Grandmother Carole has entered the period of prayer in which she will allow Spirit to select which flow of SacredWater will be be the focus for her 9th annual SacredWater Walk.
Once Uncí Carole is clear on the river or waterway, she will pursue protocol. The protocol phase is described on the website in the section about Water Ceremonies.
Every year, Grandmother Carole takes four rivers into prayer and waits for Spirit to guide her. Once Spirit has selected the river, Carole approaches members of the indigenous people who traditionally held the stewardship of that SacredWater and its watershed. This protocol phase involves respect for tradition and also honors the responsibility Native peoples have always taken to care and tend for the Mother, our Earth.
Help us grow! Join us June 3-July 2, 2019
Please start now, supporting and planning to join us for any part of the 2019 Water is Life Walk.
This collection of recommended waterways is the beginning of a spiritual process involving prayer and a strict adherence to protocol.
Photo by Imleedh Ali on Unsplash.
Every year, Grandmother Carole takes four rivers into prayer and waits for Spirit to guide her. Once Spirit has selected the river, Carole approaches members of the indigenous people who traditionally held the stewardship of that SacredWater and its watershed. This protocol phase involves respect for tradition and also honors the responsibility Native peoples have always taken to care and tend for the Mother, our Earth.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED!
Please feel free to contribute funds for the 2019 Walk. Help us make this year the first time since Grandmother began nine years ago that all her expenses can be paid upfront with no debt!
Seven of us gathered around a fire in Guilford in October to listen to Grandmother Carole’s stories and teachings.
A glass of water sat on the table in front of her. She said:
The Water remembers.
Now I sit with that water to help me remember the wisdom and inspiration Grandmother shared with us.
She wove together tales from creation through how humans have come to feel separate, through how we are remembering that we are all connected.
We each shared some of our own stories and concerns.
This monarch hatched in Luz’ home a few days before Grandmother visited.
One timely message for me is that we each have something we can do to help heal the water, the earth and ourselves. None of us can do it all, but each of us has a gift to share.
It was energizing for me to gather with others who feel called to take part in the healing journey.
We plan to gather again and invite anyone who is interested to join us.
There’s a conflict brewing between clean water and solar power. In some cases it involves forests, too.
Massachusetts, for instance, has gone all in on solar power. In an effort to support a transition away from fossil fuels, the Commonwealth created a rule allowing solar to be placed on land designated for agricultural use. This has been a boon to farmers who can earn more money turning a field from food cultivation to energy production. (That, in itself, is a sign of sickness.)
There are problems, however, as opportunists pounce on large tracts of forested land to clear for vast arrays of solar panels, pitching these projects to towns lacking previously thought-through zoning bylaws. Residents of Orange, for instance, are suffering due to their back-to-back approval of two industrial solar facilities. Major flooding from recent heavy rain is directly attributable to that loss of forest habitat.
From the Greenfield Recorder, “Cemetery requires cleanup following storms, flooding” by Carson McGrath, August 9, 2018.
The natural relationships among trees, soil and water are a form of infrastructure that our society needs to re-value. While we do need to end the use of fossil fuels, we also need to transform our relationship to the essential systems of the planet that maintain life. Solar power is a partial solution, but if it is being pursued with the same attitude of disregard for the environment then solar development is just another manifestation of the same old colonialist rape and pillage model of capitalism.
“When torrential rain caused damage to the West Orange Cemetery and flooded West Orange Road (Route 2A), the actual cause for the damage was obvious to area residents. The culprit was a recently cleared tract of dozens of acres of pristine forest being developed by logger Fred Heyes, with town boards having ignored the pleas of residents to take steps to deal with potential water runoff, wildlife devastation and other issues.”
Some towns have instituted strict zoning bylaws which allow a better degree of control over what gets built in your town and how well the construction and operation of approved projects protects the environment. For instance, Ashfield MA went through a public planning process to develop and vote in strong protections so that they are protected from the worst excesses of developers whose motivation is profit not community wellbeing.
