healers and the forest defenders.
West of coastal Northern California the militia has consolidated its power. Two powerful factions vie for control. The "Young Officers" group wants peaceful coexistence, but an older "Fanatic Christian" faction is determined to establish itself over the whole region.
Weapons are being stockpiled in preparation for a showdown.
The Eco-Commandos split up into missions. in Colorado and San Francisco.
Hazel and a friend travel cross-country to a council meeting with powerful militia leaders. All three groups run into difficulties, but manage to accomplish at least part of their missions.
Hazel, Sasha, and Jarred end up lost and hunted in the forest.
Shadows close in on them. Rescuers find them and they head toward the election-day music festivals. Traps block their path and more high drama unfolds before the day is done.
Sacrifices are chosen and mistakes barely avoided. Sasha leaves his friends and strikes out on his own, in hopes of sparing them grief and hazard.
Forces of fate and magic converge at a stony hilltop.
Ships transport troops as the Federal government moves to nullify the election results through force and occupation. Storm clouds brew and emotions fill the sky. A moment of destiny builds to its multiple climax.
Awareness of the situation grows until a spontaneous awakening is triggered. Most people come to realize that they have to defend the places they live, since there is nowhere left to go. The refugee flood is slowed down.
Straw-Men burn in the night sky, as beacons shine from one community to the next, proclaiming solidarity and friendship with the new ways. All things come together; friends trust each other, and miracles of courage and hard work save the day. Across the planet, highways of commerce and greed are thrown down.
Soon, most people recognize that technology or complex machines that do not serve basic needs of food and shelter are inherently wasteful and evil.
Many of the young forest defenders and eco-commandos die, but overall violence is kept to a minimum. Joy and confidence spread and a helping hand is extended to refugees.
You have to trust the magic and believe in how we are using it.
?Only through ?
make believe? can we find the power of Make Believe, the power to change our narrow view - these dead end ways. Trust the elves, we have to I believe.
Become one with all things and all times. Each moment is the accumulation of all evolution, all struggles. Come, we can have fun in our company together, while we create a new way of being and a new view of life and time and .
..love.
I?ll show you how to climb giant trees and you can show me how to wander aimlessly through the woods, in love with all life.?
Hazel leaped on Jared knocking him backward into a pile of leaves and soft branches. ?What do you say, Renegade Militia, are we a team?
I?ll have to kill you if you say no, you know too much.?
She yelled out as Jarred flipped her back over, but then she kept rolling and ended up on top again. Before he could say yes she was kissing him long and holding him tight. He held on a long time knowing how much needed to be done and how easily they could fail or lose each other.
Every joy and every sadness...
every wish of safety...
and every certainty of doom filled their hearts. But as they rose to leave Hazel felt a lessening of the dread and confusion that had stalked them these last few days. Having made it this far strengthened by the companionship growing around Jarred, Sasha, and herself, Hazel appreciated the new skills she was developing.
Skills she would soon have to rely on. She pondered what to do at the music festival and wished hard for Anaya to be there. She had to be able to answer these questions, make sense out of the dreams.
Wearing her grim determination lightly, Hazel gathered in her thoughts and energy as they climbed down the steep ridge trail where Sasha had gone?
As they came up the ridge from their camp, Hazel was wondering how many more miles to the Klamath Road. Sasha stood up from a log by the road and smiled, saying, ?
It?s not much farther, a couple miles downhill?
?
Wildryns are trapped spirit energy or souls as humans imagine them. We think they are elven, but there is something wrong in Eald and in other magical planes. Someone?
s powerful wish is holding the Wildryns to particular places on Earth. There may be human souls caught up in this, perhaps children who died in the womb or from toxics, hate or murder. I cannot find an answer to this riddle, yet I must, and I can?
t come and help you now.? Anaya faded into mist like a sound in the fog.
This is the great war - the eternal Struggle: whether the light or the dark will unbalance creation. Will there be a future of life restored and respect for the circle? Or will the Dark spells of greed and delusion triumph in oblivion?
Unless we embrace and join our light and dark natures we will miss the path of balance and there will be no tomorrow no third chance. Darkness gathers and laughs at our confusion. Consequences commence.
Yet, the crack of the Eald-Edge - that place of happiness and love in struggle - is still in your reach. Search it out now with your heart or remember our warning.
Creativity and a bit of Divine Vanity, brought the Wish of Life ...
and thus that of Death.
Soon, Beauty and Diversity bargain with Chaos for immortality as the Nebyakin and the Shadow Spirits conspire against Purity.
Tanyaka wishes for a self-generating Gaia Defense, so the elves drew magic unto the Ley Lines.
Patterns evolve aligned to the Universal life Force. Rei-Ki embeds in all things while Eu spreads out covering creation and seeking connections to a balance of energies - and healing.
Love of the Forest returns to many hearts, genetic memories reach out, and this awakening works with Brione's wish that Life should be so simple. Finally, enough voices join to power the Wish of the Innocents for Simplicity, Nature, and 'Letting Go.
