Beloveds,
I just returned from my annual pilgrimage to Red Earth Women’s Herbal Gathering in Carbondale, Colorado – and I have a gift and a story to share.
Days before I was planning to leave for Red Earth I felt overwhelmed, ungrounded, and frozen – I talked myself out of going completely. I had decided, in the middle of the night, that there was no way that I could responsibly leave my children in this moment, that there were one hundred “more important” things that I could be doing for the five days that I had scheduled to take off…
Yes, I had completely talked myself out of going.
But then (as you might relate) I started to negotiate with myself: “well, if this one thing gets better I can go” and “but what if the worst case scenario of something or other…??” It was in this confusion and despair that I had to resolve for myself, that it didn’t really matter whether I went or not. That I was prepared to stay home if I had to, and I was prepared to go and show up fully for whatever might unfold. And from this resolve, this poem flooded out – I am Red Earth, whether I go to the gathering or not – and THIS, this, is what Red Earth means to me:
Yes, beloveds: this poetry came flooding out of my heart and onto the paper faster than I could write, and when I was done I re-read every word to myself and knew: I had to go.
There is more to say about the experience of this gathering than can be said – except to share that I performed this poem live for the first time in front of 150 women gathered around a late-evening fire next to the healing waters of the Crystal River and in the protective embrace of the shadow of Mount Sopris. It was an offering and an ablution, it was my act of defiance and devotion and gratitude – just for the blessing of being there.
Of course, Red Earth is bigger than a weekend gathering in the mountains. As Dr. Rosita Arvigo reminded us all, “Colorado” literally means “Red Earth”. It is not an appropriation or oversight to call this Red Earth – it is a reclamation of the relationality in which we all take part.
Here, I am choosing this relationality, to give myself to the soil under my feet, to the ashes of my ancestors buried here, to the libations, and dancing, and laughter that surrounds me and is embodied by every woman. It is a call, an invitation, to stand in the fullness of being and presence, with confidence, dignity, and joy.
By request of many Goddesses, here is the poem in full for download, sharing, reciting, and catalyzing your own heart poem. May this prayer be a daily act of defiance and devotion and gratitude, and may the blessings of the sacred ground upon which you stand – your Red Earth wherever on this Earth you are – support, nourish and inspire you deeply.
