Hey, steamy Steemsters!

To lil' ol' me, y'all are the big wide world! My name is Lucy, also known as Luz as of late. While pondering how I'd introduce myself to you lovely folks, I was inspired by Alan Watts' "Out of Your Mind" lectures to get, in the words of Kendrick Lamar, "really really real," releasing notions of what I think people want to hear and attuning to the divine energy that wants to flow through me. Mad gratitude to the amazing @anwenbaumeister for introducing me to these lectures on our 22 hour road trip to the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota for the Indigenous Wisdom and Permaculture Skills Convergence later this week (!!!) and for bringing me on here to connect with y'all! So honored and excited to be plugging into new communities and for the opportunity to share some of the beautiful and fascinating wisdom that's been blessing me up as of late.

In the past, labels have been a source of shame and anxiety for me, so I had some fun coming up with many possible titles for my highest self....

Luz = * artivist * sound healer * queer magic maker * curatrix at the MUSEum of Possibilities * synergizer of synchronicities * Earth regenerator * permaculture designer * student of the singular soul * treasure hunter * community organizer * meandering mystery meditator * creative liberator * burgeoning beatboxer * polyjamorist * sacred circle song collector * bird whisperer * dream decolonizer * recovering human * funky fresh fiddler * freewheelin' whistler * (newly/mostly) nonviolent communicator * lifelong learner * alternative/popular education enthusiast * cookie monsta * aspiring astrologer * lucid dreamer * sun gazer * light worker * cosmic love vibration

Hopefully, these eSteemed titles communicate a bit about who I am and what I'm jazzed about.... which is a lot! Sometimes my inner critic tells me it's all "too much"--but as the wise Whitman wrote in his epic Song of the Open Road, "I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness." This blog is a space to integrate my many passions and connect with others on similar journeys of learning and unlearning. Ever expanding y'all!

Permaculture and Community Organizing

As I mentioned, I'm heading to the Indigenous Wisdom and Permaculture Skills Convergence this week. I'm really excited about this opportunity to integrate and deepen the work I've been doing over the past several years.

Permaculture--a regenerative design system rooted in the concept of "permanent culture" or "permanent agriculture"--builds sustainable communities rooted in the ethics of Earth care, people care, and fair share. I first learned about this framework while traveling in Latin America and volunteering for nearly a year with Alianza Arkana, a beautiful nonprofit in the Peruvian Amazon working with the Indigenous Shipibo people to preserve and regenerate their land and culture. Incredibly, I randomly stumbled upon the sage Steemit sagas of @ladylunasi and @itchykitten, both of whom I met in the rainforest through that work. Turns out we have some mutual friends here in the Bay (shoutouts to @jaredwood and @brookeporter)! Grateful to all o' yas for the amazing work you're all doing in the world! I hope to reconnect sometime soon.

Me with two of my nearest and dearest Shipiba grandmothers

My experience with the Shipibo was beautiful, intense and mind-blowing, Earth- and reality-shattering. It prompted a lifelong journey into the magical realms of decolonization, cultural consumption and appropriation, indigenous cosmology, the role of indigeneity in the current context of climate crisis, shamanism, and communication with the more-than-human plant and ancestral spirit worlds. I'm interested in exploring these topics in more depth in subsequent posts. Suffice it to say that I'll be processing my experiences with the Shipibo for years to come and am continually floored by the depths of the humility and wisdom that I witnessed during my time with them.

Upon returning to the U.S. in 2015, I plugged into similar conscious communities here in the Bay Area, attending the 2015 Building Resilient Communities Permaculture Convergence and the Bioneers Conference. I worked at Bioneers for a while, and then as a community organizer with the Northern California Community Resilience Network, supporting efforts to make the practice and teaching of Earth regeneration more accessible to marginalized communities. I learned loads along the way about the inspiring work these organizations are doing on the ground and about how insidious and deeply ingrained colonial mentalities are, both in progressive nonprofit spaces and in my own mind.

