Distractions and getting back on course

A lot has been shown to me recently. The layers of my personal story have become rich with details, family stories, guilt and sorrows of my lineage as well as gifts and triumphs, glories. In florida, I became somewhat distracted from my own goals by letting myself be of service to other peoples' dreams. and i love that, and I wouldn't change it, but I do need to work on reigning in the time I spend on the microcosms so that I can also be of service in a broader sense.

I don't know if everything I write will make sense to every reader, but I can only speak my truth.


Yesterday on my drive to Baltimore from Florida, many things happened but the biggest was an impromptu ceremony, a rite between myself and the world. I married myself to my deep calling, that of using my divinely granted gifts to do good by the world. I solemnly swore, in the woods behind a rest area, in a very highly charged natural setting, near part of the Purple Heart Trail in Virginia, my commitment to the things I believe in. And I asked the world to support and protect me as I fight for these ideals:

Beauty
Truth
Love
Nature
Humanity
Goodness



While I realize these ideals are broad, the power behind them connects me to divinity. In my sacred rite, I left behind some powerful tokens, symbols of the journey so far. I was initially compelled to leave all of my money and my bank card, to show my absolute disbelief in the money economy.



Instead I left a little bit, as well as a very significant symbol I have been carrying with me since I first visited Occupy Wall Street. The buffalo tooth, given to me during a sacred time (i mention it in this piece) as well as a tiny cross that belonged to my great grandmother, Eleanor Shepley (I can't remember her maiden name, unfortunately. Maybe it was Nyahy? Someone had that name... anyway...) which I have tucked away in very random places since I was a little girl.



 I felt that these two things together connected me to past stories that I am part of. I bound them together with part of a broken bracelet, a bracelet that each girl I was in Montauk with in 2010 had gotten, and this symbol connects me with the stories of my generation and younger. (if you would like to read about the significance of Montauk to me, read the third-to-last paragraph in this very personal essay. )



My commitment to this movement is unwavering. Along this journey, I have come to realize that my visions for the future have been haunting me since I was young, and the momentum of the now is what I have been waiting for, and preparing for, all that time. I understand my role, or parts of it anyway, and I see that all I can do is continue to spend my time, energy, and attention in service to that dream. The dream which has been dreaming me all along.


The two things I feel strongly about bringing forth are Healing and Building. Healing is a significant part OF building. People are sick, from toxins in the environment, and also in food, and in the old information.

Beliefs are part of the poison. Moving from one paradigm to another is going to be challenging for many people who are going to hold tight to those teachings of the old system. I do believe that some of those beliefs are a poison, intoxicating human beings to go against their very natures and to sabotage their own forward motion. So Healing involves the mind, the body, and the environment.

Personally, I feel fit to serve the world with my gifts. In working as a massage therapist since 2006, my bodywork has become an extension of the beliefs I hold. Even my singing voice carries the energy vibrations of my very strong desire to connect others with healing energy. Because of my connection with nature, my intuition allows me to bear witness as other people connect with the source of healing energy within themselves. With strong healing vibrations, we can cleanse and purify ourselves and our world.

We can start anywhere, as our minds and bodies are the first house, our dwellings then, our cars, our closets, our yards, our neighborhoods, city, and on. The planet is our home. We must heal on every level. (I highly recommend the book Clearing your Clutter with Feng Shui, by Karen Kingston.)

 In this way, we can come to see how cleaning our rooms is progress forward. Cleaning our bodies. Every step towards any honorable goal is a step towards building a better world.


 And then there are some big goals. Some lofty, beautiful, big dreams. Those, I can visually see in my mind's eye, but it will take a lot of conversation and planning with people of like minds to bring them about. Suffice to say, we must build new community centers, and that task will be a joyful one. I would outline the new community center I envision, but it would take all night, and I have places to be! Instead I will leave it to your imagination for now!

There is so much happening every day. There is so much you can choose to pay attention to. Make sure the information you are feeding yourself is serving your highest good! I am working on that- it is too easy to get distracted by all the good information!

