Chapel of Resistance: The Love of Corn Mother
My Heart breaks and I grieve on a daily basis; though generally, I allow these feelings to wash over me and help my Heart grow rather than be bogged down. This is because I am able to tap into the bigger picture and see the reason for the destruction or whatever is happening, able to see the overall energetic pattern, rather than this minute detail. And I choose to see the Beauty and Love that is abundant wherever I look.
Today; however, I learned that a judge granted Williams Partners the right to seize 5 properties in my area, which will allow them to build a ridiculous natural gas pipeline. The worst part is one of these properties is owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a group of nuns, who built an outdoor interfaith chapel on their land because the pipeline interferes with their Land Ethic. This ethic includes, “As Adorers, we honor the sacredness of all creation; we cultivate a mystical consciousness that connects us to the Holy in all of life.”
So today, I became overwhelmed with the short-sightedness and the blatant disregard of Life (human, Plant, Water, all Life). I wondered how far do we have to go? What will it take for us to realize that money in the bank is nothing compared to the gifts we are destroying? I did what I do when I am overwhelmed, I go to Nature and pray. This time I went to the little chapel in the middle of a cornfield.
The sight that greeted me was Corn Mother growing up through the pulpit. Well, this instantly calmed my Heart. As I remembered the incredible resiliency of Corn and her sacred relationship with humans.(If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive by Martín Prechtel. This will explain why this sight was so powerful for me.) The Nature Spirits were already telling me to go Home and do my work, that I didn’t belong there grieving. Though I asked them to let me feel this a little.
I said my prayers and asked for forgiveness. I sang my grief and as I did the wind blew through and Corn responded. Tears did come. As I’ve been taught not to waste these, I gifted them to Corn Mother. As I continued to sing what was in my Heart, my song changed and continued to change until finally I sang the song Corn wanted to hear. These are the words that came:
We’re gonna rise, rise, rise up.
We’re gonna shine, shine, shine bright
We’re gonna Love, Love, Love, Love, Love
We’re gonna dance, dance, dance, dance, dance
And so Corn danced while I sang and my Heart lifted. I know that this is only a small part of the picture. I do have more work to do and I cannot be bogged down by this. Though it would be easier if we could all recognize the incredible Beauty and gifts from the Sacred that surround us and start treating this Earth and one another as the Divine Beings we are.
As always, I am grateful to Corn Mother.