The Word On The Street

The Children's Museum in Santa Fe hosted the initial "Word On The Street" art in the community program. We had individuals and business' commit to a cloud message, which they created and installed in specific locations. People bid for the locations, and the highest bidder got the spot. All of the money went to the "Art In The Schools" program for middle and high schools.
Then, at the end of the three month display period (April/May/June), we had a party and a bid for the existing signs art/message/word, as well as new bids for the locations. It is a real win/win for the community, who enjoys and looks forward to the art, and benefits from the community participation. This is one of the word awareness programs from Roots & Wings. If your school would like to participate, please let us know!

Family

Within the etymology of the word family I found three main roots: Dwell, Fellowship, and Service. The root of the word dwell is "to be mad or foolish", and there is no place where our madness and foolishness manifests more clearly than in our families. Service & Fellowship. These words are much happier together, but they are not often enough together. That is what a real family does, isn’t it, practice service and fellowship? Service means simply "to be of use". Fellowship: "companions on equal & friendly terms". Family members are keepers of this light, with a bit of the inevitable madness & foolishness thrown in, right? There are many such families here, surely, where the circle of connectedness is kept intact, we remain useful and friendly to the family. Like a perpetual light that all in a parallel world are committed to; because it takes a great village of such families to raise the world. Questions we might ask ourselves..."Can I be at peace with mine & others madness & foolishness?" & "How can I reach out with my service & fellowship?"

About The Roots & Wings Books

On the face of it, Roots & Wings are books about words, the history, root meanings, and philosophical explorations of certain words. In the adult book, a brief examination of written language is followed by one hundred chapters, which explore each word with questions that prompt reflection and self-exploration. Roots & Wings uses etymology as a catalyst for a more intimate experience with these precious units of energy and information that we call words. Roots & Wings and Roots n’ Wings 4 Kids are books for everyone to get more involved in language and meaning.
The mission of Roots & Wings books and products is to inspire people to discover the power of words as seeds of intention, and to reconnect with words as symbols that not only describe, but create experience. Roots & Wings focuses attention on the positive and meaningful aspects of life, and provides a context and practical ways (guidance questions, right out of the book word activities, book club kit, laminated deck, tee shirts, blocks, and other wonderful products and community building activities-like- "The Word On The Street"-or "Made Ya Think!"), that involve us in the wise and wonderful hidden meanings living in our words. The R&W activities encourage us to invoke and experience our own “no-word-world”, a real and precious aspect of each of our lives. Roots & Wings energizes us to embrace what is truly priceless: an active connection with our own and our communities creativity! The good energy generated by experiencing our individual & group soul-spark, ripples out, revitalizing our world. Above, from Roots & Wings 4 Kids-blocks kids make (with the root of the word on the other side) in Roots & Wings Workshops. Q: What is the root of the word "ecology"? See upcoming posts & find out!

Kokopelli

It is wonderful to note that the little word-maker elves have been busy behind the scenes infusing soul into life, and soul is often hidden in our words. Words are symbols for experience, and experience is the realm of the soul. What is soul? Thomas Moore says that thinking of what we love: feeling tender feelings, viewing inspiring images, praying and communing with our deeper self, finding outlets for our particular gifts and creativity, are just a few of the activities that mine our human connection to soul. The fruits of our labors are found in the everyday activities of life, as well as realms of the esoteric. How we interact with others, and the energy, images, and words we cultivate with them, like Kokopelli's leaving gifts in passing. This photo is one of the altars I have made, a depiction of the native figure Kokopelli, an archetype embodying a spreader of seeds, one who brings life. I would love to see archetypal figures more familiarized to children and adults, so that we are given an opportunity to relate these abstract yet concrete symbolic figures that embody soul qualities that are universal to all segments of humanity. Who are some archetypal figures you can think of that represent qualities we can become aware of, dance with, and awaken within?

We Are Stories Telling Stories

It's true, I was discovered as a youngster and lived around the world modeling. It sounds glamorous, but that was not my experience. I wanted to fund my esoteric activities, and have the freedom to explore the no-word-world, which I did, and continue to do, for the no-word-world is what replenishes the heart of life. Some people ask, "What is this no-world-world?" I will try to explain a bit - with these symbols for experience - these limited little word-symbols. The no-word-world is what informs our sacred nature, as we sit in prayer or meditation, it touches us with a love - an inspiration - a total knowing - that is beyond our normal human capacity. The no-word-world shows us faces of the mystery, and teaches us our origins: love, creativity, abundance, wisdom and beauty, as we perform ritual with sacred intention - especially in nature. One example from my experience, if I can put words to such a life altering event - is: I prepared one day and created a ritual for my female ancestors. I bathed, dressed in a sarong, created an altar with photos, notes and such, then walked to a nature spot nearby, to continue the heart of my sincere prayer and ritual outside upon (what I call), the body of god. When I arrived, I lit the sweetgrass, and sent my prayer of thanks to the grandmothers-the ones I knew-and those before her. I stood on the body of god in stillness and prayer, and a vision, an experience in the no-word-world (as real or more real than anything that has ever happened to me), occurred. I was standing on the shoulders of a grandmother, as I looked down, I could see the grandmothers stretching down through time, each one standing on the shoulders of the one before her, sending their prayers, and the knowledge that we stand together in time. When my attention returned to my normal world of words, I knelt down and thanked the grandmothers, with my hands consciously on the earth, where the grandmother's DNA is mixed in, for the earth is where many grandmothers are buried. When I looked up from this profound moment between the world of words and the no-word-world, I saw a stone head right there in front of me. It appears to be an ancient head figure of the feminine. It is among a group of stones I carry, that have appeared after ritual in nature. Here is a photo of it. This is one of many many stories I have about the no-word-world. My book, Roots & Wings, is written to bring people closer to their own sacred stories, their own context of experience. Ritual and nature is not necessary, per say. It's about discovering what you are comfortable with, and diving in.

