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April 8, 2020 By Lindsey Tarr Leave a Comment

The Story of White Buffalo Calf Woman and the Way of the Red Road


Here is the story of  White Buffalo Calf Woman and her lessons for us, as channeled to Ken Carey, one of many sacred teachings which can be read in The Return of the Bird Tribes

…

When the people saw White Buffalo Calf Woman approaching them across the prairie, they were amazed. They were expecting one of greater years. Yet she appeared no older than a maiden, as graceful as the grasses that waved around her in the twilight. Her face glowed with a radiance that spoke of wildflowers, watercress and the finest of herbs. 

As she walked through the center of the village, many a warrior had first thoughts like those of their fallen brother. But they had heard by now the story of his fate and they practiced a discipline of thought that to some of them was new. 

Barefoot, as she walked always upon the earth in her travels, White Buffalo Calf Woman entered the tepee of many skins, her white buckskin dress radiating the presence of her spirit. Without speaking a word she walked slowly in a circle around the fire that burned in the center of the tepee. As each of her sun-browned feet touched the sand, all who watched felt her prayerful reverence for the earth. 

Seven times, slowly and in silence, she walked around the fire. 

Few could look into her eyes. Those who dared saw pools of perfect blackness. So large were her pupils that those who looked into them could see the mirror of their face and the reflected flickering of the council fire. And they felt that they were looking at themselves, seeing themselves as they truly were – not exaggerating their strengths, nor ignoring their failings, but as they were, naked and revealed. Those who could not with honesty look into the eyes of White Buffalo Calf Woman did not look at all. 

Even before she opened her mouth to speak, her bearing and example had given the people of the Lakota the greatest teaching those present had ever received. When she spoke at last, her voice was like the song of waters singing upon the rocks, like the song of prairie birds calling above the meadows. It reminded those who heard it of the wind that whispered around their tepees at night and whistled through the branches of the mountain pines. 

“Seven times,” she said, “I have circled this fire in reverence and in silence. This fire symbolizes the love that burns forever in the heart of the Great Spirit. It is the fire that warms the heart of every buffalo, every buffalo calf, every prairie dog, every sage hen, every eagle and every human being. This tepee of many skins is your body. This fire that burns at your center is your love. The fire of your love is at times expressed sexually.”   

Here she paused and looked deeply into the eyes of those around her. “There is a creative as well as a destructive way for this to occur. Passion that roars out of control is like a wild grass fire that destroys everything in its path. But tempered with wisdom, that same passion can fuel whole generations; it can warm a thousand lodges through a hundred snowy winters and give its power to your children and to your children’s young. 

“Those, like the young man whose bones now lie beneath the prairie moonlight, who think first of the sexual expression of this fire and only second, if they think at all, of the spirit behind it, lock themselves into cycles of suffering and illusion – cycles that were unknown among our people a few short centuries ago, but which now are debilitating your nation, weakening your vitality and draining away your power.

“Creation does not take place where there is a scattering and dissipation of energies. Creation requires a gathering together and focusing of your power within a circle of commitment – like a seed, an egg, a womb or a marriage. If you would create and not destroy, you must remember always the Sacred Hoop. Consider wisely the ways in which you would use your power and then around those ways draw the sacred circle of commitment. In the warm atmosphere of that circle, the power of love builds and builds like a storm above the wet summer prairie until suddenly the circle can hold no more and explodes in the conception of the new.
“This fire is more powerful than any one of you,” White Buffalo Calf Woman said, pointing as she did to the flames dancing in the tepee’s center, “and the seven sacred circles I have walked around it represent the seven worlds that it has created. You here live in all seven of those worlds, but you are conscious only of one, the physical, the external. You have forgotten the inner worlds, the worlds of vision, the world from which I come and in which my kind lives. I am dressed like you people of the plains, but my tribe is not Lakota.” She paused a moment and slowly bent forward to pull a burning branch from the flames. 

“My tribe is the Fire Bird,” she stated quietly. 

“I am one of the Bird People, whose tribe once covered this Island of the Turtle. Do you remember the Winged Ones of heaven? The Fire Birds? The Thunder Tribes? How long has it been since you called to us in your councils?” She walked once slowly around the fire, holding up the burning branch and looking searchingly into their faces for an answer. 

All eyes turned to the storytellers. 

The story tellers were silent. 

“Your people have forgotten,” White Buffalo Calf Woman continued, “that which is more precious than water. You have forgotten your connection with the Great Spirit. I have come,” she said, holding the burning branch above her, “with a fire from heaven to kindle again your memory of what has been, and to strengthen you for the times to come.” 

