Page 27 - Dark Matter Women Witnessing
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the elephants seemed to deliberately come meet us. The desert elephants of
Damaraland, in Namibia, reached their trunks into our vehicle to sniff us.
Stories make images, images make memories, memories feed questions. What does it
mean to inhabit a question? To invite the questions, the images—and the elephants
themselves—to inhabit us, and to notice where they take up residence in our bodies and
in our lives? That blue jay. Those elephants. That soldier. Is there Mercy enough for me?
Enough for us all? Not God’s mercy, but our own. They’re one and the same. That’s the
point.
Back in the U.S., Deena and I sit together to ponder what the elephants might want from
us now. In our minds, we journey to meet them. At first all is darkness and chaos.
Fleeting images, none that are clear. But at the last moment, I hear them say, Learn to
listen with your feet. Then you will know what to do.
It behooves us to consider that the elephants realize that our species has gone rogue -
that our trauma is driving us to rape and destroy; that we are in dire need of some
serious cross-species eldering and matriarchal leadership; that they are calling us back
into the life-and-death alliances that are our birthright if we are to reweave the threads of
ourselves back into the tapestry of Life. It is the last hour of the last afternoon of the last
day – the hour of the elephants. It is time to quiet ourselves in order to receive them.
And so, and now, how shall we live?
About the Author
Cynthia Travis is a writer and documentary filmmaker, and is
Founder & President of the non–profit peacebuilding organization
everyday gandhis (www.everydaygandhis.org). Since 2004,
peacebuilders from everyday gandhis have been working with
traditional communities, women and ex-combatants in Liberia,
West Africa, and with selected schools and communities in the
US. All projects arise from dreams and community dialogue. She
recently launched the new blog, Borders and Edges
(www.borders-and-edges.blogspot.com). In a former life she was
a teacher and mediation trainer for children in California and New
Mexico. She lives in a small intentional community on the
Mendocino Coast.
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