' Just in time, hundreds of Healers come forward to join with the cutting edge of the Forest Defenders: the 'straight edge' Youth of the forest camps. Love guides Rage into Gaia self defense as the Front-line Strategy gains popularity and reluctant acceptance by most moderates. Almost everyone tolerates the refugees and the kids; the Forest Camps, and even the power of Rei-Ki .
.. the possibility of all healing together .
.. somehow.
Spiritual awakening begins to energize the nearly forgotten Ley Lines and the Youth of Prophesy fulfill Lorien's wish for a silence to the chainsaws.
People come to occupy the land in self-defense of the Future. Imprints build up energy as the vortex of each magic pulls its parts together.
Ceremonies offer love and sacrifice at the Holy Places, the special forest groves, and all the places of tremendous pain, where extinctions and suffering create the Wildryns. These trapped spirits are no longer only elves, but now occur wherever dislocations of the Pattern of Life, cause unnatural death and elimination.
Much of the first half of the book comes from actual experiences. Many of the characters in the book are real people or composites of several people. Some have their original forest names and some do not.
Some of these characters went on to lead large organizations or international protest campaigns, some stayed in the trees and some went underground (maybe). Some drew heat from the feds and others should have. I myself know little of anything that has taken place in the Northwest or in animal or forest defense since 2000.
Follow the Gray Path with Elven Lore ..
. and you shall find your role. Bring your friends who can balance the Three Motivations: the Self, the Tribe, and the Future.
This is the time - the Hour of Decision - for those who fight for all species. This is the Battle of the Future. And this is your specie?
s last opportunity to re-route the path of evolution ? to etch new patterns into a planet?s fate.
Walk with me ...
that slim path of chances, the Edge where Unconditional Love touches Unconditional Sacrifice. Somewhere in our Dreams, the Gray Path breaks through the trap and creates La Tierra Luminoso."
Bear?s shaggy shoulder: "The Nature of Things is to seek life. The Web of Life patterns your awareness of Right Connections.
Intimacy is the carrot and Chaos the stick. When you have seen my death, your heart will burst with the knowing.
Magic and Chaos are the two components of Existence. Chaos tends to disrupt, to interfere, to trick, to corrupt and destroy. Magic is a neutral force which tends to energize the Nature of Things and the Patterns of the Future.
Beware the Agents of Chaos - those who would steal the magic - when Faith abandons Conscience.
The Patterns of Life recycle nutrients and energy on Earth.
I designed the Patterns with a piece of each God?s heart. These are only borrowed.
Each cycle, a new Chosen must earn the right to renew the Offering of the Gods. I set the elves to guard the Patterns ..
. and like you they maintain that vigil unto death ..
. or worse.
Humans let the "Glory of the Mad Child" trick them beyond the Patterns of Life. Now they wander a course aimed at Shadows. The Patterns .
.. are threatened!
I made a mistake that I can not fix without your help. Humans have lost most of their elvish ability, but they - above all creatures - still dream and think into the future. That is your magic.
Even the Gods forgot their Shadows ..
. Chaos potential multiplies the longer you deny the Sacrifice of the Chosen. Your delay questions the very Nature of Things.
Hasten, for the Magic evolves, and its momentum redefines its needs and its requirements. Vortexes of unfulfilled wishes clash with the Magical Defense - the Patterns of Life. Great or terrible Imprints demand expression.
I cannot say whether the Union - the Great ...
or the Sacrifice ? the Terrible - shall prevail.
Actions create side-effects unless ?The Root? is consulted.
Realign the Powers or else, edges will multiply and corrode deeper into your consciousness. Destroy the Lines of Greed which lead Shadow Wishes to the Portal. Darnovoi seeks the Dominion of the Nebyakin - an end to Life and Magic.
? Goddess Lorien of the Wildwood, Mountains and Springs
.
.. Listen to the leaves?
whisperings ...
kiss the wind...
listen to the cries of the Earth and be the trailing wails of a vanishing specie. Reach out your toes to feel the edge of the abyss - where the Great Imprint draws cataclysm. Forget everything you ?
know.? Discard all attachments and possessions.
Follow your nose to the intersections of greatest pain. Offer your life ? at the very least!
Refugees, Gods!
So many refugees from the floods and nowhere to go, with violence in the cities. Those summers of ?06 and ?
07 the roads were clogged with bewildered folks. Some tried to get up into the hills, but most couldn?t make it.
The rivers were running wild and high.
Our story was a common one, of those who thought they were ready.
It?s hard to really prepare when you?ve no idea what to expect.
It helps to keep repeating: food and shelter, food and shelter...
We set about to live deep into the forest. Alina and Sunshine knew much about gardening, wild foods, and food preservation.
Fanghorn was only twelve, yet quite proficient at stalking with his bow. Ermine and Peak were young pros at security, planning and recons..
. We practiced making jewelry and talismans from the unique objects we found in our wanderings.
We found a nice summer campsite on a lush little stream. We hunted, grew hemp, and built natural material yurts. We often traveled to the Fairs and Gatherings selling or trading our homemade jewelry and raingear.