She then placed the branch back into the fire and took from her side the skin pouch she carried. Many only now noticed this pouch for the first time. They were amazed at the beautiful beadwork and porcupine quill designs on its surface. 

“In this pouch,” she said, “is a pipe. This pipe is sacred. I give it to you to help you remember the teachings that I bring. Always treat this pipe with respect. Carry it and the others you may make after its fashion only in bags of the finest skin, decorated by only the most reverent of hands.”

Not yet opening the skin pouch that contained the pipe, but placing it reverently near the fire and occasionally gesturing toward it, White Buffalo Calf Woman explained the use of the pipe.

“Fill this pipe with a sacred tobacco grown especially for the purpose. Draw your first breath of smoke from this pipe as a breath of gratitude to the Great Spirit, from whose breath you were first given life. Use the smoke of this pipe to represent your thoughts, prayers and aspirations. Send them upward with your exhalations to the Great One, Wakan Tanka, Grandfather of all. Each time you do this, pass the pipe slowly and reverently among those who may be gathered with you while each offers his first inhalation to the Great One above this world. 

“Then with your second breath of the sacred tobacco, let your thoughts be of love and gratitude to your Mother, the earth. Give thanks for the grasses that clothe her breasts in prairies of flowing grain. Give thanks for the canopy of blue sky that she holds for you as a world in which to live. Give thanks to the storm clouds that bring rain to the prairies, filling creeks, water holes, springs and ponds. With reverence pass the pipe around the circle while each one takes a second breath of the sacred smoke and does the same. 

“Let your third breath be for the four-footed and the feathered ones, for the buffalo and the prairie chickens, for the fishes in your rivers and for all the creatures of this good earth. 

“And let your fourth breath be for the Ongwhehonwhe (The people true to reality, the real people, a term primarily used by the Iroguois but technically pertaining to all people in whom spirit is fully incarnate and in whom spirit/ego integration has occurred. The Original Beings. The Original Creators of Life). Let your prayer be that your tribe will always remain among them, and that one day the people who remain true to reality will include all the nations of the world.” 

All this time she had not yet opened the pouch in which she held the pipe. Now, she slowly untied the leather thongs that bound it and lifting a corner, reached within to pull from the white skin pouch a pipe of red stone. The manner in which she raised this pipe for all to see spoke of such reverence that all within the great tepee grew still. Many in that moment found their hearts full. Tears glistened in many eyes. 

“This sacred pipe,” spoke White Buffalo Calf Woman, “and every breath of sacred smoke you breathe through its stem will help you remember that every breath you take is sacred. The bowl of the pipe is made of red stone. It is in the shape of a circle. It symbolizes the Sacred Hoop, the sacred circle of giving and receiving, of in-breathing and out-breathing, in which all living things come to life through the power of the Great One.”

Asking for some tobacco, White Buffalo Calf Woman filled the pipe saying, “This tobacco I know was grown in your most fertile soil and given your most special care. It symbolizes the plant world, the moss upon the stones, the flowers, the herbs, the leaves of grass that cover the hillsides lest your mother lie naked in the sun. You, my people of the Lakota, are here to care for the earth. Your life is lit from the same fire that burns in the heart of the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka.” So saying, she stuck a small twig into the fire until it burned brightly. 

“Just as I light this individual twig from the great fire that burns in the center of this tepee, so each individual human being is a flame taken from the eternal fire of God’s love.”

Slowly she moved the flaming twig away from the central fire and held it up for all to see.

“This, your individual human life, like the single flame that burns upon this twig, is sufficient to light a great fire. As long as the love that burns within you is turned toward self-centered pursuits, it will remain tiny like this flame. Remaining tiny, it will bring you no joy. Eventually, in the swirling winds of spirit, it will be extinguished. 

“But when you live in harmony with the Great Spirit, your flame of love is fanned by those same spirit winds. You are in love with the very purpose of Life! You light the fire of love in all you meet. You know the purpose of your walk through this world and you know why the Great One gave you a life flame: not so that you could keep your tiny flame to yourself, loving what you need alone, but so that you could give it away, and with the fire of your love bring consciousness to the earth.” 

So saying, she held the burning twig until the flame was just above the red bowl of the pipe. To the pipe’s center she touched the fire, inhaling softly through the stem until the tobacco glowed brightly. The first wafts of the sacred smoke drifted through the room. It was as if those present were seeing a pipe lit for the first time. 

“Just as the tobacco that burns within this pipe of earth represents the plant kingdom,” continued White Buffalo Calf Woman, “so this buffalo you see carved on the stone bowl of the pipe represents the four-legged creatures that share with you this sacred world, Etenoha. 