I'm becoming able to reign in my attention more easily, and allow my commitment to the highest good to lead me. Its easier with a body clean from distracting substances (sugar, gluten, other substances deemed safe and normal, but actually quite detrimental to at least my own sense of clarity...)

Now that I'm back up north, you can expect to hear more from me soon. I'll be in Trenton tomorrow and Monday for non-violence training and the rally that's been in the works for awhile but no longer serves the purpose of changing the DRBC vote, as that was cancelled (presumably due to public outrage! thanks be to you if you participated by calling governors/ etc) I'm sure it will still be a worthwhile meeting of the minds.

I may be on this radio show on Friday, with the energy healer I mentioned receiving work from at OWS in early October. (same post as buffalo tooth link above) If not Friday, then in December.

Not sure if I'll make it downtown until Friday, but I'm excited to return to New York, and start working from there!

Right now I'm in Baltimore and there are new stories to make! Much love

jackie dandelion

Goldie and Dandelion on the Beauty and Truth tour.

Through the woods I'm goin',
Through the bogs and mire,
Straightway down the road,
To my heart's desire

If I was where I would be,
Then I would be where I am not,
Here I am where I must be
Go where I would, I cannot. 

Today in Florida, i was greeted by circling birds of prey, butterflies, belladonna, lizards, young girls named Aurora and Evangeline playing with flowers in a culdesac, warm lemons sweet in the sun, dragonflies, and a giant pine cone from some phantom great pine tree. The journey has been at times beautiful and illuminating and at times, very hard and trying work. Most of my sleep has come in the back seat of the car, while my soul-mirror sweet sunny sister friend Goldie takes the wheel.

Goldie and Dandelion, on tour for beauty and truth.

I have heard stories from residents of towns along the way. How they're coping with the struggle of being alive in the world today. There is so much hardship, so much disease, poverty, and pain. People are trying to make good lives for themselves, but the resources are so scarce. I go into all these roadside markets- these places along the road which should be unique centers of trade, waiting in welcome for sojourners. Instead, we find the same damn thing over and over. A vast display of non-food substances in brightly colored packages, newspapers and magazines with mind-boggling heaadlines designed to distract people from eachother and the natural world, tobacco and caffeinated mutant beverages decorating this bizarre, fake plastic, fluorescent-lit would-be oasis.

At least the humans there are individuals. Dee in Florida told us about http://survivalist.info/ which is an awesome resource for us all right now. Joe in Georgia told us about how ridiculous it is, that in his neighborhood there are all these empty homes, and the garbage pickup service leases garbage cans to each one, yet there are families living two to one house, sharing also the garbage can and not allowed to use the unused. Sounds like a common situation, no? How many homes are empty? How many people need homes? What is going on here?

 Sherl, Ashley, and Ashanti, in South Carolina, I think, (we were a little road-weary and not sure if we'd crossed a border yet) told me where I could go for a salad bar, informed me of all the grocery options (IGA, Publix, Walmart) and treated me so kind. Ashley, probably in her late teens or early twenties, had bright eyes, and a beautiful smile. Ashanti, probably about four years old, gave me the sweetest hug. Sherl was kind to take her time explaining to Goldie and I where we might find some real food. We decided not to stop, though, as our journey was a winding one.

It was Wednesday when I left Baltimore. The night before, I rode a borrowed bike down to McKeldin Park, where Occupy Baltimore makes its home. I got to participate in the discussion between small groups about how to spend the time of GA's. I think this is probably a common thing amongst growing occupations. How long should we spend talking about camp-specific issues (like quiet time, tent-sharing rules, how to deal with people who disturb the peace there, etc) and how much time to devote to political action and ideas. The night I was there, we discussed a few ideas that seemed promising, including having a weekly schedule of changing focus topics, and designating one weekend day and one week day for large-scale meetings in hopes of gathering greater attendance from the general public who cannot devote as much time to being in the square.