People liked our pamphlets on the Elven Predictions and the Way of the Goddess. Sometimes we talked to people about how the Rednecks and Elves could live together and create a better world.
A New Magic shall arise amid the rubble of a dying world or perhaps not dying but only the passing of the world as we knew it.
I cannot see all who travel the Path nor what trials they must suffer, for a Disturbance - an unbalanced Power - seeks good but is untested.
I know this for it will be a part of me, coming from my life or out from my life?s changing.
It will grasp and cling, yet with love and belief - the Savior will shine - the Portal will dim. - Jarrel - Witch of Scarlet Glenn
Dedication -- This Book is dedicated to: Martyrs: Augusto Cesar Sandino (Nicaragua); Diana Oughton, Terry Robbins, and Theodore Gold (Weather Underground, New York); Ana Mae Aquash ((Dakotas/NovA Scotia); Dalal Mughrabi (Palestine); Fernando Pereira (Holland/New Zealand); Michalis Prekas (Kalgogreza, Italy); Loula Abboud (Lebanon); Petra Schelm (Hamburg, Germany); Chico Mendes (Brazil); Christoforos Marinos (Piraeus, Italy); Eduardo Massari (Beleno) and Maria Soledad Rosas (Italy); David Gypsy Chain (Texas and Grizzly Creek); Naya Bryan (Santa Cruz); Bartolomeu Morais da Silva (Brazil); Beth O'Brien (Portland, Oregon); Alex Lemun (Chile); Dorothy Stang (Nun murdered in Brazil); Nicolas David Neira Alvares (Colombia); Zenon Diaz Necul (Chile); the indigenous and campesino martyrs of Bolivia and Ecuador, the guerrillas of Colombia; Khava Barayeva (Chechnya); Wafa Idris (Palestine), Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (Palestine); Amanat Nagayeva and Satsita Dzhebirekhanova (Russia/Chechnya); Ayat al-Akhras (Palestine); Hiba Daraghmeh (Palestine); Nek Mohammed (Afghanistan and Pakistan); Hanadi Tayseer (Palestine); and the following incarcerated comrades: Ana Lucia Gelabert (Cuban-American); Irmgard Möller (Heidelberg, Germany); Marilyn Buck (Native American); Ted Kazinsky (Montana); Helen Woodson (Texas); Ibai Ederra (spain); Robert Thaxton - Rob Los Ricos (Eugene, Oregon); Sara Olson (SLA- California); Jeffrey Free Luers and Craig Critter Marshall (Fall Creek, Oregon); Tre Arrow (Oregon/British Colombia) and all those who risk life, limb or liberty to stop the senseless destruction of Earth that we all depend on.
...
(See complete list at: GreenSurvival.blog.com/)
Herein lies what is known of the Elves and their Queen, Lorien - Goddess of the Wildwood. These stories are like dreams, and this is not unusual when interacting with Elves. It is a turbulent connection we share with them - two worlds - once connected and now so different.
Even for we of the Woods - magic is confusing - almost beyond our grasp - something felt and experienced, but not easily described. One minute the sense of the magic is everywhere and then suddenly events or destinies collide and something even more amazing is created from the Sacred Things and from Spirit !*!
Understanding what has been and what will be remains a mystical challenge. To - you - who are stepping into our world * welcome.
Enter the place where Time and Music fill the space between the Colors of Light and Love. Silence your eyes and let your Spirit find its way toward the Light - Truth - beyond the pain. Come and share our friendship and practice the Craft.
Leaving behind your human ways is a slow and painful sacrifice. But it is one that must be endured if you would know the way and sort the wishes.
Hesitate not at all...
great joy and the fellowship of the Wild awaits your acceptance and your commitment. Try it. Why not?
What else is there to do? Become an Elf, be strong..
. and be aware..
. and you will see.
An ancient Raven with a broken beak got me lost in the woods one day.
"Nobody thinks about the creatures dying off forever. You - so called - Radicals -
Seekers of the Root - you can?t figure out how or what to fight.
Why don?t you
spread your wings and fly out of Denial toward a little more Paranoia. You can?
t
just wish the world to be nice. Vague wishes often hurt: a nice world for lightning bolts or anaerobic bacteria is different than one for mammals and mushrooms. Humans were supposed to divine how the world works not reduce it to rubble trying to figure out their egos.
What kind of world do you want, how will you get there? Why don?t you ever explain what your strategy is, or hopes to accomplish?
Since you ignore the animals and life that beg you now to fight like crazy - while there?s still a shred of use for sacrifice..
. think up something that?s a little more than symbolic art.
Try this: Eco-social Defense. Decide, either by lottery or by virtue of eco-need and practicalities, a couple Counties that make sense to occupy, settle and apply whatever it is you believe in. Publicize your plan and the target sanctuaries - places where people should relocate to.
Raise money: bake sales, panhandling, hard work, or spin some chump change out of a fat cat like Soros or Ted Turner or Woody (if he gets fatter). Set up land trusts for low-impact eco-communities. Start building and planting trees, learning and teaching simple - living skills, and fighting (nicely ) to defend the ecology of your sanctuary.
When enough people get there you take over all political offices and institute your radical ?bright? ideas.
