Kate Brenton 7/3/20 Kate Brenton 7/3/20

Rebirth: Be the power of the land speaking

This quote by Sharon Blackie sits at the center of today's podcast: the first Episode of Season 3. Kate talks about her eye opening experience with the Q'ero in Peru, learning about ignorance and place, the power of curiosity and connection. If you want to feel free, root down.

This episode I am more personal than I have been before because I feel like our stories are healing us. Our land is needing us and the time is here. The episode centers around Sharon Blackie’s quote, “Be the power of the land speaking” as found in her book If women rose rooted.

When you think of connecting to nature do you think of vacation or do you think of your own surroundings? Do you think we can reestablish a sense of place?

How a forgotten mask gave me a smile

I was holding my son’s hand as we both toddled up to Native Cafe in quaint Doylestown, PA before hitting the newly opened playground: treats for us both.

“Ah, I forgot my mask in –“ slipped out of my mouth, mainly to my son, and three heads sitting outside the coffee shop all turned to me in empathy. That is when I realized the depth of our shared experience.

Now let me interject, without a toddler, I would have simply turned around and walked to the car. If you aren’t intimate with toddler rhythm, in short when you disrupt it the turnaround time can be tricky, especially when you are playground bound.

So I was halted in the midst of the sympathy and the silliness of my forgetting, when a masked woman to my left, coffee in hand says to me, “I’m waiting on my food order, I’ll run in and get your coffee for you.”

And there it was. Our humanity.

I handed my debit card over. She walked in and ordered, ran my debit card back to me then waited for my coffee, masked.

When she came out with my drink, I looked her in the eye and said: “I won’t forget this latte for a long time.”

We both smiled that coffee lover smile, that mom to mom smile, that woman to woman smile, that person to person smile.

With loved up latte in hand, my son and I continued our walk to the playground where children smiled down slides and laughed running over hills. Not too close. Not too many – but most importantly with the joy and innocence of children.

I looked up at this Grandmother tree and thought of all the conversations she has sheltered. All the boo boo’s she has held. All the birthday cupcakes, breakups, and new friendships under her arms have come and gone. When I left, there were parents gathered making paper ships with their sons, to set forth, sea-bearing and assured of new horizons, new sunsets and sunrises.

As we weave our way through uncertainty, let us tend the light of connection and tend to the Eldership in nature all around, teaching us how to remain strong and steady, rhythmic and rooted as we grow through times of great change.

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” William Shakespeare

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