The dance continues…
Between the now and the not yet …
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The brutality and beauty of 2020 are inseparable
Hello Friend,
Wishing you a blessed Advent! May this note provide relief from the redundant burdens of this season. May this note find you with new capacities for grief and love. As our beloved Ched Myers has always said to me… paraphrased “the path of discipleship is hitched to agony and ecstasy. You cannot be moved by one without being pulled by the other.”
Here, at Dreaming Stone, we’re doing hard work, approaching huge projects, and tackling new learning curves, in the midst of global upheaval. We are mourning losses and turning our hearts toward the pain, while clinging to beauty and hope with fierce determination.
This newsletter contains pictures and updates, and some juicy resources for you! May you be fortified by a reminder of all the birthwork that is happening in this dark and chaotic season.
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With the imminent approval of our non-profit status, the work of Holy Fool Arts will fold into the Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center – a research, demonstration, education, advocacy and cultural center that builds strategies for community resilience and the restoration of cultural and biological diversity. We have convened a stellar Board of Directors, who have hit the ground running. Lot of exciting reveals are around the corner – including program and project goals for 2021. Please keep us on your radar and in your prayers!
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We were blessed to have Jonathan McRay of Silver Run Forest Farm deliver hundreds of trees and shrubs from their nursery. He gave us some lessons on agroforestry, plant propagation, pruning and grafting, and riparian planting. Jonathan’s expertise and wholistic analysis will be woven into Dreaming Stone’s future foraging walk and educational programming. We were then blessed to have a dozen friends come and help us plant more than 300 trees and shrubs. Thanks goes out to all!
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We have established regular rhythms for reflection as a community. We meet in the forest, or circle up in the unfinished community house. The sustenance of these times will build the backbone for both community life and programming of Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center. We expect to eventually open up regular meetings and seasonal celebrations to our local and extended communities. For example, below is the beautiful altar (shout out to Zap!) for this years All Hallows Eve, Dia De Los Muertos, All Souls ritual, where we honored and mourned those we’ve lost and remembered the ancestors.
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Lastly, we enjoyed a remarkable 6 months with Tay Schulz and JD Frost! While here, they made medicine, got to know some plants, joined and led building projects and plunged into community life. JD led the countertop project, designed our compost toilet, co-led the tree planting project, spent countless hours painting, and much more. JD is off to direct an opera at Lee University in TN. Tay has been balancing work for Southern Crossroads with pre-requisites for a nursing degree. Tay plans to enter a nursing program and, in short order, a midwifery program. They taught me that the gender neutral title for a midwife is… Midwix! (And now you know!) Both of their investments of labor and love into the infrastructure and vision of Dreaming Stone will leave an enduring mark.
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Here are those beloved – pointing at the places where we planted trees!
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Most every one, reading thus far, has known me for years. You know of my cross country efforts to slaughter the Leviathan of Global Capitalism with theological theatrics. You know of my efforts to gather folks around the fires of imagination, re-inhabitation and collective liberation. You likely know I took in a wild husband – a pirate trickster world weaver. We’ve been considering collapse and the absolute corruption of power, for some time. Still… 2020’s delivery of authoritarian schemes with white supremacist surges, in a time of massive global suffering, shocks and rattles our senses with profound grief and rage. There is so much that we are all called to bear, and we often feel underprepared and far from ready!
But I have hope, because I have you! There is no going alone – from the biome in our guts, to the webs of our watershed, to the threads in our inboxes – we are collectively woven. I am truly grateful for you and I want this newsletter to leave you with hope and light for your journey! So, the following are inspirational resources for you and your long dark winter!
INSPIRATIONAL CONTENT
MOVEMENTS THAT INSPIRE
ADVENT RESOURCES
BOOKS –
Too many to name, so check out…
Top 100 Books by Radical Discipleship.
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My prayers are with you, friend! While we may know which regime is coming into political power, we do not yet know what will come of our world.
May we dare to dream of and create a world far beyond the tumbling confines of our corroded systems. As Bayo Akomolafe says, “Falling might very well be flying – without the tyranny of coordinates.”
Let’s fly together!
Much Love,
Tevyn East
Director, Holy Fool Arts
www.holyfoolarts.org
Artistic Director, Carnival de Resistance
www.carnivalderesistance.com
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