I just learned that police refused to allow local band, Celebration, to perform at the Occupy space. Ridiculous. I don't know what the specific issues are, here is a facebook thread about it: http://www.facebook.com/#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=163063733789607&id=144588345637146

Here is an electric tarot card:


I arrived around 9pm to gather Goldie and her things for the drive south. She was heading to Florida, where she was raised, to audition for a film on Saturday, which is today, and I am currently sitting in her family's home, typing this to you while she is finishing up the audition. We met on Sunday, the 6th, after the Tar Sands action to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline, which you may have heard about... The action reached the objective and Obama has halted the project, "indefinitely" and I hope that's the truth, but we will continue to protect the planet from such atrocities, no matter when they're threatened again.

The next thing to really stand up for, that I know about as a resident of the East Coast, is November 21 in Trenton, NJ. Its very important. You should probably go, and/or, call/write to the governors of NY and Delaware, and Obama's rep and tell them off about fracking. http://savethedelawareriver.com

This is no joke. Our natural resources are under attack, and WE MUST vocalize our non-consent. The rivers don't speak a language the politicians hear, but you do. You have power. Use it!


The night in DC before we set off south was pretty instense. I won't bother with the myriad details, I'll save them in case anyone ever wants to write a screenplay about this wild wild ride. Suffice to say, we didn't leave DC limits until nearly 6am. We'd hoped to stop at the Richmond Occupy, but our directions were faulty from our exhaustion, and we didn't realize until we'd already passed by. The brave Occupiers there, though, had decided to ReOccupy Richmond that very night, after their first camp was bulldozed by the Commonwealth. From what Ben in Baltimore told me, the laws are different in Virginia because it is a commonwealth rather than a state, and the government functions differently there. Huh! Wierd! Whodathunkit? Anyway, I guess the authorities have been pretty harsh. I would have loved to come and meet the courageous ReOccupiers, and I hope to in the near future.

Goldie and I brought a box of the Occupied Washington Times, distributed by the encampment on K street in DC. We left them at rest stops and gas stations, in waiting areas, in newspaper boxes, diaper-changing tables in womens' restrooms, and in lots of peoples' hands. If I'd prepared more for this, I'd have printed some pamphelets myself with some more direction for online resources. People are hungry for information. A lot of people haven't yet heard about what we're doing. They will, though, and I hope when they do that they're getting an accurate idea of what we're all about.

Relying on a lot of kind strangers, we got the engine checked (theres a lot of corrosion in mine which leads to a very noisy ride) we got to sleep in a safety-patrolled parking lot rather than a seedy motel, and found places to purchase food and natural remedies. We meandered beneath tall pines at rest areas, and examined the varieties in small islands of plant life between asphalt and concrete corridors. We collected roses and marigolds and geraniums, pinecones and spanish moss, little living mementos of our journey.

To fuel our bodies, we've been consuming mostly nuts, fruits, bee pollen and propolis in raw honey, and coconut butter, along with some supplements and a lot of water. So far, so good. It feels like we've struck a natural rhythm together.



Goldie and I are an interesting match. Dandelion and Goldie, Golden girls, soul-mirror sisters. The coincidences are uncanny, but I won't draw them out too far right now. We're both 28-yr-old aquarians with long blonde hair and an unrelenting feeling of responsibility to the planet. We are true mirrors to eachother, and are constantly learning from our shared experiences, able to collect new information about how to integrate aspects of the other into our own personalities. She is much more organized and practical, so well-informed and formulaic about implementing action. I am so very intuitive and abstract, motivated by my sense of beauty and adventure. Our bottom lines are the same, though, and we both mean business about this task ahead of building a new world.

As a movement, we really are shaping the world to come. The existing power structure is failing before our eyes, and I believe our movement is here to provide a true safety net for when the inevitable collapse leaves people stranded in unfamiliar territory, with no money and none of the supposed security of the previous paradigm. What we are now building is a different type of infrastructure, powered by people and the natural world, a true world community. We are connected via this information age already. Now, we will connect also in person and on the ground. There is so much power for change accessible to us all right now.

Now is the time to clean up your life. We are working on healing here. We must all heal from the inside out and the outside in. Cleaning up our minds, bodies, homes, yards, neighborhoods, towns, counties, states, regions, countries, and earth are all part of the same task. This is the true occupation. It is time to heal. We can do it together.