“These twelve feathers hanging from the stem of the pipe have come from Wambli Galeshka, the spotted eagle. They are to remind you of the feathered races with whom you share the great circle of the sky; but they are also to remind you of your spirit selves, the Bird Tribes, the Winged Ones of heaven. As I now pass this pipe to you and you give thanks to the Great Spirit with your first breath of tobacco, let these feathers remind you of the spirit beings who come from the stars to brighten your human lives. Let these twelve sacred feathers draw your thoughts up and away from the gravity of petty and jealous passions. Let your thoughts fly, like these feathers have once flown on Wambli Galeshka, high above the world of the little self. 

“Take this pipe. Give your thanks to the Great Spirit and pass the pipe to the others in our circle. Let your thoughts be lifted up to the Great One who comes now to stir your memories and to open the eyes of your story tellers. 

“Every dawn that dawns red in your eastern sky, like the red bowl of this pipe, is the birth of a new and holy day. And just as the rising sun drives out the darkness, so the light that shines in the lives of all those who love, drives out the darkness of self-centeredness and dissolves the shadows that cause misfortune. 

“Remember always to treat every creature as a sacred being: the people that live beyond the mountains, the winged ones of the air, the four-footed, the fishes that hide beneath the cool rocks in the silver streams and lakes, all of these are your sisters and your brothers. All are sacred parts in the body of the Great Spirit. Each one is holy. 

“The most difficult part of this teaching may be to extend this respect to the people of your neighboring tribes. Remember, like you, they are sacred people, given a specific work to do in the great Being of Wakan Tanka. Their work is not your own, their tasks differ from yours, but the purpose you serve is the same. The sun that shines upon you does not see you as being so very different. In peace you must live side by side with these who are a different shade of the color red. 

“For a people are coming soon who do not share the color of your skin, but who are white like the snow that falls in the winter months. With them will also come those of black skin. And those of yellow skin. And those of colors in between. 

“Just as the colors blend together in rainbows that arch across the prairie when the storm is passed, so you must tell the white races, the black races and the yellow ones when they come that though you are of red skin, you are first and foremost people of the Great Spirit. Through peaceful blending with your neighboring tribes, be an inspiration to the wandering peoples. Help lead all races into the harmony of the rainbow.”

And then the pipe was passed, and she was silent until all those present had taken their first smoke. A second time the pipe was passed in reverence for the earth, a third for the four-footed and winged. A fourth time the pipe was passed in reverence for the many tribes of humankind, those in the distant past, those living now, and those yet to be. After all gathered in the great tepee had completed their fourth smoke, White Buffalo Calf Woman raised the pipe reverently before her for all to see. 

“Carry your pipe with you always. Treat it as a sacred object. Honor all creatures and live your life in harmony with the Sacred Way of Balance of which every tree, every flower and every new day speaks. There will be many seasons when your heart will feel clear and pure as a mountain spring, and you will know the peace and joy of the Great Spirit. But should ever your steps falter, now or in the more troubled times to come, if ever you feel that you have stepped aside from the path of the Sacred Way, if ever your heart should feel heavy within you do not waste time in regret. I will give you a ceremony,” she said, filling the pipe once more and relighting it from the sacred fire, “a ceremony, which each of you can do in company with others, alone in your lodge, or out upon the prairie.

“Stop your activities. Find a rock upon which to sit. Asking for the Great Spirit’s guidance as I have taught you, unwrap your pipe, and let its red bowl remind you of the sacred road, the way of life, the red pathway of the sun. After you have smoked your smokes to the Great Spirit, to the earth, to the animals, and to the people who are true to reality, after you have given your thanks to the four directions, then take a fifth smoke asking for the guidance of the great winged beings of the spirit world. 

“Ask the particular winged being of the spirit world that is closest to you to help you see the wisest path to follow. Ask that spirit to help you make the clearest choice, to help you know the steps you are to take upon the path that your deepest knowing would have you travel. In time you will come to know that spirit being as your own true self. 

For now, just rest in the still place where the deepest knowing makes its lodge. This will put you in touch with what you may have forgotten in the hurry of life. This will allow the fire that burns within you to speak to you in plain and unbroken terms. 

With this fifth smoke, the smoke that you offer to the invisible spirit that guides you, you will see that the spirit world is real, inhabited by wise and benevolent beings that watch over your trials and hardships, unable to offer you help or assistance until you ask them. With this smoke, ask the spirit beings that surround you to come into your life. Tell them you want to help them and the Great Spirit in their work and ask them how you can do this. By helping the Great Spirit in his work, you will help yourself far more than if you were merely concerned with your own affairs. Human beings are not fully happy or healthy until they serve the purpose for which God created them. 