Belchertown MA is currently trying to strengthen its bylaws in the face of an environmentally irresponsible proposal from W.D. Cowls Inc, Blue Wave Solar and Meridian Associates. Find out what your town’s zoning bylaws are regarding solar development, as well as how permits for allowing wastewater to be discharged into rivers are handled.
Get involved! Protecting our water happens from the ground up.
Towns with permits allowing solar facilities to dump waste into local rivers, brooks and streams.
Ripples of the 2018 Water is Life Walk continue to spread!
A few days ago, some five weeks after we poured the clean SourceWater of the Howsatunnuck into the Long Island Sound, we received a wonderful phone message:
Stratford Harbormaster Ross Hatfield transporting Grandmother Carole and the Sacred Source Water.
Hi Lindsey, it’s Ross Hatfield, Stratford Harbormaster, how you doing?
I just want to tell you and Carole that, um, we have had a journey on our boat. And one of the stops was the Merrimack river in Newburyport. And, ah, what a river. It runs about 12 knots actually, and with a current we had a hard time docking actually. We only came in the river about maybe about a half mile to the first local marina there. But it was—it was quite a river and I thought of you and ah I’d never been on the river before but as we left Newburyport, about 5 miles out into the bay, we encountered 5 humpback whales. What a sight! I haven’t seen a whale in so long. So it was quite an exciting trip and I just want to tell you that I thought of you guys and hope you are doing well. Ok. Again, it’s Ross Hatfield, Stratford Harbormaster. Bye.
Background
Ideally, for a SacredWater Walk, the spiritual bundles are tied so that they hang over the water.
As we neared the end of the 28-day prayer walk, Grandmother Carole realized she needed to pour the clean Source Water into the sea not from a place on the land, but actually out where the mixing of the fresh and salt water is visible.
What a scramble! For two days we tried to find a volunteer with a boat large enough for our whole party (7 adults and two children). In the end, our only taker was the Stratford Harbormaster, Ross Hatfield. It was a small boat, so Grandmother could only take one other person with her. She selected Erik Burcroff so that there would be a balance of masculine energy along with the feminine.
The rest of divided up on shore–some staying at the dock to be able to see Grandmother and the Water off properly, and be there for sure when she returned. Three of us trekked to the closest point on land where we could be as close as possible to the final ceremonial confluence blessing, Source to Sea.
Grandmother Rema Loeb carried the sacred vessel made of clay and bits of silver, offering a final prayer from shore while Steph Kent and Lindsey Peterson tied the last bundle.
This is a question we asked of Grandmother Carole Bubar-Blodgett while doing support for the Water Is Life Walks Housatonic River 2018. We reflected on the days walk and asked Grandmother Carole to reflect with us what she gained by doing this prayer walk. She tells us everyone can take the opportunity to receive these same gifts by joining on this Walk. Moccasin Tracks was on the walk just for 2 days May 23 and 24 and we are grateful to everyone who walked with us and shared feelings and words to be broadcast May 29 on Moccasin Tracks broadcast at wruv.org and locally at 90.1FM. We’ll make another podcast and video will be posted soon!! Recordings include Grandmother Carole, Grandmother Rema and words from the Walkers who joined in gathering the headwaters. waterislifewalk.org on Facebook.com/waterislifewalks Moccasin Tracks is broadcast on WRUV FM Burlington and archived at wruv.org for one week (go to wruv.org> schedule and scroll down to Moccasin Tracks wruv.moccasintracks@gmail.com www.facebook.com/MoccasinTracks radiowithdeb.wordpress.com Moccasin Tracks is syndicated weekly on Pacifica Radio Network www.youtube.com/MoccasinTracks
Water Is Life Walk Merrimack River with Grandmother Carole Buber-Blodgett in Manchester, New Hampshire with Fawn Gaudet and Deb Reger. We read Carole’s press release as the pictures of the walk cross the screen. Find more info on facebook.com/WaterIsLifeWalkMerrimackRiver
private event in Guilford CT.