Recent interview:

http://www.doryandean.com/doryaninterview.mp4

Tell A Vision

I was raised with tel-a-vision, and I survived with my imagination and feelings intact. After spending most of my adult life with very minimal media of any kind, I do notice people tend to shut down quite a bit because of all we have to digest from the images and stories on the "boob tube" - and in movies and other media. When we look more deeply at what entertains us, we realize that these stories represent us. To realize that we are being re-presented by these often negative and superficial perpetuations is something to consider. Are the things you partake of and share with family and friends, do they carry in some way the vision you are imagining for life? What is the view from your mind's eye? Roots & Wings asks us to cultivate a deeper relationship to the vision we create, tell, and allow in our environment. It's time to become more and more conscious of the stories that make up the diet of our brain and heart.

Everything Is Energy

The word intangible at first sounds like we are addressing an unimportant matter. But if we think more deeply about the word intangible, we realize that many of the very most important things in life aren't "things", they are...intangible. The definition of Intangible, from Latin: unable to touch, vague, illusive. For example, the idea of "chakras" or energy centers in the body is intangible, you can't touch a chakra with your hand, saute it or film it expanding. However, each center represents a color in the rainbow, and a field of experience and activity in human life. These "rainbow rays of manifestation" are intangible, but real. What I have noticed is, when we work with subtle energies, healing, thought creation, prayer, creativity, connection, meditation; day by day - the experience of the intangibles takes on more life force than the tangibles.

The example I'm fond of using when people roll their eyes (even inwardly- I can tell) about this concept of intangibility is love in it's different facets. Like a diamond heart with many rays of manifestation, love, that ocean of unfathomable bliss and sweet torture that no yogi or poet can capture: Love: Union, True Marriage, God, Goddess, Ultimate Self, Higher Self, Divine Light, Surrender. Well, all I can say is, looking at the roots and wings of words really...makes me think!

A Braille Year

“This has been a Braille year” Alice said as I braided her hair. I leaned in, looking at her face. I worked as a volunteer at the convalescent home where Alice lived, and with the acceptance that sometimes comes with youth and old age, we had stepped into each others lives and quickly adapted to intimate moments, like my braiding her hair as she sat on her bed in her nightdress. I searched her face, her hands covered her ears, and moved to cover her eyes, as if she did not want to see, but Alice was blind. I was too young to think to ask what happened, to ask for her story, when or how she had become blind, how she had lived her life. But she did tell me what she meant that day. She said her son had passed away six months ago today, that she had outlived her only child, the contract was broken unexpectedly; he was supposed to outlive her. She had not spoken much in the two months I had known her, but I understood then why she had been so quiet. Today he should have been bringing her flowers (it was the weekend of Mother’s Day), he should be alive, calling her every week to see how she was doing, even paying for her living in the home, like a lot of the kids did. The Braille year was one in which she felt there were no words to say out loud, no words that could touch the experience, call it mourning, grief. She took my hand and asked me to sit with her, she said, "Though I feel lonely or isolated at times, I pray in the silence before breakfast, it's the time I feel at peace". I have always remembered that.
This has been my braille year. I often feel I'm living backwards, something always seemed to relate to something that happened before; my words had too much context, an overload that blinded me. How can I renew my relationship to the world, and feel again out of the darkness of my own Braille year? In my Braille year I can only reach forward and feel what’s right in front of me: the laundry needs doing, I’m about to run out of gas. I do not want words either, they are paper maps, I long for silence, for the no word world.
It is the practice of meditation that has saved me in my Braille year. Sitting in meditation, in the quiet before breakfast, I feel the mystery that underlies all of life. I hear the sound of joy buzzing in the very air, and despite all of the suffering, I know the nature of life is inherently blissful, and meditation allows that flower to unfold in the mind, it awakens the sleeping soul. The silence before breakfast is often the best part of my day, the part that cultivates the most important thing in my life, the connection to my own spirit and soul.

Ripples of Thought

The idea of "Ripples of Thought" is out in the culture now, the thought police have announced that we have a responsibility to produce good thoughts - and I believe this - I want to think good thoughts. I want to drive the car. But as I looked out the window last week, my mind racing with negative ideas, I saw this duck land on the water, and the ripples flowed dramatically out all around Mr. Duck. It really brought my negative thoughts in focus and I reeled, catching myself imagining exactly what I do not want!
Even after years of meditation, consciousness workshops, therapy...I still have trouble controlling my wayward mind!
My personal new year resolution is to, once and for all, train my mind, like a wayward vine, to climb up to my highest potential.