Sow
Earth Sanctuary Transformation
::: Heart Blueprint is the key :::
What happens when the initiating Spark isn’t what creates the final Fire?
What do you do when the conceptual burst has run its course?
How do you adapt as you maintain your vision?
——-— Impulse —-——
In Seed, I describe how I arrived to Mother Earth Sanctuary in 2017, and was able to shake the shackles of an abuser (“Z”) in 2018.
In this companion post, Sow, I detail how I set out to honor the intentions of the Native people who conceptualized the idea of Mother Earth Sanctuary.
In 2020, the Director (he/him) admitted to me that he had actually met “Z” in 2016, one year before I arrived in 2017. “Z” was with a different partner then, and it was the two of them who actually came up with the idea of “Mother Earth Sanctuary.”
However, “Z” and their partner didn’t want to get the name incorporated into any kind of formal entity.
They didn’t want it to be a nonprofit.
— Response Ability —
At some point in their living / business arrangement, there was a major fall out between the 3 of them, and the Director asked them both to leave the property.
He only allowed “Z” back in 2017 because he saw my potential, and “Z” was able to pin everything about the previous fallout on their ex-partner.
When the Director told me this, I took some time to set things straight:
We can acknowledge “Z” is full of crap and their behaviors are unacceptable.
At the same time- both “Z” and their ex-partner are Native people.
I sat him down and informed him. After hearing me out, he agreed:
“As a settler, it’s not your place to take the ideas of Native people and capitalize on them. You needed to honor their intentions, even if their behaviors were unacceptable.
You already sit on their land and drink the water. You can kick them out at will because there’s an entire colonial infrastructure at your disposal to protect your property as a white land-owning xtian male.
You cannot also be taking their intellectual property.
We can and must change the name.”
—-—-— Pivot —-—-—
I’ve written about the way Mother Earth Sanctuary provided hospitality and haven for myself and others escaping violence / abuse. For many of our visitors_members, this abuse starts in their own families.
I spoke frankly with the Director about dropping the term “Mother” from the name. There were just too many people who showed up at our door with horrific stories about all kinds of abuse from both masculine and feminine gendered / presenting family members.
A name to describe our way of Being, that is neutral from those family roles that should not have caused harm- but did.
I wanted a name that wouldn’t potentially trigger any guests as they arrived
~~~ to heal themselves,
~~~~~~ to contribute,
~~~~~~~~~ to build safe haven.
“‘Earth Sanctuary’ is what we’ve been creating here. It’s what our visitors_guests see in this place.”
We agreed to change the name by the end of the gregorian calendar year (2020).