Last year, I got my Permaculture Design Certificate at the Earth Activist Training with Starhawk, Charles Williams and Pandora Thomas. I just recently participated in another course held by friends I met there--the Reclaiming Origins of Traditional Sustainability (ROOTS) PDC at the Soul Flower Farm School of Earth Medicine. I'll definitely be writing another post about it soon for folks who are interested in learning more about efforts to teach permaculture in ways that honor its origins in the traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous peoples (often overlooked in most PDCs, as permaculture as a formal discipline was created by two white men from Australia). In the meantime, the School of Earth Medicine is offering wonderful classes in El Sobrante each week on topics such as natural beekeeping and herbalism. Maya and Yasir are amazing teachers and spiritual leaders. I can't recommend them more highly.

This year, I'll be working to spread the word about this kind of wonderful work as the Media Lead with the 2017 Building Resilient Communities Permaculture Convergence. We're hoping to generate some hype about all the radical, regenerative work being done to make our movement move. Goddess knows that with all the chaos, doom, and gloom of the current Cheeto-in-Chief, mainstream media tends to talk a lot more about the myriad crises and disasters afoot than about successful efforts to build community resilience at the local level.

I'm helping the Convergence organize a multi-media art and stories contest for regenerative culture to shed light on some of these efforts (formal announcement with prizes forthcoming!). Folks who are interested in this work, have permaculture/regenerative culture stories of their own they'd like to share, or who have connects with alternative media that might be interested in collaborating, please hit me up!

Early bird ticket sales end soon, so snag 'em while they're hot!

Music/Sound Healing/Artivism

That's a bit about what I'm up to work-wise, but personally and spiritually I've actually been stepping back from the whole notion of building a "career" to focus on my own personal healing through music and community.

My harvest from a solo busking expedition in the mercados of Pucallpa, Peru near the Shipibo village where I lived

I've been jamming on fiddle with the Thrive East Bay Choir for a while now, which is a huge blessing and privilege. Thrive East Bay is "a purpose-driven community committed to creating a flourishing world for all," according to our mission--basically like a secular, spiritual church for activists, artists, and everyday folks. I'm involved in an effort called the Thrive Street Choir started up by my dear friend Kyle Lemle to organize community members to show up at protests in order to sing movement music old and new, bringing the spirit of song back into the struggle!

Last month, I was able to perform with them in a benefit concert with Rising Appalachia held to support the creation of a Joanna Macy Center at Canticle Farm in the Fruitvale District of Oakland. This was an unreal opportunity, as Rising Appalachia is one of my all-time favorite bands. It was literally the Universe dropping on my head the ultimate affirmation of my music-making endeavors. I never in a million years would have thought I'd be "good enough" to perform onstage with my favorite band (and my inner critic still tells me I'm not--shoo!). In any case, I've been praying for many moons to manifest more music in my life, as it's what makes me feel most alive in this world, and lo and behold, it's a'comin'! Goddess willing, I'll write about my studies of sound healing, collaboration across musical cultures and genres as forms of healing our divided world, vocal improv, harmonics, sound engineering technology, etc.

Energy Healing/Spiritual Seeking

To wrap up, I'm just gonna kick the main props where they're due--to the triple jewels of the Buddha (teacher), the Dharma (teachings), and the sangha (community of practice). I recently took a course with my partner on Pranic Energy Healing and a workshop with my friend Gabe Crane on building qi fields, both of which totally changed my life. (Gabe's got an introductory Qigong workshop coming up this Saturday, by the way, for folks in the Bay who are free to check it out!) I'd love to share about some of these experiences with y'all as well at some point, with the strong disclaimer that I honor the true teachers of these Eastern healing lineages, do not claim any expertise whatsoever, and identify only as a student of many modalities. Writing about it all will help me weave together my personal healing journey and gain deeper clarity around where I want to focus my energy and continued studies. I hope it might also be of use to others in their explorations as well!

Altar to the plants, spirits and ancestors at my old place in Berkeley

The overarching theme of my blog, "Harvesting the Qi Field," came to my cousin as we communed with the spirit of cannabis (read: smoked a jay together! I'm trying to remember to invoke her spirit before smoking these days!). The title helps me integrate this maze of my own mind!

Blessings and mad gratitude to folks who made it this far!
Looking forward to more connecting and collective remembering....

Love,
Luz