Then work on neighboring counties. I know it?s hard to abandon some struggles and places.
.. but would you rather lose everywhere or win for sure in a few places?
There are a dozen important counties in the West that would each require only five to twenty thousand new voters in order to dominate their politics. The State may try to stop you, or circumvent the Will of the People, but you?ll have thousands of direct action die-hards to enforce your own law.
That Raven still scares me. I can?t stop thinking about ESD or coming up with something that makes sense - a way to live in this world that?
s outside denial and selfishness. The ESD plan makes sense, because it is already happening on its own (Humboldt, Eugene, etc.).
Many of the areas the Raven suggests we take over are likely to be swamped with refugees if the country slides much further into chaos and martial law. Without this plan, the ecology of these endangered regions is seriously threatened.
.
..A strange bird, but I kind of liked him, shabby and perfidious as it was.
...
Her Elven name was Anaya. For thousands of years she was the Forest Keeper of Lorien.
Most of this time she sat in meditation at the heart of the ancient grove where Lorien had taught her the Patterns of Life and the Nature of Things.
The last five years she had followed a group of young forest defenders.
From afar she came to know them well as she shared their hard times and their moments of victory and celebration. These young people and thousands like them believed so strongly in the need for action that they came together in circles of friendship, tribes, permanent affinity groups where bonds of love and trust grew out of closeness and sharing until a new magic was discovered.
They believed in the Elves, in the Powers, and in themselves. Most of the world was beginning to thrash through a difficult transformation. It was this traumatic transition period from one world to another which the real healers feared would consume many lives unless they acted decisively.
And so many healers and people who had vision came to the forest camps and the scattered communities of the Northwest. They embraced Eco-Social Defense, the front-line strategy and pretty much whatever the youth told them had to be done. A deep cultural revolution began to take hold.
Even many locals who used to blindly hate the eco-freaks embraced this new way of peace and coexistence. Together they began to learn a "green survival"..
. maybe the world could still learn.
Anaya first recognized that this particular group of forest defenders were the Chosen at EWOK II. As she looked up at the protesters' tree village high in the Redwoods and heard Brione and Amnesia talking to the moss and reaching out their love, she knew beyond doubt. And Aire with Redwood needles all matted in his curly black hair could surely be an Elf, except they never have dark hair.
Maybe New York Gnome ? The Sheriffs could rarely spot him whether he was hiding in some logging slash or even walking right behind them. They were unraveling hidden, Elven Lore and Anaya wondered how long before they became aware of her.
Even though the Chosen rarely talked about their new feelings and insights, the Forest Keeper withdrew her presence somewhat, waiting until they were ready.
That Autumn and the following year Anaya kept her watch as the Chosen grew and learned more about the struggle ahead.
Despite the interference of the Ego-Cult, the love and excitement of the Forest Defenders attracted many young people to the cause of Eco-Social Defense. The word spread and this new kind of kinship and Spirit-Power was contagious.
It was no surprise to the Elves when the following summer a moratorium on most logging was hastily agreed to. There were so many defenders contesting every timber sale that neither the government nor the corporations could afford enough security forces to continue business as usual. There were worse problems elsewhere.
The collapse of the Global Economy was sucking the USA into a chaos it would never rise out of. And people knew it - society was drifting in hopelessness. The riot threat and a turn toward uncontrollable violence were on many people?
s minds.
So far everything had been peaceful, in the North Coast region.
A lot of logging equipment was destroyed here and there, but few injuries or assaults occurred. Tension was building and Forest Defenders put effort into reaching out to all people.
Dear People of Lorien: we the Forest People - your neighbors - ask for patience.
None of us, alone, can change what is happening. The government and even common sense have misled many people. Excessive consumption, economic growth, and trusting the corporations were mistakes.
Blaming each other will help no one. Fear will divide us if we don?t resist our programmed emotions.
Calm and hopeful cooperation can win the day.
People continue to move here for sanctuary and to save the forests. Most have good hearts and seek only refuge, purpose and peace.
You find life?s meaning in hard work, church, and security for your families. We work hard surviving and defending what we love.
The forest and everything living there is Sacred to us. Without healthy ecosystems few will survive the hard times ahead. Road building and clearcuts have taken the Salmon away that could have fed us all, but it?
s not too late to begin the restoration of this wondrous land we are so fortunate to live in.
Changes are not easy. We have to believe in a way for all who love this region to live and work together.
Our dreams need patience and a sincere desire to understand each other, or they will fail. No alternative avoids all violence and discomfort. Don?
t condemn any group for the rash actions of a few individuals. The government will discredit or kill forest defenders. They want division and people afraid of each other.
.. but it won?
t work this time.
Creative and future-looking people from all perspectives will grasp what will be and what has to be done to get us there. Isolation and our Ranger Defense will stop the government from intervening in our experiment in cooperation if we are united or at least restrained.
As an act of trust and good faith, Forest Defenders and the Eco-Commandos will begin a cease-fire and no new lands will be occupied within Lorien. The Logging and Mining Moratorium will be enforced. Electricity may not be available and transportation will be disrupted.
