The world has greatly intensified for humans in the past few weeks. The virus has pushed us all to truly sit with ourselves in this time. Many of us are struggling with uncertainty, grief and loss. Even if no one directly related to you is struggling with this virus, everyone is very aware, every day of isolation of the potential hazards and those that are actually very sick. We grieve the loss of humans, we grieve what we had before this all happened and many of us can feel even other people’s grief. So one way or another most of us are in a place of grief. We can feel the global impact on humans, this virus has created, most of us are locked in our homes to wait it out. Yet somehow, all of us, seem to sense that BIG changes are happening because of this pandemic. Somehow in our hearts and our souls we see the impact humans have on earth, animals and nature in general. We are awakening to our full connection to all things alive on planet earth, including the virus itself.
The waves still come and the sun still rises
We were very fortunate to spend an entire week in early March on the Pacific Coast Highway where we met the elephant seals. We set up our van each day on the beach and listened to their calls to each other, watched babies suckle their mammas and watched them live as a community. Each day it seemed we would learn more about them and we found out what they had been through. Elephant Seals were heavily hunted in the 18th, 19th century and into the early 20th century by humans. They are REALLY easy to hunt, they mostly lay around on the beach. The hunter didn’t have to work hard except maybe to harvest their 4000-5000lbs of blubber, though humans at that time likely saw them as fuel. Humans hunted this very easy prey until they almost became extinct! The number actually got down to just 50 seals!
Finally, humans found another source of fuel and Mexico began to protect them. Now miraculously they have grown to over 225,000 seals with numbers increasing all the time. We were inspired by the diligent volunteers that are part of the “Friends of the Elephant Seal” as they came out and counted the entire population! They were happy to answer questions and share their joy in their volunteer work. Each time the sun came up or down the seals would ‘bark’ and the babies would ‘cry’ as if they had a ritual to celebrate these great transitionary times we see every day. They honored their transition from an almost extinct population to a growing population of these amazing animals.
Amazing resilient Animals
As the world began to become infected with this virus, we became aware that these seals had overcome their almost extinct past, they very nearly disappeared because of human hunting. We couldn’t help but contemplate our own future, we have spent the last five years visiting nursing homes — that reality washing away with the waves and seeing change was on its way. Uncertainty is there, yet these seals give us hope that the changes, the EARTH so desperately needed, are happening! That hope is bigger than anyone’s life because it includes all of our lives, including the seals! As the changes unfold before us and we choose to be part of that, we harvest the resilience of survival. Let these amazing seals inspire you, too!
Let these Elephant Seals Inspire YOU!
Now as we sit in our safe home on top the mountain and await what might happen next we invite YOU! We invite YOU to this Virtual Fire Circle. We are calling it UNITE! Uniting the diversity of Fire Circles all over the world and inviting all organizers to take part. We invite YOU to be part of this fire, Sing a song together, get dressed in your magickal attire, play the drums with Bright Hawk, and UNITE with folks that all need this connection RIGHT NOW! We need volunteers to hold a fire and keep your camera mostly on it for the duration of the 3 hour block of time, or part of the time. We need people to step up and offer energetic clearing to folks joining us, like a smudge gate, but virtually. We need people to offers songs, poems, and wisdom. We want to create a virtual fire circle, just like we have all experienced in all our diverse ways. There is room for everyone, although we will need to keep this appropriate for all ages. We welcome children and youth, including families. We hope in order to include as many people as possible in our 100 people limit that families/couples can just log in with one camera. Decorate your space that you choose to share on camera! Wear your magical attire, burn your incense, dance in your living room, and sing with the group! We will UNITE and love you through the fear and uncertainty. UNITE with us!
Please understand that you must JOIN THE FAMILY OF FIRE GROUP on Facebook or email me directly to get the information regarding how to join us in this inspiring event, UNITE. We are keeping it privately in the group in order to hold a safe container, but if your on my mailing list we are happy to send you the information if you don’t use or prefer Facebook. The event will be held on ZOOM and you can even simply call in from your phone, no video required. If you want to share the event on Facebook, you will notice that the group event is not shareable but you can find an event page on my BRIGHT HAWK PRODUCTIONS page that directs folks to join the group, to get the details. So please share THIS event Page.
BIG! 2020 is a BIG year, so much anticipation for this manifesting time. So many BIG things are happening for Bright Hawk Productions and our non-profit Let’s Dance Activities! First, a BIG EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT…. Bright Hawk is offering a Fire Circle that she is facilitating, organizing and visualizing along with other people including Hollis Taylor, Crystal J. Love, and Jason Bliss. This Fire Circle is completely different in the timing of the ceremonies and the intentional inclusion of children. We have worked hard this winter to manifest an event intended to include EVERYONE! Even to include families with children, Elders that want to share wisdom, and people with challenges that keep them from all night fire circles. The event space offers support for all levels of attendance from tenting to indoor space. Our event space even has handicap accessible indoor facilities! We are officially taking registrations at www.HeartlandFireCircle.com
HeartlandFireCircle.com – Dance In the Light with Us!
