Beka > Recent Status Updates

"The Honorable Harvest asks us to give back in reciprocity for what we have been given.

One of our responsibilities as human people is to find ways to enter into reciprocity with the more-than-human world. We can do it through gratitude, through ceremony, through land stewardship, science, art, and in everyday acts of practical reverence."

"Outrage us love's wild and unacknowledged sister. She is the one who recognizes feminine injury, stands on the roof, and announces it if she has to, then jumps into the fray to change it.
She is the one grappling with her life, reconfiguring it, struggling to find liberating ways of relating."
-Sue Monk Kidd

Jewish feminist Helene Cixous writes, "We must learn to speak the language women speak when there is no one there to correct us."

"Our work is to neither run from nor fight against tension but to lean into it -- to settle in, make friends with discomfort, and accept that our lives are not marked by dualities. We were not made for one thing rather than the other. We were made for complexity, for depth, for nuance..."

On the Three Sisters (corn, beans, squash) being planted together
"...The harmony of shapes speak their message: respect one another, support one another, bring your gift to the world and receive the gifts of others, and there will be enough for all."

"The land loves us back. She loves us with beans and tomatoes, with corn and blackberries and bird songs. She provides for us and teaches us to provide for ourselves. Love is medicine for broken land and empty hearts."

I bought this book in 2021 and haven't had time nor motivation to pick it up. I opened it today with my 2nd cup of coffee, and it turns out that Evans' writings are pretty fantastic and challenging and exciting (and so far more spiritual than religious-based, so it doesn't feel too alienating for people who doesn't ascribe to a specific set of beliefs.)

"Rain fulfills her duty as she falls, because she was given the gift of sustaining life. What is the gift of humans? If gifts and responsibilities are one, then asking 'what is our responsibility?' is the same as asking 'what is our gift?'"

"How can we shape our lives in such a way that the land might be grateful for us?"

Love the reflections on beginning the day, at school or wherever, with gratitude for Mother Earth and all that she provides for us, rather than starting the day with an oath to a country or specific government.

Listening to this on libby and she's already helped me feel settled, comforted, alive and more centered than before.

"Let go of all rigid expectations of how these seeds will grow
and what they will grow into."

"I used to dream of a spellbinding, endless, forever romance. A beautiful story of meeting a person who could change your whole world.

But now, I realized, friendship could be that too."

Cousin Ellis said, "Give your friendships the magic you would give a romance. Because they're just as important. Actually, for us, they're way more important."

I thought about the magic that I could find, maybe, if I looked a little harder.

"Actually," I said, "I'm not really interested in getting a boyfriend."
"Oh, well," she said, patting my leg again, "plenty of time, my love. Plenty of time."

But my time is now, I wanted to scream. My life is happening right now.

"Have you met any nice young men?"
I didn't hate Gran for being like this. It wasn't her fault. She had been raised to believe that it was a girl's primary aim in life to get married + have a family. She had done just that when she was my age, + I think she felt very fulfilled because of it. Fair enough. You do you.
"Actually," I said, "I'm not really interested in getting a boyfriend."