But we will still have our fertile soils, our forests and our spirit to sustain us.
Come and visit our camps and farms. We have food at our table for anyone who cares about peace and sharing.
For Autonomy and Survival. -- The Forest People: El Norte Command
Peace held on in many places that Fall and Winter.
The Free-States took root and made their history. Food donations were abundant and a wild variety of shelters popped up across the land. A few truck drivers were injured when they resisted confiscation of their loaded log trucks.
Three young people died attempting to bomb a major electric substation near the Siskiyou-Lassen boundary.
Anaya knew what would happen next but much of the world was turning gray to her.
Something was wrong, something changing the possibilities. Something she couldn?t reach.
And Death stalked the very heart of the Wildwood. Decay and the toxic hate of souls lost to evil?
s touch, reached unto the edges of the Sacred Groves. Shadows grew boulder, lingering, waiting..
.
Elvenkind knew their final hour approached.
In need they would make their final offerings and go back into the land and elements they came from. Always passive and nonviolent except for a few roads and bulldozers, the elves waited and watched as humans destroyed the forests and killed each other. Lorien, Goddess of the Wildwood, found her powers fading as did other of the Minor Powers.
Magic was being drained into some spell or wish of infinite complexity. The Wildwood was dying with its magic. Elven children all died at birth and the souls of these tortured ones were trapped for some reason.
These are the Wildryns of which little is known.
Now, perhaps too late, Lorien guides the Forest Keepers to work with humans who in their heart of hearts desire to live simple and heal the planet.
And the Wild-Fire went out to people?s dreams so they relived the journey and struggles of a thousand generations of their ancestors..
. and what life was truly about through time and change. The Shadows were pushed back for now and fears subsided, allowing everyone a pause to think before they wasted their last chances .
.. Their Last Wish.
Hazel parked her mountain bike next to Kith?s and lay back in the grass and weeds next to the snag of an ancient Douglas Fir.
Years of living wild out in the forests brought her many new skills, but the one she valued most was just being able to settle down and become part of your surroundings. Soaking up everything and tuning into the details around you.
You could never be alone once you knew Nature, she thought, as she watched the woodpeckers chipping away at the old tree above. It felt good to be a Forest Defender, to be in these times, doing something..
. seeking a way that was beneficial..
. she let her thoughts drift and Nature surround her.
The sound of footsteps roused her from peaceful daydreams and she pushed herself up on one elbow to watch Kith coming around the corner of the road. She couldn?t see too well through the branches but the dark ruffled hair and the dirty Carhart woods pants assured her that it had to be him.
She knew almost every stitch on the numerous patches that barely held his lucky pants together. It wasn?t that he liked looking sloppy.
She knew, he was just too busy to care much about appearances. Besides, he still thought that he had her to help out in that department..
. he used to have her that is.
She wanted to find out what had happened at the big meeting, but she also wanted just to listen and to be there for him? As for the chasm that threatened their friendship since they had broken up a few months ago, well, she wanted that chasm to mend, but she felt that it was out of her hands now and probably for the better. She started to get up as he approached until he launched himself down next to her and rolled over on his back holding his head like he didn?
t know whether he wanted comfort or to end it once and for all in a mighty squeeze.
"Hey, Kith, why so glum?
" Hazel asked, her green eyes seeking to hold his and capture a glimpse of his true feelings. He didn?t exactly answer unless you count his eyes which rolled up and then closed tight.
Though only twenty years old, she had been to more meetings and endless attempts at contrived consensus than almost anyone. She chided herself for the way she had asked Kith that last question, the tone she often used without thinking, the tone of authority that she couldn?
t shake...
the thing that got her in trouble enough times...
and with Kith and a few other guys too. Fortuitously, a spunky chipmunk scampered up to them and stood with its head moving from one to the other as if accusing them both of being silly and human?
Hazel wanted to shout at the innocent creature: "why do I have to be the one who knows everybody and all the factions, the splinters - and knows them so well too? I'll do anything - whatever it takes - but Gods! It?
s really weird, like being Chosen by circumstance with a pile of crazy pieces trying to put themselves back together.
She looked closer at her 'old' friend, her soft eyes trying to speak kindness and wanting him to talk ?
about the meeting, anything, but Kith?s attention stayed absorbed with the chipmunk who he watched intently as if she wasn't even there.
Kith still didn?t answer and Hazel rose up slightly to face him. The chipmunk scurried away at the motion and Hazel sat picking the pine needles and twigs out of her long blond braids.
Kith stopped watching the chipmunk running away and moved closer to Hazel?s side. Finally, a slight smile broke across his face.
Tensions eased away and she knew he was happy that she had waited for him.
Kith spoke as he rubbed her knee, "Do you know it seemed like that chipmunk was trying to tell us something.
He probably felt my grumpiness and wanted to remind me how animals are supposed to be."
He sat up too and put one hand on hers, "No, I didn?
t run away from the meeting. And I guess it?s a good thing I didn?
t. Same old problems though. People?
s fears holding them back and their egos keeping them apart. When will we ever let go of the old ways?" he said.