There is MORE and MORE, but here’s a little story! Then look for more exciting announcements below!
Van Life at Big Sur
Van life has its ups and downs just like living in a house. Although, unexpected mishaps can quickly become a disaster that eats your day. We had left Eugene, Oregon and had enjoyed sometime on the Pacific Coast.
We are both interested in healthy options and became intrigued with brewing Kombucha in our van. We brew two gallons, and that makes just about enough for the two of us. We are still working on our system and during our break in Eugene we worked to master the process. The scobies, the bacteria that makes the fermentation happen, are very active and the process is working.
All of us we have days that are more difficult than other days. Life is not about avoiding difficult days it’s about how you handle them. We were grateful to have enjoyed some days doing office work along the Pacific coast. We carried on into Santa Clara for a Let’s Dance program before we headed south to BigSur for a well deserved break.
Spring is blooming
BIG Ocean Views
Big Smiles from the Coast
Brilliant Blue Waters with BIG Spectacular Views
Loving #Vanlife on the Pacific Coast Hwy
As we drove out of the busy city, Hollis went to the center of the van only to realize the an entire gallon container of kombucha had spilled, the carpet was saturated and we both realized the entire van smelled like fermented vinegar! We really could not continue in this condition, so many levels of intolerable! As we inspected the damage we realized that this was going to be a project. We had to replace the carpet, clean things, relay carpet, and make more kombucha. We both sat in silence as we realized our plans to Big Sur were not happening tonight. We begrudgingly began to make plans to spend the afternoon with this overwhelming project.
We were relieved to find inexpensive carpet remnants and then drove into the city to find a DIY carwash tall enough for the van. We struggle through getting it all done with tired hungry bodies, carpet out and new carpet in. Hollis remastered the arrangement of things to assure this didn’t happen again. By the time we were finished we were both exhausted and frustrated with things and needing downtime. We sat in silence at dinner as Hollis reviewed the schedule and map,” Well I am grateful for this mess today because if we had gone to Big Sur for two days we would have to double back for our Let’s Dance program in Salinas, CA tomorrow!” Silver lining. We both stare at each other with raised eyebrows in surprise, realizing plans change, we both begin to relax and smile at each other, the stress of the day begins melting away. Bright Hawk says, “Well I guess it was meant to work out this way! We needed to slow down, study our schedule better, figure out a better system for the kombucha and finally get around to replacing the carpet, and now we have. ” Hollis agrees.
We both smiled and Bright Hawk asks, “Then do we have any time to spend in Big Sur?” Hollis reviews the schedule again and happily answers, “Actually we have several days to shoot video, get pictures and get a little rest.” We both look at each other as the stress fades, we have had easier days and will again. We know that everyone has moments like this, well, the details vary for sure! Often though as we sit and reflect we can find the silver lining in any hard situation. We took several quiet breathes together finishing our dinner and knowing that all moments pass–good, bad or otherwise.
We spent several days slowly meandering down the part of the Pacific Coast called “Big Sur” – savoring each beautiful moment because we are so aware of what we just went through. The beauty of the cliffs, the wisdom of the redwood trees and soothing nature of the waves washed away our rough start to the trip. We even spent time dancing in the sun with our shadows!
We slowly worked our way down the coastline on Highway 1 towards Morro Bay. We had pieced together that by the end of March we will have done the entire Pacific Coast Highway from Washington to Oregon and California! We were profoundly grateful for this life we have manifested. Even though it’s hard sometimes, we love our lives in the van! We worked hard to get to this point, we both have invested so much time and energy and every bit of it is worth it! For this we are grateful!
Redwoods at the Coast
Turkey *Gobble Gobble
Spring Flowers!
BIG Beach View
Waterfall Into the Ocean
Big Cliffs at the Coast
Sunset on the Cliffs of BIG Sur!
BIG Views, BIG SMILES, and BIG Fun at BIG Sur!
ANOTHER BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Bright Hawk and Hollis have been Featured in this Summit!
We want to THANK YOU for reading Bright Hawk’s Blog! AND we want to share another BIG important announcement with you! Bright Hawk and Hollis have been featured in a special Brain Degeneration Summit that is packed solid with resources for people living with brain degenerative diseases. We want to invite you to look deeper into this or share it with someone that might find it helpful. This is a big step for Let’s Dance Activities, our non-profit serving nursing care and memory care communities Nationwide. Its part of the reason we get around! We are so honored to be part of this event. Here is a link to the Let’s Dance Activities Blog and we hope that you take a moment to read some of the stories or spread the word.
Professionals Come Together with Resources for this Community
