newness

This was my first blog ever. Since this blog, I created quite a few others and started using other mediums to share my insights, learnings and visions. If you are to stop by here, please check out my new web page medicineWords for my work, as well as magical mystery tour for my poetry.

blessings,
Filiz

dreamcatcher

As December settles in, and another year's end closes in, combined with my slowed down rhtyhm of life, sometimes trembling sometimes peaceful within, I find myself in a waiting mood. as if something is about to happen. like Alice falling through the rabbit hole, I feel like the falling is coming to an end perhaps and I am about to gently land in the wonderland..

I wrote this poem tonight, in an attempt to express what I'm feeling...

dreamcatcher

waiting waiting waiting
I feel like a snail, withdrawn in my shell,
waiting waiting
waiting waiting
in stillness
waiting for the ocean
to reach out and gently sweep me away,
with no struggle
no heart ache
and I surrender
to this mystery, that rocks me tenderly
in my foundations
waiting waiting
in the twilight of my day and night
of my deserted heart's longing
longing deep and wide
for the ocean of love to burn
this being
transform mind and matter
through the alchemie of love
waiting waiting
tenderly
heart aching for the beloved
irritable and coy outside, impatient
careless about the world
careless about the word

the time is approaching
I take refuge in a timeless container of Self
the storm raging all around
waiting waiting
for this shell to break

then I instinctively turned to the poem "the call" by Oriah Mountain Dreamer from book "the call" which I had earlier today pulled out of my library with a sudden urge...here is the poem:

I have heard it all my life,
A voice calling a name I recognized as my own.
Sometimes it comes as a soft-bellied whisper.
Sometimes it holds an edge of urgency.
But always it says: Wake up, my love. You are walking asleep.
There’s no safety in that!
Remember what you are, and let a deeper knowing
color the shape of your humanness.
There is nowhere to go. What you are looking for is right here.
Open the fist clenched in wanting and see what you already hold in your hand.
There is no waiting for something to happen,
no point in the future to get to.
All you have ever longed for is here in this moment, right now.
You are wearing yourself out with all this searching.
Come home and rest.
How much longer can you live like this?
Your hungry spirit is gaunt, your heart stumbles. All this trying.
Give it up!
Let yourself be one of the God-mad,
faithful only to the Beauty you are.
Let the Lover pull you to your feet and hold you close,
dancing even when fear urges you to sit this one out.
Remember, there is one word you are here to say with your whole being.
When it finds you, give your life to it. Don’t be tight-lipped and stingy.
Spend yourself completely on the saying,
Be one word in this great love poem we are writing together.

now, I am sure you can see the contrast in these poems, it's like a call and response. the alignment made me smile. the dominant sensation that is coloring my state right now is longing, a deep longing for deep connection, companionship, intimacy, love. and as synchronicity continues to flow, I find this quote in Oriah Mountain Dreamer's website. and I smile once again:

There are lovers content with longing.
I’m not one of them.
-Rumi

may the poetry and music of our longing souls fill our circle, more than ever at this time which feels significant for us all, for our tribe and for humanity all together...and may that longing evolve into living all those things we long for...

a poem about death and birth

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measles-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

Mary Oliver

hosting a permaculture master in Turkey - Penny Livingston Stark

Ever since the day I grew beans and various other veggies in a seeminly compost field, layers of organic matter - cardboard, kitchen waste, garden scrap, manure etc - I believe in permaculture. I had said to myself, if anything grows in this garden, I will commit to permaculture, learn and share it. the veggies grew indeed, and tasted delicous!

so here I am, years after, preparing to host one of the pioneers of permaculture - Penny Livingston Stark - in Turkey. This is a dream come true...

We are living in a unique time in the evolution of the planet and the human species. We are

facing many challenges such as climate change, peak oil, species’ extinction, declining
quality and availability for our food and water. Permaculture is a design system that
recognizes solutions to create environments that can support humans, animals and wildlife in
a healthy and abundant way. While many feel hopeless about what we can do, there are
solutions that are often hidden in plane view. Permaculture is an approach to designing our
lives, our gardens and our communities that offers many practical solutions to issues that
may seem unsolvable.

There will be two workshops with Penny in Turkey.

19-27 September 2009, Pastoral Vadi, Fethiye, Turkey
8-11 October 2009, Istanbul, Turkey
for more information, in Turkish, you can check http://surdurulebiliryasam.wordpress.com and in English, http://kolektifbilinc.wordpress.com/permaculture/

Permaculture is one of the keystones of the sustainable world we are creating. It's about listening and being in relationship with nature, nurturing ourselves, each other and Mother Earth and living in abundance. It's possible, it's already happening...I encourage you to look into it, to give some reflection, and if it suits you, learn about it.

Art of Hosting Turkey

yes, finally!

Art of Hosting is coming to Turkey!

We are inviting you to the Art of Hosting Participatory Leadership in Istanbul, 25-28 June 2009.

The Art of Hosting Participative Leadership is
• A training for all who aspire to learn how to be, work and co-create with people in more interactive, participative and effective ways.
• Essentially, an expression of an authentic way of being with others and situations as they emerge - and a practice of creating the conditions for collective intelligence to emerge.
• Built on the assumption and experience that we need to find new solutions for the common good, whether in corporations, government, education, non-profits, social movements, communities, or families. The time is now.

Our calling question is:

“What is the potential residing in the present ecological, economic and social shift of our World?
How do we collectively shape our future and participate in the unfolding of a sustainable world and what kind of leadership is needed to make it happen?”

For more information, please look at the invitation here:
http://kolektifbilinc.wordpress.com/art-of-hosting/

urban permaculture/şehirde permakültür, 1-5 April, Istanbul

Slow Food Manifesto

The Slow Food international movement officially began when delegates from 15 countries endorsed this manifesto, written by founding member Folco Portinari, on November 9, 1989. Our century, which began and has developed under the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as its life model. We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods. To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction. A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life. May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency. Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food. In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer. That is what real culture is all about: developing taste rather than demeaning it. And what better way to set about this than an international exchange of experiences, knowledge, projects? Slow Food guarantees a better future. Slow Food is an idea that needs plenty of qualified supporters who can help turn this (slow) motion into an international movement, with the little snail as its symbol.