Weariness showed through his cynicism. He shook his head and stretched his arms up as Hazel came closer giving him a little hug before she jumped up and grabbed his hand to pull, "I know, let?s go to the cliffs by the beach.
Come on," and she pulled him all the way up without much reluctance on his part.
Gliding swiftly along the forest trails they knew so well, the two friends enjoyed the smells of the trees and the sounds of little birds chirping busily about their ways.
Kith felt comfort to be out in the solitude with just Hazel. Sometimes they were so right for each other.
Then other times...
He remembered a year ago when things seemed simpler if crazier. The two of them used to ditch everyone else and head out into the wilds ..
. to be alone in their special places. Laying in the grass at the forest?
s edge, half sun, watching small white clouds cross the blue sky. Easily letting problems disappear..
. holding each other till sunset and imagining it would last forever.
...
And when they first met: She was so young, yet wisdom in common sense imbued her every act. Vitality and youthful invincibility fairly poured from her soul. It was easy to believe that anything was possible with Eve (Hazel?
s old forest name) high on the forest.
"I loved her as the Goddess immanent - strong, confident, innocent yet wary.
I was captivated. To me, the rest of the world held spellbound when we were alone and I looked into the well of youth that glimmered from deep in her dark eyes. We connected easily from the start - brother, sister, friend, could-be lover - it was the magic that surprised me most.
I thought my search for a magical soul-mate was a lost cause, a fantasy. But there we were walking away from the sabotage strike, stealthy, naturally ..
. in tune with the land and the howling storm, the lashing rain ..
.
We knew then how lucky we were to find each other.
Two rebel souls with such passion for the magic of dark stormy nights, old forests, and companions in danger. Together without fear, we were good at our work. We drank deeply of each other?
s essence, doubting only how long the Fates would leave us...
so comfortable.
Skirting the sand dunes, they followed along the edge of the forest, until they got to the higher ground where they could get out to the cliffs.
They could see far out into the gray-blue sea and down the coastline to where the lighthouse stood.
The rains mellow people out.
Gives you focus ...
for awhile anyway," Hazel said, hoping Kith wanted to talk, here in this place they had always treasured ? Green eyes seeking his blues..
.
He just sat there staring out at the ocean.
Then he started laughing and shaking his head, and laughing some more. She came over and knelt behind him, squeezing his shoulders where she knew he was always stiff.
"You, gonna let me in, or is the joke on me?" she asked, squeezing extra hard for a second. He looked back at her a little as he reached up to touch her hand.
"Remember how funny we were a couple years ago, like always looking for trouble..
. and Aire getting new people all excited about direct actions, tree-sitting and all rearin to go, ready to do things they never would have considered. And pulling it off!
"
But Kith continued, "Well, I started thinking about that drunk logger who came into camp in the middle of the night with a half full bottle of whiskey and he started yelling
"And we played song after song: rap, country, Goddess chants.
And the logger played some cool songs too, while we finished off his whiskey. The last thing he said was,
We told him to join us and I think he did show up at some forest action last year.
"
or at least solutions-oriented. So, she held back from mentioning some of the hard times they had shared back in the day: cops and jails, and people getting beat up.
"It was great," she said truthfully as memories of the two of them in love also tried to come out..
"But look at all we?ve done. We never really believed we?
d get this far so quick."
She breathed in the salty ocean air and enjoyed this moment in the sunshine.
The day was waning and a few clouds gathered on the horizon.
"Well I better tell you.
There?s good news and bad news. You already know about the music festivals.
It?s all set; they?ll be at those spots that we picked out last Spring.
And the watershed councils are totally rad. There?s thousands of people camping responsibly - believe it or not - up on Elk River and at old Mrs.
Walker?s ranch. All over the place, people planting trees and mending fences.
Old people, from everywhere are joining in - restoration projects, helping new-comers. ..
. I swear, it sounds like we?ll win the elections.
"
Hazel butted in saying, "Just in time I?d say.
Things might fall apart any day, down south you know. Go on, what about Defense and our plans?"
"Well, Brione and I tried to talk ?what ifs? and contingencies, we really did.
But Namoia and Daniel drug on and on about caution and waiting. They?re paranoid, still worried cause they don?
t trust us or figure us radicals will ruin the image. Shit, most people are as ready as us for..
. well, for something to happen. Oh, yeah, the Militia.
They?ve pretty much taken over inland.
I don?t know if they cut a deal with the Feds or what, but there are thousands of refugees in Haymarket and maybe more in Redwing. So.
.."he hesitated, looking awkwardly at her.
"Namoia proposed that a woman Forest Defender with ties to the Eco-Commandos be our representative to the Militia meeting,..
. someone peaceful, but strong willed..
."
"It was late .
.. I didn?
t want to argue with them anymore...
never again if I can help it.
She tried to calm down, but her green eyes were still burning intense when she turned around and said with a sting, "Don?
t tell me what to do. Don?t tell me not to worry, and next time .
..don?
t speak for me...
