Archive for July, 2008

How Do You Know When You are in Flow?

Published by Jamie on July 23, 2008 in Bead people and On Becoming Human. 0 Comments .

The answer is–everything seems easy.  Milt and I have been having so much fun experiencing this kind of flow.  Oh, I don’t mean we aren’t working hard–we are.  Milt sunk some poles in the ground today (he has been dying to sink a pole) for a small showerhouse.  We have no running water so it will be another creative endeavor.  That is what is so interesting about our adventure here this summer.  We just name something we need and then we see what is available to make it happen. 

Last night I was on the Lakeland Public Television news with The Bead People.  My niece, Lizzie, went over to the reporter at Ribfest and told her she should do a story on us–and they did.  And Saturday I’ll be at Book World in Bemidji with a Bead People event.  And today I picked five, gorgeous quarts of wild blueberries to take home with me.  And I am just getting started with picking berries although my backside says I over did it for this moment.

I am beginning to really contemplate the idea of living my life totally in this flow.  If it isn’t easy–it isn’t right.  Easy means things flowing together, meeting the right person at the right time, having links and synchronicity on our side.  I don’t want to do a single thing because I “should”.  It seems to rob my spirit of something important, something lively and moving. 

I have a feeling that when we go home and dive back into our “real” lives we may discover it was not so real after all.  We may discover that packing a lot of stuff in around us is a diversion from real.  We may discover that spending too much time worrying about money and things is not what we want.  We may have an auction:)

I took some pictures of my berries and the berry patch today.  I know I need to get better at including those images and I SHOULD figure it out–maybe later.

Thanks for tuning in.

Jamie  

 

The Bead People a hit at Ribfest 2008

Published by Jamie on July 21, 2008 in Bead people and On Becoming Human. 0 Comments .

I didn’t want to let the day go without posting something but the hour I scratched out is now evaporating.  We had an amazing weekend at this tiny Cass Lake festival.  The Bead People attracted so many great spirits to us.  We met people from all over who are excited about carrying our little message out to others.  Our success was aided by a wonderful article in The Bemidji Pioneer about The Bead People and our mission.  My brother, Jeff, called them up and told them to come and do the article.  Thanks, Jeff.

We have lots of pictures and fun “Hall of Fame” Bead People but I’ll have to add them later–maybe to thebeadpeople.org

I’ll write a longer post (hopefully tomorrow).

Jamie

The Homestead

Published by Jamie on July 16, 2008 in On Becoming Human, Our Straw Bale Project, Uncategorized, Writing and Writings by J. Lee. 1 Comment .

Tonight the moon was almost full and shining red through the pines on the bit of earth in Northern Minnesota that we have recently tagged “our land” (although I still doubt that anybody can actually “own” such a thing).  We have been here for one week and the magical flow we discovered from the moment we decided to buy into these twenty acres continues. 

On our way out from Rapid City, SD, Milt and I were coming to terms with the fact that we probably would not have the expertise or resources to actually begin building our strawbale house.  On Tuesday we considered finding a camper or something more substantial than a tent to live in while we prepare our project.  On Wednesday we found two potential old campers, made an offer on one, hooked it to my brother’s truck, and pulled it to our homestead.  It is a 1966 Trailblazer and we bought it for $250.  By Thursday we had cleaned it, repaired some leaks, blocked it, and generally made it livable.  Now, a week later, we are sleeping like babies in our cozy bed and listening to all the night sounds with the breezes blowing across our faces.  Of course, we also do nightly mosquito checks to make sure none of the friendly (hungry) little buggers have followed us in the door.  

They have completely torn up the main street of Cass Lake.  Evidently the town received a major “Miracle” grant and is trying to bring itself back to life.  The main street will now be paved with bricks that, hopefully, will attract new businesses and energy.  I walked around down there today thinking about how busy it was when I went to high school here-two drug stores, three grocery stores, several bars, Two Traders, and the Five and Dime.  Now-not much. 

Not since I graduated from college and moved to SD (in 1977) have I spent this much time here.  I am feeling strange and adrift, as if my main street had been torn up and something new was about to replace it.  I am just not sure what.  Our small 8 x 18 foot trailer requires that we choose carefully what we “want” and then keep it in its right space.  The land makes me breathe more fully in a way that I haven’t in many years.  A few days ago I discovered one of the most beautiful wild blueberry patches I’ve ever seen-and it is right on our land.  The plants are loaded with green berries that begin to blush toward blue.  I go now every day to see how they are progressing and feel confident they will be ripe for me to pick before I have to leave.

All of this is making me feel oddly alive and young.  It makes me wonder what it was I was trying to accomplish-push, push, push.  Sometimes I have tried so hard to be “something” that I just forgot to “be”.

 Now I just want to be.