“Offer your sixth smoke to the six people whom you would most like to see especially blessed. A loved one whose spirit has flown from his body. A young man or woman who will soon be entering adulthood. The leader of a neighboring tribe whom you would like to see deepen in the ways of wisdom. Perhaps your own grandfathers, grandmothers or families. Each time you do this, choose the six people whom you would most like god to smile upon. For them, offer this smoke.”

She then explained how the sixth smoke could be taken in six smaller smokes, one for each of the people involved. While the pipe was being slowly passed, she drew circles in the sand to represent the souls of each of these six people. Then around them all, she drew one great circle to represent the blessing. 

When all present had completed their sixth smoke, White Buffalo Calf Woman turned slowly to look at each one in turn. All within the tepee grew very still. Even the outside breezes came to a rest and atop the poles, the tepee flaps hung motionless. The seventh smoke she explained must always be taken in silence; for it was offered to the Great Being from which every being was drawn for that sacred mystery at the source of life, it was better she said to have no words. 

After the seventh smoke was completed, such a unity was felt by those present in the great tepee of many skins, it seemed in that moment as if there was but one present. In perfect stillness, the silence spread like warm water, dissolving the last traces of disharmony from the heart of the Lakota.

For many moments White Buffalo Calf Woman was silent. When she spoke again, she compared her teachings to a tree, a tree that would flower in their understanding as they took these things to heart and applied them in their daily living. She told the Lakota how their individual human lives were like the individual leaves of a tree and how no tree has leaves so foolish as to fight among themselves. 

“No people true to reality would be so blind,” she said, “as to let the individuals within their tribe contend with one another. Remember, there is no cause that justifies violence against another human being, save only in the last resort to protect yourself or family.

“For a long time,” she continued, “you will live beneath the sacred shade of this Tree of Understanding that I am planting in your consciousness this evening. And in the generations immediately following yours, the people of the Lakota will be united again in the Sacred Circle. Be true to that circle, my women of the buffalo, my braves, my people of the plains. Be true to these ways and hold steadfast in this truth. For a time will come like a dark storm from the east when the prairies shall be overrun with those who speak fast, perceive little and wield much power. 

“The sacred Tree of Understanding that you will carry within you during these next few generations will be cut down in that storm. The tree will seem to die. The Sacred Hoop will wither until it is all but forgotten. A few will keep the light of truth burning within their hearts, but the light will grow dim and become, even in those, but a tiny ember. 

“But that ember will remain. Quietly, it will remain. All but forgotten, it will hold still a small glow in the hearts of the gentle ones. Even when a strange and hurried nation covers these prairies, even when your Mother Earth is bought and sold and stolen as if she were no more than a handful of beads, even when roaring ships of magic stone fly with people in them across the skies, that ember will hold still its tiny glow. And know this, my people: a great fire can be ignited from a single, glowing ember!

“For when the storm is over, that ember will ignite a dawn brighter than any dawn before. A new tree will grow more glorious than this tree I leave with you now. With that new dawn, I will return. Under the shade of that new tree I will live with you. And with us will be gathered not only the tribes shaded red, but the white tribes from the North and black tribes from the South and the yellow tribes from the East. In harmony, the four races will live beneath the boughs of the new tree. The age that we will see together will be the best that has ever been. All that has been broken will be made whole. The Sacred Hoop will be mended. The game will be plentiful and the spirits of all creatures will rejoice in the harmony of a new and perfect order. The Great Spirit, the very Thunderbird, will be active within the races, living, breathing, creating through the peoples of the earth. Peace will come then to the nations, for the original creators of life, the Winged Ones of heaven will return.”


Please feel welcome to learn more and join us in the Sacred Circle of the Red Road

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: chanupa, four directions, great spirit, ken carey, medicine, prayer, rainbow tribe, Red Warrior, return of the bird tribes, sacred circle of the red road, sacred hoop, sacred pipe, tobacco, wakan tanka, White Buffalo Calf Woman

April 2, 2020 By Lindsey Tarr Leave a Comment

How to make the Perfect Breakfast Every Day

The key to success here is in perfecting a single, perfect ancient recipe. 

While waiting patiently for my acupuncturist to call me in, or for my mom to come out of her session (I can’t be sure at this point which –  we are truly blessed, privileged and cute to do ‘puncture as a family thing these days) I sat in front of a truly well-read coffee table, overwhelmed at the glorious selection. I took the adventure of choosing one. I reached for a homemade binder which contained an additional bountiful selection of articles from various sources (as golden, but without the primary benefit of print publication). I landed quite definitively on Congee and Wet Breakfasts for Health, a Beautiful post by Andrew Sterman.  If food is love, then his writing on Congee is foreplay – and I felt it! I could hardly wait to try it out. In a nutshell, following the first re-creation of this magically wholesome and perfectly energetic ancient Chinese breakfast staple, there have been many, almost daily, unbelievably satisfying, wet congee breakfasts. 