He waited a moment, rubbing his head into hers a little. He pulled her hair back away from her face and gave her a slight smile,
"Hey. Cheer up. Brione got me a note saying we?
re still on for Blacks Meadow. Tomorrow..
.. no more phony meetings.
Just us Forest Defenders for awhile."
She nodded and tried to think positive.
A shadow seemed to blur her thinking and she pondered his words: easy for him to say...
?Cheer up.?
He?s off to Denver with Miya, while I?m stuck here.
..
...
Friends gathered in a circle...
a face of wonder within the lights...
an elf who looks familiar. Power in the Forest..
. coldness descending, enwrapping..
.
Lightning flickered briefly a few miles away.
The wind blew hard through his hair and he remembered storms. Sneaking out his window, ten years old, to climb a tree or up on the roof. Wanting the lightning to come and it would.
Or so it seemed to him and his young friends. Wind and rain howling and the three of them loving it. Talking about wishing up a better world or just messing things up for fun.
Getting back at them ...
And later, going camping for months with Aire and Tim. Making shelter in wild storms deep in the wilderness.
Loving the wild powers of Nature. Being an animal, free for awhile. Encounters with steep canyons and ancient trees along the way.
He felt Hazel holding his arm and a few raindrops blowing down.
I .
.. lucky, I didn?
t get killed, he thought. But the excitement - the thrill - was there.
It kept him going even though he longed for all of them to just be together...
on the farm they always wished for. Horses and all set for the winter.
Mixed shades of greens and muddy browns glistened in the light rain as they traveled back the trail and down the hill toward their bikes. Hazel was thinking about all these feelings and the image of Kith surrounded by cold, evil..
. shadows.
She slowed her bike and waved goodnight as Kith rode on alone, down the hill toward Aire?s cabin. A sensation passed suddenly and Hazel realized something else.
It was time for her to say good-bye for a long while, to her little farm and this whole neighborhood of friends and supporters. Time to say farewell to the only home she had known the past four years..
. the only place she had ever felt secure.
From here on out , it would be nothing but high security: safehouses, restricted communications, and lots...
and lots of trust, faith, luck, wishes...
"Is everything falling apart or coming together? So much tension and Ego tearing at people, couples, groups.
The desire to come together in these troubled times. I guess it takes the energy level up so high, we all end up haywired - looped."
Searching for joy, her thoughts went back to the Base Camp she had just visited. All the young people were so tight, and they knew Rei-Ki now too. Anarchist - Punk, riff-raff kids.
Practically half of some camps were really serious youth under twenty- years-old, serious but definitely light-hearted ! She smiled at remembering the young girl admonishing an elder to put waste into the correct recycling bins. Respect, yes, but deference to age - not likely anymore.
"Maybe I'm losing touch with them. I know how they feel inside: a generation or two of broken families, dissed by all the lazy Baby-Boomers they could never look- up to.
Nobody to look- up to, only a dying landscape of endless Yuppie-dom and plastic culture, life and the End Times all speeding up at them. Now choosing their own culture, voting with their feet - since democracy in America is such a joke. ?
Life is magic when you start to break free,? is their new motto. They consult the healers and they listen to new voices, hearing, clearly, the call of the Forest and Nature's simple ways.
" And she wondered if maybe, Brione's wish worked there too like her wishes now guided the Core Group of the Forest Defenders.
"Well, youth aren't waiting for nobody ever again.
They are the vitality that spurs on change. Society provided no outlet for kids to engage their creative intellects - their passion for action. They made it happen on their own.
Boredom saved the day or the forests at least, so far. Not really so difficult for them, in a way, since youth had nothing to go back to. They just walked away, in disgust, as far away from the Old World and its pitiful claims of 'techno-glory' as they could get.
They found the magic in each other and in just the simple things around them, living in Nature - no attachments - just living and sharing joy.
The healers have joined them now .
.. and witches too !
They're all working together, to keep the peace, relieve stress, and who knows. Something's up, I know it. I?
m sure it?s got to be good. Probably everything will work out and come together nicely if we just let it happen.
People are going to do what they want to do.
That one Healer, the one with the powerful eyes and the freckles, she told me : ?
The 'Three Fires' shall burn as One. Love guides rage into a pattern of Gaia Self-Defense. Patterns of defense connect to Earth's design.
Gaia calls youth to come and transcend the mistakes of the past - to show us the way. The Healers come to follow the young. Healing and ancient ceremony bring strength to their cause.
The meaning of the New Trinity reveals itself as alive, living here in the Forest Camps. Send us the refugees, and .
..all your "lost birds.
" We will heal each other and learn a new way of sharing: Nature, Simplicity, and Letting Go.?"
Hazel wondered why she wasn?t more nervous and very concerned. Somehow, it felt right.
Everything: the meeting, Kith, the plan. Of course, they were committed at this point. There aren?
t many choices once you know what you want. A strange moment of clarity passed and she knew: vibrations set patterns in motion. Ripples have unknown effects.
And then she felt that quivery feeling again like she had felt at the beach cliffs with Kith. The freckled face of the healer flickered before her eyes and she had another vision:
And then it was gone, though she thought maybe the healer?s face changed at the last second and something was strange about her ears..
