Saturday 16th July 2016.
Yellow Springs. Ohio
Ancient Whispers
We will teach by example, we will teach differently.
Let us not only teach by scientific conclusion but let
us soften and gentle our teaching by looking through
the eyes of allegory and fables. When describing the
facts of nature, let us use the gift of poetic imagery
that all may be held within the minds and hearts of
our children and theirs.
Beloved Relations of the Waitaha Peace Trails Gathering,
I am still floating.
Thank you all so much for gifting us, your valuable time and space to come to Hope Springs Institute and share with myself and the valuable human beings I have been lucky enough to find myself surrounded by, in service to the unfolding Mystery;
Jenny Cowperthwaite Ruka. My beloved wife, trusted counselor and friend. It is to Jen I turn whenever the mayhem of the world, especially the ghastly bits, impact our lives and I seek the sanctuary of her soft embrace, steadying gaze or tender word. Time and again she has been the rock to keep a servant at his post when all other inclinations have been to flee to spirit.
Peggy Koebernick. My trusted counselor, fellow donut connoisseur and friend. Prior to her retirement, Peggy had spent most of her working life, working in the education field as a counselor with our children. Generous to a fault, Peggy is that gentle wind at your back when all else seems impossible. I trust Peggy as I do my own biological sisters.
Elder Sunk Pa Ska Uha, Cecil Cross, brother, friend and colleague. Not too many relationships of value are spent so far apart yet we hardly spend much time together. But what bonds us is that we each serve our community and spirit exactly in the same manner. Because of the nature of our service, we are exiled from our own communities most of the year serving at other far-flung destinations in the world and because we are required to live in these foreign worlds to serve, our faith in Spirit, finds us appearing as “oddities” in the world that we serve and “beloveds” in the communities we have had to leave behind.
My appreciation goes out to dearest Betsy Pourvakil for her assisting during the Sweat Lodge. I have been told our beloved grandson Javan was installed by Elder Cecil as the sacred fire-keeper for the Lodge. Congratulations Javan for carrying out your responsibility with such competence and dedication.
******************
The First Call
Te Karanga Tuatahi
Beloved, on that rain filled Friday afternoon, embraced by all those beautiful sentinel trees our 1st call to gather and hear the Peace Songs of another Time, arrived and very quickly passed us by.
As strangers, we introduced ourselves to each other in sacred circle. Following ancient custom, we shared meals with one another, getting to know each other a little bit better and as a community beginning to trust and to start letting go of the apprehensions as newly weds must surely do, we slept together under one roof (figuratively) and as exhausted as we were, we dreamed our dreams together. Just as importantly, we heard stories, we shared in sacred ceremony and finally with all tensions allayed we prayed together.
The reunion of Union. The returning home to the Heart, fulfilled.
It is my sincere wish that by some magnificent intercession our Peace Trails Family might find within itself to keep an umbilical thread of community alive so that no one is left alone, to dream alone, to ponder alone, to fend for herself or himself alone and at days end, eat alone, then in supplication with a lonely heart, try to seek solace from a lonelier cosmos, or larger grander entity.
To this end, I have asked Grandmother Peggy to see if there is support from our Yellow Springs and close neighbors who attended our gathering at Hope Springs, for our family to continue to meet on a monthly basis and maybe host other Ohioans, or even other family members who came to the gathering, who would like to visit with us and enjoy the companionship, teachings and whatever light entertainment that has been planned.
Currently there is a Drum Circle led by Grandmother Peggy and a Meditation Group in Yellow Springs that we have a relationship with. These relationships could be developed further so that they become the basis of our monthly meetings. If there is an interest in this idea being taken further, I would appreciate you comments via Grandmother Peggy.
As promised to the Circle at the gathering I am attaching the information I shared with you all. The release will happen over a period of time and the first release is one of the 2 prayers that were sung in my language.
Te waiata o te Wai Tai
Kau ki te tai, e kau ki te tai e
a tatau nga Taitamariki o te Ao
i te hari, i te pouri
kua roimatahia taku kamo
kua roimatahia taku ihu
kia titiro au ki te rangi
i te kitea, i te rongo
te Ruruhi a Rona
te kuia o nga tai
i wai ataata tana waiata
i puritia nga tai o te Ao
me te tai o toku tinana
kua matau i whanau mai
i te wai tai o te mana o te
wahine o tatau haka orangia
kia kau ki te tai e
kia kau ki te tai e
e haumie e huiee
Ti hewa Mauri Ora
Mankind’s most Ancient Ocean. The Song of the Birth Tides
come let us ride the tides,
come my beloved let us ride the tides
we the children of the world
whether with joy, or whether in pain
let my eyes weep with tears
let my nose well up with tears
when I look to the heavens
and I see the old mother Moon
she who holds the tides,
her beauty is as a song
as she controls the waters
even the waters of my body
we who have been fashioned
and born of the waters of
the awesome power of the
womb of woman our creator
so come let us ride the tides
come beloved
let us ride the tides
come gather,
come let us agree
We breathe and have life
In closing I wish you all joy and happiness, for it is only with a full heart we are able to mirror the true nature of what it is to be in service to each other. And when we serve each other wholeheartedly, we have the beginnings of our own relationship with the Divine. For me there is no grander purpose.
Your brother in Love, Raymond TeKorako Ruka.