Please read his article, I can hardly speak to the real beauty of it. 

Here are the  most amazing things about Congee breakfast:

  1. When made with love and according to Andrew’s description, the rice or millet releases all of it’s creamy starch and lets in as much water as it can possibly absorb, so it is amazingly hydrating!
  2. It’s so creamy, it’s as if there’s milk in there! Alas, it is entirely naturally ‘plant-based’
  3. The means of cooking wet breakfasts, heating by water rather than by fire, poaching the eggs rather than by frying them, for example, is one of the aspects which make them energetically perfect according to the lessons of ancient Chinese medicine in which the Qi of the Five Main Organs give/receive their own Yin and Yang powers of balance based on what you are giving them!
  4. Such abundance… 1 cup of dry rice makes an entire week’s worth of perfect breakfasts for myself and Cricket! 
  5. Soooooo many directions to go, never gets old (though, I almost always add some ginger, turmeric, pinch of salt, pepper and flax seeds)
  6. Simply, savory traditional – topped with poached eggs, soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds or oil and some scallions 
  7. Island style – beautiful blue, butterfly pea congee topped with lovely purple poi, coconut milk, guava, pineapple, papaya, starfruit, toasted coconut and macadamia; a rare and luxurious treat 
  8. Carrot cake congee mixed with some raisins, toasted walnuts or pecans, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, maple syrup or organic raw honey, and some milk (of choice!)
  9. The list goes on! 
  10. (And this random Lindsey quirk for you) I have always LOVED white, creamy porridge type things ever since the scene in the original Disney version of Beauty and the Beast where the beast digs into that delicious, creamy and steaming  bowl of yummy porridge. … Congee, love it. Cream of Wheat, LOVE it. Tapioca, YEP. Whipped cream LAWWWWVE IT. You see what I mean 🙂

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: ancient wisdom, andrew sterman, chinese medicine, Congee, food is love, healing with food, how to make congee, jook, Lindsey Lou on the Move, perfect breakfast, perfect congee

April 2, 2020 By Lindsey Tarr Leave a Comment

Real, Natural “dreadlocks”

“Nice locs,” said a nice man in Sprout’s about a month ago. 

“Just babies,” I said, “They’re a work in progress, I’m working on ‘em.” 

To which he smiled and said, “Actually, they’re working on you!”  

I smiled and laughed because that is the Truth!

I felt pretty good about it – he was a lovely black brother with beautiful locs. 

Naturally I did a lot of reading all things “dreadlocks” before putting them in (myself!) and found a number of things:

  • ‘Appropriation’ is the word used by some black folks when their perception about members of other races that wear locs is that they that do not have cultural roots which include locs
    • In response to this, I’ve also learned the phrase – “Appreciation, not appropriation” and I’ve never met anyone whose come to me with that prerogative directly
  • Locs have been found across time, across many corners of the world
  • They develop naturally in human hair, the species, not exclusively by race
    • Combs and brushes exist for this reason!
    • I was happy to find one, white brothers’ account of his own, natural loc journey… He just let them happen. In 4 years, his first loc had developed. In 7 years, from the photo he had posted, they were beautiful, even-looking, golden locs
  • The various methods of installation and maintenance that you can find online are not necessary, they merely speed the process of getting to the end goal that most of us are aiming for in today’s world of ‘appearance’ and which we expect ‘now’: mature, even, tidy-looking locs 
    • The natural process itself has been fascinating to experience – it is the nature of the untidy, dynamic evolution of locs which ‘works on you’ (as the gentlemen so poignantly pronounced to me in Sprouts) if you allow it.  If you do the work to gain your freedom of human experience from society’s constructs which, for example, hold employment, money, success, acceptance, comfort, even ‘survival’ in the form of ‘livelihood’ as leverage to dictate one’s appearance
  • Throughout time, locs have come to represent or reflect a spiritual journey which the wearer is on… agreed
  • The word ‘dread’ has a negative connotation, aiding, in my opinion, the colonization paradigm which perpetuates racism, classism and many other isms – for this reason I try to use ‘locs’ in description; I did learn about ‘brother locs’ (larger in size) and ‘sister locs’  (smaller in size) and I quite like those as well. 

It works like this:

Locs are exactly that, the natural locking or matting of hair as a result of the friction and compression that our hairs meet throughout our days and nights, for our entire lives. Daily, for example we lay our heads down to sleep. During the winter season, throughout history just as today, we’ve developed many ways to maintain physical health by covering our heads to conserve warmth. ‘Covering’, as in, causing our hairs to experience friction and compression. 