On the road I get so hungry for information! It is like water, and I find myself so glad when I get to spend some time on the internet. My updates may be sparse as I travel, but I will try to give my best when I can. There is so much more to this story! There will continue to be more! Shout out to the sweet hearts of OccupyJax (Jacksonville FL) who welcomed us into their standing occupation the other night. No camping! The occupiers take shifts! Everyone is so awesome. Everything is going to be alright.

Hopefully, we're heading towards New Orleans very soon, though the road seems to direct our course somewhat. We both have work we know we have to do now, and its a beautiful thing. Maybe I'll see you in Trenton on the 21st to save the Delaware River from poisoning, or on the 22nd in DC to welcome the sojourners walking from NYC through Philly and Baltimore to our nations capital. I hope we have a huge party on the whitehouse lawn. It is our own yard, after all. Or maybe I'll see you in your own hometown!

Much love to all! Be good!

Great Teaching Video for Occupiers

This video is quite long, but if you are involved in occupying, its full of valuable information, many ideas for  going forward. Raw footage of an interview with Lisa Fithian, who has a vast bank of experience with political activism. There are some beautiful pieces of advice here. Easy to play this and listen while you multi-task! <3 She says so much that I have been saying and thinking, and other stuff I hadn't thought of that I agree with. Listen up. Even if you're not that involved in Occupying, or not at all, whether you want to be or not, this is a great discussion to hear about moving forward as a community, as citizens of earth. Highly recommended. Spend some time, get some value. <3

Occupy Baltimore, Troy Alexander; the duty of artists and intellectuals

I went to Occupy Baltimore during the day, and was disappointed to find very few people occupying, and of those few, many homeless folks. Baltimore is a very poverty-stricken city, so I wasn't surprised by their presence, but by the scarcity of intellectuals and common people. Its a very different scene from Wall Street, where college professors, anarchists, musicians, labor union workers and common people of all ages are mingling at all hours. I have yet to be there for the GA which happens nightly, so I hope to attend later and see how the space changes when the community fills it. I did meet some smart and kind people down there, including Troy Alexander, who has this important message:

Remember, the state is the people. That means the state is an institution for the people. No one single person is above the state. When the state becomes a means to enslave and work against the common interest, against the common person, action must be taken. It is the duty of the artists and the intellectuals of this state to express and put into words and action the protest of the common person. If we fail to do this then we, as an entity of the state, keep the power in the hands of the few. We must live up to the obligations and expectations of what god created us for; to be the voice of the people. It is not our right, but our duty, to serve people against the corrupt institutions of wealth and extremism. We are the shepard; the corrupt are the wolves. 

-Troy Alexander

Angela Davis at Washington Square Park October 30

Angela Davis gives a great speech on what this is really all about.


"We say YES to Hope, We say YES to the Future!"

change the way the whole world works. patience @occupy detroit

its a little hard to hear because of wind, but this is a sweet, short video from a protester named Patience at Occupy Detroit.

i hope someday you will join us.

"the constitution is a beautiful document"

another veteran for the people

Saturday, October 8, 2011 -- Occupy the Fed, Los Angeles: Dani Rascon, co-director of Oath Keepers of LA, interviews Paul, an 8 years veteran of the Army Reserves. Paul says, “If the Constitution was enforced effectively and properly, we wouldn’t be here today. The Constitution is a beautiful document.” He also addresses that the 16th Amendment was never properly ratified.

Paul is an Army veteran, having served 8 years in the Army Reserve, currently works as a school teacher in LA County, describes himself as an independent, not trusting either of the two major parties.

via Oath Keepers

Sgt. Shamar Thomas, Iraq Veteran FOR AMERICAN FREEDOM

"that Patriotic blood runs through my veins."







great interview with Iraq War Veteran, Sgt Shamar Thomas. Thank you to another hero.

and the reason he was interviewed, "1 marine vs 30 cops"

the revolution is beautiful; images

a lot of these are from occupy LA. found via flickr searching. just thought it was about time for more images.
enjoy