2015 Gathering

The 44th annual rainbow gathering of the tribes is happening in the Black Hills of South Dakota." (The consensed areas include Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, and South Dakota.) For posts related to the gathering location including directions and site updates, click here. For the Howdy Folks, click here. To find out specifically where the gathering will be, you need to understand how we find our "home" each year. Click here for an overview of the process. To make it into the gathering without a ticket, click here. Please ignore all rumors of cancellation. Copy and distribute this information freely.

Monday, June 15, 2015

The Process Unfolding

This year the process is unfolding as it always does. We will meet at spring council on June 17 to discuss all the issues that those participating in council/counsel bring up. Your voice will be heard if you attend the council/counsel. As with all things rainbow, the process is open to all peaceful people.

My heart is breaking this year. There are tough and complex issues on the table with years of mistrust, oppression, and violence that brought us to this point. Wishing them away won't solve the problems, but then again neither will being mean to other human beings or this planet.  It's easy when attacked to want to attack back, but that just perpetuates the problems and does not work towards a solution. We all carry baggage with us. Can we try to acknowledge our baggage and set it aside as best we can when we try to communicate with each other?

If you are not familiar with the practice of active listening, please help us communicate more effectively by learning how to practice active listening.

If you are not familiar with our process, read the Council Mini Manual.

Please be patient as we work through the process. There are over five hundred years of problems on the table and some of the hurt and pain we are carrying may go back further than that. This is hard work folks.  Let us practice compassion with ourselves and each other as the process unfolds. Be the change you wish to see in this world.






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Please keep your comments to the point. Any comments advocating violence, sexism or racism will not be published. You don't have to agree with me, but you can't cuss me or anyone else out either. As of 6/11/15 I'm not sure how I will be publishing comments. Too many people just submitting the same comment over and over again and I'm overwhelmed by trying to sort this out. So feel free to comment, but understand I may not be approving all comments.