The exposure of our hair to water, i.e. cleaning, only reinforces the locking process as most hair types experience increased dynamism, or recoiling, driving the locking process even more while drying. [This is your answer to… Do you wash your hair? Yes. Aren’t they dirty?… nope] 

I chose the path of natural, but sped up 🙂 

First, I wanted to prove out the things I read online which I felt for myself, were true. I tested it: the true ‘locking’ nature of my mixed (Lakota/Mexican) hair. I sectioned out one loc from the hair behind my right ear. I locked by way of the Raging Roots Twist and Pull method. Then I let it be.  Sure enough –

  1. It stayed in! 
  2. Over the course of a few weeks, a month maybe, it went through its own process of tightening!
  3. In fact, because it is so good at doing its thing, it was pretty aggressive in recruiting the surrounding hairs into itself. I had to continually herd the others away. This is why I decided to take the leap, putting them in all at once after this relatively simple test. 

I too unrealistically wish for my tidy, mature locs now but I’ve never wanted them to be the result of force, money, product. That said, rather than wait the 4 years, more or less, to let them develop – I placed them myself over the course of a few days:

  • I had help sectioning them, following the Raging Roots fan pattern which worked as described: easy not to mess up, made a nice even look without gaps
  • I locked them myself using the Raging Roots twist and rip method
    • No matter how good I got at it, it was difficult to maintain tightness all the way to the scalp. This is fine, as I’ve learned it gets closer over time, naturally (I’ve discovered the truth in this and it is in a way I never could have guessed!) 
    • I left the last 3-5 inches unlocked, because I like how it looks to have the locs and the natural curls/waviness of my ends
  • That’s it. No wax or goop of any kind, no experienced ‘loctician’ to put them in or maintain them

Wasted Time and Worries

Interlocking ($5-10 for the little tool, wasted)

  • I thought I could get them locked tight to my scalp ahead of schedule by ‘interlocking’ them regularly as my hair grew out
    • There are some fiercely conflicting prerogatives online regarding ‘interlocking’. I did one round of this, getting each loc to the scalp. Critical notes are:
      • You must go in from each direction for each loc, so that the structure stays balanced and healthy
      • Also don’t make it ‘tight’ to the scalp, that’s too much.  
      • Mine have not broken off, though some online assure you they will; while one person noted they will not if you maintain that even structure by always going in from each direction rather than just a single time from a single direction; I feel ok if they do break off at that point as everything above it is naturally locked – in fact, if they don’t I may decide to cut them there anyway. [The answer to Can you cut locs?  Yes. I’ll report more on that when/if I get to that point]
  • Since this first round of ‘maintenance’, my locs have taught me…. hair grows out, the gap at the top stays around one inch, at least for now (they are still babies!), it’s not really worth it to spend the time or money on this detail… really, we’ve got this , they say confidently.

Bumps 

  • These happen because of the natural tightening process that is happening throughout the length of the loc, internally – it happens organically of course and so the tension and compression occurring within are dynamic and random (at least when you’ve artificially sped the process by self-locking them overnight, as I have)
  • One guy online, Dr. Locs maybe, suggests smoothing the bump by poking it a few times all around with a small pin (I used the key to my samsung phone) in which you are, again, speeding the internal pull/pull process by loosening focused area of tension and then palm-rolling the area to help it spread evenly up and down the length 
  • Since spending my time doing this ‘pin’ smoothing method for a few rounds, my locs taught me… there’s no way for you to keep up with this; check it out, a new bump here, now there, don’t waste your time and also, I thought you wanted me to tighten! Please don’t stab me, that shit hurts!  Really, I’ve got this.

Today, I realize this is all I ever, have ever, needed to do (for you, it may be different!):