.
"Visions or it wasn?
t exactly a vision, more like a feeling of something about to happen or.. I don?
t know but at least that one wasn?t scary like the shadows around Kith." She had never had visions like these, but she had heard about many people experiencing them more frequently lately and weird dreams too.
She used to think it was all mostly made-up or crazy. Things change and the truth is almost always ridiculed at first..
.like the plan.
A year ago when they first discussed the secret plan, she thought they were all crazy, especially Dingo!. But now, it seemed everyone supported it.
And the Ranger Defense! Deterrence against attacks..
. maybe, or..
. provocation, violence, ambushes..
.
Well, Brione would be there, she thought.
She?s the strong one, hard-core to da bone. Hazel shook the raindrops off her hat.
She thought about warm tea and Angela inside the house. Sleep..
. trying too hard not to think about visions and journeys to come. She sucked on her upper lip, teething it slightly, as she often did.
Hazel put her bike under the roof and was startled out of her drifting thoughts..
. a clear realization dawned in her that she needed to dream, needed to let it out. Her time had come, a time when you know you can accept .
.. you rise to the occasion .
.. you cast doubts aside and trust to friends and wishes.
Hazel pondered the nature of the changes that she was only vaguely aware of and then she relaxed and pictured Brione?s face: beautiful, wide cheek-bones, and big brown eyes.
Eyes that looked like they wanted to play with you, always twinkling, and mischievous, of a harmless, teasing sort. Such a tomboy in many ways - daring the guys ..
. lanky, wiry, sexy.
Brione?s hair was so short now ..
. no more colors or streaks showing, just her old medium brown look. Part of her look.
Still getting taller too. Gods ! Brione.
..
Expectant and conflicted, she tapped lightly on the driftwood knocker before she opened the door to the cabin. A greeting to Angela passed unspoken when she saw her friend?s finger pursed at her lips in a warning to be quiet.
Angela?s toddler lay across her mother?s lap with its head back and mouth open.
Angela?s dark eyes rolled and Hazel could only guess at how long a time it had taken to get the child asleep, and still not quite in bed. Syanni or "Dulce Mulci" as Angela was fond of calling her one-year-old daughter, was always a handful.
Her mom learned patience through the late-night wakings, the cries and worries. Now she needed all of her mothering skills to wean Syanni off the tit without wearing herself crazy.
Angela was one of the strongest spirited persons Hazel had ever known, but she could see that haunted look that didn?t need explanations between friends who were this close. Hazel knew that the counting-the-days and the imminent pain of separation must be hell on Angela.
So, Syanni had to be weaned in a few days because her aunt, Abuelita Rosa Hererra would soon arrive to take the girl North to a safer place. Who knew how long it might be before things settled down again?
Hazel quietly passed Angela in the rocking chair to get a clean mug from the counter by the dripping sink. The herb was stored just to the right of the window where a multitude of small plants and a few cuttings competed for kitchen space that most people preferred to keep clear. Dirt crumbs and dead leaves.
.. She looked over all the solid brown-tinted jars that kept the herbs fresh: Yerba Buena, Yerba Santa, Raspberry leaf.
.. mullein.
She settled on the new Chamomile batch that had just arrived from down river and their friends? farm near the coast.
A bit of Willow Bark went along with the Chamomile into the tea-ball. The kettle simmered as usual on a cool fall evening and Hazel found there was still plenty left for her tea with some left over. She considered the small blue bottle with the tincture of Absinthe and Mugwort, but finally decided that she wouldn?
t need any help dreaming this night.
It seemed like an awful lot was still left to be decided, but she didn?
t really feel in turmoil about anything specific. Well, except that is for Kith?s volunteering her to go visit the Militia leaders .
..Or first!
She was off to try and reach these violent leaders of the mostly fundamentalist militia and then to quickly get them all to agree on a safe meeting place...
and an agenda for cooperation and trust.
Hazel pointed to her cup, offering to get some for Angela.
But Angela shook her head, no as her gaze went back down to the baby. Syanni turned over slightly and the "little one" let out a small sigh as she fussed and nudged her head around in the instinctive search for milk and comfort. Angela rose smoothly and scooped the not-so-lightweight child up in her arms as she headed for the back bedroom.
Alone and tired, Hazel sipped her tea without honey this time. And she wondered if she should be trying to talk Angela out of going on the next mission with the Eco-Commando unit from Canada, a professional but sometimes rowdy group who had been down south in Lorien for a series of expert training sessions.
The three weeks of training were over and now they were getting ready to tackle a couple of hard-core power-plant attacks on their way back up to the Northlands.
The hand-worn picture frame hung from the pine shelf boards.
The photograph of the child?s father showed a thin teenager in a cutoff t-shirt with a red and black bandana tied to his bare arm. Ramon?
s large masked face beamed at you and made you smile back because you couldn?t help but feel his warm open smile ?even through a mask!
Another smaller black and white photo curled slightly where it stuck into the side of the larger frame. It showed a young Ramonito waving his hat and smiling with his Sandinista comrades - out the back of a truck.
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