 So far this is the first writing I have done since we got here.  We were busy carving a small space for ourselves, nudging Mother Nature over just a bit.  Tonight was the first night I felt that peculiar itch I get to put words on paper (or my computer).  I am curious to see if I can find a new rhythm of writing AND being as we are here over the next two weeks.  We did set up to do The Bead People at the annual Rib Fest this weekend so that should be fun.  

 It has also been many years since I have lived close to so many family members again.  They keep popping in and out and bringing many gifts.  When I woke up this morning there was a small round table outside the trailer.  I didn’t see it but evidently my nephew, Ryan, found it at the recycling place and thought we might be able to use it.  He wrote his name with sticks to let us know he had left it.  And then tonight when I returned home from doing some other stuff, there was a bucket of newly-dug raspberry bushes beside my trailer-and a new metal plate replacing the hole in the floor near my front door.  Last night we were ferried over the lake by one brother so we could join another brother on Star Island while he tried out their new Snuba gear.  Snuba is a combination of snorkeling and scuba-a generator on a floating tire, two 40-foot hoses, mouth breathing gear and weights to help you explore the underwater world.  

 So, I am surrounded by gifts both from the earth and from family and friends.  Could it be that as I seek a simpler life, it will get richer in many other ways?  Probably.  I would certainly like to find out. 

 What a life.  And by the way, my 24 blueberry plants seem to be thriving and establishing new roots-just like us.  I think it will be hard to leave in two weeks and the only thing I will miss are a few trillion ticks and mosquitoes.

 More on our adventures to follow . . .

 Jamie   

 

 

 

 

Weary . . . but smiling

Published by Jamie on July 7, 2008 in Bead people, On Becoming Human and Our Straw Bale Project. 0 Comments Tags: .

I am tired to the bone tonight but feeling like I really want to sort my thoughts and ideas about our recent weekend.  We set up a booth at the local Heritage Festival with The Bead People.  It was a long festival (4 days) but the weather was good and we had such a fun time.  Since this is our second summer, we had so many people come by and say hello-friends of The Bead People from last summer or from our school projects.  There really is a growing recognition of our little movement.  We figured out that over 2500 books and Bead People have gone out in the past year.  We began to imagine a day when that number would be 250,000 and that seeing a little Bead Person dangling on a chain, pinned to someone’s shirt, or hanging in their car would be not just “cute” but a symbol of the powerful desire we all share to have a more peaceful world and to find unity with one another.   

The booth next to ours was run by a few young people creating hemp jewelry.  They called their booth “The Inner Hippie” and naturally attracted many of today’s alternative young people.  Milt and I got to talking about those 60’s days in our own lives, and I realized that so much of the Sixties has been trivialized and passed off as if it was just about sex, drugs, and rock and roll.  I was still in high school and on the edge of the movement but was involved in my own small way.  We were so completely dedicated to making our voices heard-and it may be the only time in history that the young people stopped a war!

Over the four day festival, we got to know those young people in the booth next to us.  I think they are longing to feel as powerful and as much a force of change as we did in the sixties.  I don’t know that we can ever repeat that era-and certainly it is about more than tie dye and hemp-but I trust that these young people are trying.  I keep wondering how we can help them become more empowered. 

Milt and I laughed together when we realized that our little peace movement-The Bead People-is simply an extension of all that we have believed and acted on throughout our lives.  We want to spread the word-we can find unity and work together to build a creative and kind world.  And we are doing it one Bead Person at a time. 

If you haven’t checked out the website (www.thebeadpeople.org) please do.  Join our little movement and watch it become a big movement.  Send us your ideas-get your own friendly little Bead Person and help us spread the word. 

At the end of the festival, we were exhausted and tearing down our booth when this older couple stopped by and begged to be allowed to buy just a few more Bead People.  We dug into one of the containers and they chose some fellows to take home.  We were all talking and they were so excited-wondering how we could get this movement into the millions and talking about franchising, translating the book into other languages . . .   I love to see how people really “get” what this is about and want to get involved.  I welcome all who want to get involved to help us spread a simple message across the globe.  People who met us at the festival are already planning Bead People events for their 4-H groups, their church groups, their classrooms, and we even had a couple of inquiries about starting a Chapter of Friends of The Bead People.  So cool.

Tomorrow we load our van and head back up to northern Minnesota to check on our 24 blueberry plants and to begin construction on our small, strawbale summer cabin.  I feel like a kid and just want to go pick berries and play on the land.  We are thinking about next summer we will plan our next alternative “cabin” and invite all who can to come and join us in the construction and then we will end it with a two-day Bead People Festival.  Want to come?

One more thing before I close for the day.  Twenty-three years ago I was in a hospital giving birth to my son, Thomas.  This year I will be attending his wedding.  There is no way to describe the many ways you have enriched my life, Tom.  I wish you and Erica a long and fruitful life and Happy Birthday, son!

Jamie