  • 1 to 2 times per week, wash (very much like I always have), in the first part of the day (to give most of the day to dry), I use Avalon Organics Lemon Shampoo (here’s a more complete Shampoo List)
  • After washing, while my hair is still wet (as all the resources suggest…not when dry!) I spend about half an hour “maintaining” my locs, while watching some video I’ve been needing to get to or sitting out in the clean air of mother earth, under the sun, listening to some good music, watching the birds play in the natural pond
    • I do one side from top to bottom, shifting them one at a time to wait on the other side while I work my way, level by level, to each one; I’ve learned my locs will happily hold one another without me needing to use a hair tie at all!
    • Starting at the scalp, I roll them in a clockwise direction between my two palms, then down the length to the point where they are unlocked (I comb the tips out about once a week because, again, the locking happens so naturally that my ends lock right up on their own if I don’t)
    • Then I come back to the scalp, rolling in the clockwise direction again so the grown out, unlocked hairs are in a tight twist – then I massage that section in a clockwise direction against my scalp a couple times (feels lovely, biweekly scalp massage! #selfcare)
  • Just by preference, I have braided them and placed them under a bandana and a hat regularly during their time as baby locs. This has helped me feel tidy while they have been wild, and also, I’ve never liked my hair on my neck during times of working and sweat. Regardless, I think this preference has lended beautifully to the friction/compression which moves them along
  • In between washes, I randomly spray a water/essential oil mixture at my scalp and on my locs (something like 1 drop Peppermint, 2 drops Lavender, 3 drops Tea Tree for a 3 oz spray bottle)
  • As a nice conditioning, moisturizing wash, whenever I feel it’s been a particularly dry climate, or it’s been a few months, I like to use the E-guide at howtogetdreads.com (this lady has the most amazing blog for locs and natural care!) or with more, really special time I like the coconut milk soak Raging Roots has listed; so does Cricket!
  • I do cover them at night 

Now this is really exciting –  my locs have taught me that…

Really, they’ve got me, they are the ones working on me!

  • When you lock them artificially, rather than wait for them, it may not really be perfection that we’re looking for in the artificially locked section – perhaps over much time they will find their perfect place of tension and compression, to eventual smoothness, but what it seems like to me is: they grow into soft, tight, mature locs from the top!  I have been able to watch over time the difference between where they’ve learned to loc themselves as they grow out versus the point that I interlocked them for “maintenance” and installed them before that. To my happy surprise the natural loc growth is more thin (thank goodness because I thought I sectioned some a bit too fat) and truly uniform looking, no bumps or fuzzies at all!

Since they went in, October 2019:

  • There is about 1 inch of unlocked hair at the scalp, then 1 to 2 inches of naturally locked hair, then a dynamic tightening and softening section of self-locked hair and then a 3 to 5 inches of self-unlocked curly/wavy hair!  It’s very cool.  
  • I love how you can make them crimped looking by braiding them in threes while they dry! I love how they can be ‘corn-rowed’ up; I love that you can tie them up with themselves and don’t even need a hair tie!  I love how easy they are to take care of. I love how they share with me the subtleties of the atmosphere that I am not yet consciously aware of on my own. I love them. 
  • I love how this journey and this post, in and of itself, exists as one more testimonial describing truth in this world where natural things are more enigmatic than natural, like the way our hair behaves without any consumer-based behavior
  • They’ve taught me the patience, love and healing that comes from focused self-care; honoring a regular task like an intimate ritual rather than a chore to be mindlessly blazed through and checked off the endless list
  • I’ve gotten one of the most intimate experiences of Nature and Nature’s Way than I’ve had, or at least taken the opportunity to have
  • They’ve protected me from narcissists better than I ever have! Like my personal watch dogs, they administer the litmus test which many pass or fail, nearly immediately, without either of our own initiation and/or likely even our awareness 

They are my locs and I love them. I am Me and I love Me!

Resource List:

  • http://howtogetdreads.com/
  • http://ragingrootsstudio.com/shampoo-list/
  • http://ragingrootsstudio.com/rip-twist/
  • http://ragingrootsstudio.com/fan-pattern/
  • http://ragingrootsstudio.com/moisturizing-coconut-milk-soak/

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: decolonization, dreadlock maintenance, dreadlocks, how to get dreadlocks, interlocking dreadlocks, locs, natural dreadlocks, natural hair, sectioning dreadlocks, self care, selfcare

April 1, 2020 By Lindsey Tarr Leave a Comment

The Easiest Way to Write a Book and the Most Important Reason to do it!

When I went to Standing Rock, I went in service of the people. I learned that I was blessed to be able to go as not everyone was. I also learned how quickly we American’s, or perhaps just humans of this age, go immediately to ‘fixing’. We dig into the experience we bring and begin firing our ideas away.  This was never as clear to me as at Standing Rock when morning meetings expanded and contracted in size and time according to people’s passions to surge to the protest, and accordingly, as the new people came and went the ideas around issues were repeated over and over again. 

Because I went to be of service, I listened more than I spoke and continually asked what I could do. One day, in response, the leader of IEN said to me, write.  I tried keeping up my words on social media and on the blog but I didn’t feel that good about it or at it. For whatever reason I decided to begin photographing certain things with the intention of Never posting them to social media or even on the blog (I’ve since learned it’s not ‘for whatever reason’, these are ispiritations which can be sourced directly from Creator – perfect instinct). 

When I got home and my mind wouldn’t focus on anything – lost in the haze of what had just happened, what did not happen, and the what now question – I had those photos. I organized them into albums that made sense to me.  Then I began placing them into a single word document – no words yet, just one after another as they wished to tell their story. 

