alter eco
Pigment spells move the waters within and around us. Nature changes us, we change nature.
humans have lost their way
following theory
following concept
we can’t think our way
out of ecosystem collapse
Climate grief is an estuary
to multi-species councils of beings.
They speak in relation:
Mountain Apu (spirit of each mountain)
Buckeye
Coast Live Oak (her last days before collapse phytophthora ramorum is a sudden death)
Bush Lupine
humpback whale (bludgeoned by ships in the bay)
through dreams
in community
spanning time
teaching seasons, soil, and aquifer
they change us
if we slow down enough to listen
their gasps come before our egos
Surrender, human.
Earth phases out mind-philosophy, go in, heart first
we change them
Run to the water, ask her how
we can do so much
offer more than regret
lie down
alter eco is an identity for being hidden in plain sight. It helps us to unlearn our ego, our individualisms and the boxes we were born into, placed into, trying on for a time.
Playing as new/ancient beings in place opens up possibility. Trying on characters brings out characteristics we never knew were dormant. As descendants of moss, fern and ocean, remembering how to be these kin helps humans open up to pathways our familiar selves can’t see.
If society is sick, maybe tree-mind can offer healing that Westernized brain wasn’t thinking of. We can have infinite alter ecos / every being becomes a body double. Not to become them, but to forget the confines of Me.
40 was a portal to releasing / becoming that is still revealing itself to me. We will not despair, but center. I don’t want to escape, but become so present that my deer ears can perceive movement and thwart danger from miles away. My rabbit body will burrow into sacred darkness to cool the heat of late-stage capitalism.
Four decades have uncovered:
gender fluidity in long-waves of adrogeneity / feminintity / masculinity
feeling more comfortable with the practice of giving and receiving feedback
unlearning people pleasing and how it displeases people
that relationships are sustainable when reciprocated
ancestors I didn’t want became ancestors I had to heal within
it’s not so personal
the need to listen to my body
At the Spring in the City we worshipped deer goddess. The horsetails have been around for over 100 million years. We were in ceremony at Sapito’s apartment and wandered down, called to her stream. That the mountain held out here in spite of concrete is a miracle. We return to tend in awe. We tend to return to awe.