At this point, they amounted to many pages. This was the queue for me to pause the building process and go into the world of publishing. On this note, I think that part of what is overwhelming about the world wide web is that you find a million types of solutions for something you thought would be quite clear.  So then you’ve got a million tabs open without a way to shut your computer down for the night to save energy – Thank you Tab Saver Extension. 

I’m going to make a decision for the most part right now that rather than going down the path of all options for you, I’ll simply tell you the one I chose and why.  

Some options simply didn’t fit for me at this time because at this point my mind felt pretty certain that money was the root of evil and corporations are not trustworthy based on their profit over people or planet motivation structure.  I landed on theBookPatch because:

  • They were quite informational about each of the considerations regarding publishing/self-publishing
  • They were very transparent about one of the points that I think some, possibly many, publishers take advantage of people on – the ISBN number and the ownership rights associated with them
  • Been in it for a minute
  • Made it easy to learn the cost to print based on different settings like page number, binding, color; 
  • They’re pricing is Not prohibitive especially if you can’t order for bulk pricing breaks. 
  • They have an online bookstore in which your book always has a place for people to buy a paper or digital copy, both of which you choose the price point of and in which you receive 100% of the amount for the digital copy. 

I’ve stayed with Book Patch because:

  • All of the above did remain aligned throughout the process of uploading my book according to their guides and publishing it for sale
  • The print quality is amazing! I’m truly impress with the look and feel of the paperback
  • They were responsive to my emails and their service was satisfactory

Based on this process I was able to continue on with actually writing what was going to be a real book. I determined the number of colored pages (an important factor for this book since I always wanted it to be a photo journey) based on the cost to print and the value I determined was affordable and realistic for readers… one of the queues which force a writer to understand whom they wish to serve. Learning this, I meticulously, reviewed each organized photo for quality and impact and ultimately had to cut hundreds! 

From here, I still did not tack myself down to anything as concrete as chapters and paragraphs… I merely wrote the details of what each picture evoked in me.  Throughout this process the intention behind my words became 1. To memorialize the experience for those of us blessed to have stood on that ground and 2. To try to convey the magic of it, in any degree possible, to those who could not be there.  

As those words fell out, then the context of them came – sometimes hundreds or thousands of years worth wanted to pour out! The pages began filling themselves to the point that the sentences themselves had to be reprocessed over time and through many versions to become the most concise forms of themselves. 

Once it was all down and out of me, I dropped it. I so wanted to honor those whose land we were guests and whose battle we were merely invited to pray in, as spiritual warriors, true water protectors. I also wanted to tell the truth, lay everything out as it really was.  At that time, for most of us getting home from it, we were angry. The darkness in my spirit burdened the pages. And to lay these things down for others to pick up was pushing me to a layer of vulnerability I wasn’t yet ready for. I needed time.

The process is an example of the seasons of life. When I was ready to open the document, maybe a year had passed… the winter seems to be my writing time aligned with the season of reflection and storytelling, around a fire, into the night. I read it in full and found the rawness as I had left it and it was jolting. I was no longer in that place.  Likely, thanks to the initial writing itself, as well in the meantime, I had travelled into nature, began to shed entire lifetimes of layers of burden. I swept through the pages once again but now with a new lens for  my edits, fine-tuned some pictures, reorganized a bit – this may have been the point when I moved from a word doc to slides, it seemed worth it even with the huge time suck that it was, to be able to move the images and word blocks as I wished. Then I put it down again for a few months at least. I may have gone through this picking-up/tweaking/leaving/picking-up a few times… but at one point I opened it and found myself in disbelief that with each page, up to the very end, I really liked it!

The real magic of it, is this… 

I’ve since had the blessing of hearing feedback from water protectors who were there.  From one such reader I learned the power of it to put a person right back there, racing heartbeat and all… she too had to put it down, to give space and time to that which still needed to heal, and which the book catalyzed! What a blessing to have gotten to heal through the process of writing a book and to gift that to another!  

Should you ever find yourself needing to heal, needing to pour something out of you… staring at a blank page, an impossible place to start for many of us…

  1. Search through the images of your life. 
  2. Place them into albums that make sense to you. 
  3. Lay them down onto pages in the order they wish and let them evoke the words they call for…

These words may keep flowing for many pages, and you may find yourself lighter and that now these words are meant for someone, for some reason.  Follow your instinct, you know what to do!

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: blank page syndrome, depression, healing, how to self publish, how to write a book, IEN, Indigenous Environmental Network, Lindsey Lou on the Move, peace standards, self publishing, Standing Rock, stuck, the book patch, Tom Goldtooth

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