The Mini Manual - Life in Motion

An Invitation Page 1

Before there was the "Mini Manual" there was the Rainbow Oracle or  How to Blow Minds and Influence People (but the Oracle is not the purpose of today's blog post although you can learn a bit more about it here).  The Oracle was written before the first gathering as an invitation. However, as people started gathering, the Mini Manual of Gathering Consciousness was born as a way to share the collective wisdom on how to focalize and participate in a gathering in a manner that keeps the land and people safe and healthy.

The Mini Manual is a living document that people update over time as consciousness changes and new ideas come forth. For a version from the mid-90s (I think), click here.  You can also do a web search for "rainbow gathering mini manual and find other versions.

A few years back, Where Do I Poop was born. This great version of a mini manual covered the basics with humor and is available in PDF format here.

Recently, another version called An Invitation was born and you can find that version here


No matter which version you read, (and I recommend them all) or what it's called, please take the time to absorb this information so that when you are at your next gathering, you know this stuff inside and out and can share with others on the land.

Blessings to my amazing family for continuing to share traditions and new ideas in ways that are easy to understand.  Keep up the amazing work!

Sustenance and Safety (Part 3 of 5 of "Creating Peace")

One of the foundations of creating peace is making sure people are prepared, in the right mindset, and able to do the hard work that creating peace entails. Sustenance and Safety are the building blocks of peace.


Sustenance takes care of our bodily needs. We can't think well when our blood sugar is crashing or when we are dehydrated. Adequate food and water is a must for all in order to be able to even discuss peace (stay tuned for part 4 of Creating Peace).

One of the most important actions a person can take at a gathering is making sure everyone is eating and drinking plenty of water. This year we will be in the east and that generally means moister gatherings and lot's of sweating. One gallon a day of water that has been boiled for 20 minutes or filtered with a 0.2 micron or smaller filter is a must.

When people haven't eaten or are dehydrated they act out. When they are in these conditions for too long, they get sick.  When you combine these issues with over-indulgences, we have a recipe for problems that can impact the entire gathering.

Prevent the problems by making sure you and the people in your vicinity are eating and staying hydrated. Be on the look out for people who look like they aren't getting food and/or water and help them before they start breaking the peace. 

Now for the tough topic: safety.

Safety is a bit harder to come by because what constitutes a feeling of safety is a very subjective and emotional feeling.  To explain what I mean, we'll talk about the estuary by my house.  The salt marsh and estuary have been channelized to prevent flooding and on either bank is a trail. The east side is a paved path that hooks up with bike paths to the north and south. The west side is a dirt road with trees providing shade on a warm day as shown in the image.

The Estuary

People in my neighborhood have very different perspectives on the estuary. Some people view it as a haven for criminals and are afraid to go down there especially after dark. Other people loving taking their kids down to watch the Great Blue Herons and Osprey trying to rustle up a meal.

Now you would think there is some logic as to who feels safe at our estuary and who is scared, but so far I haven't observed any patterns.  I see people with small kids down there watching the sunset and in the early morning many seniors walk their dogs. Then I meet other people in their thirties and forties who are scared to go down without a large group of people because once upon a time someone had a bike stolen (maybe 10 or 15 years ago).

In addition to the herons and hawks at the estuary, one finds the differentially housed: people who live in tents or throw down a sleeping bag under a bush for the night.  Some people are scared of people with different lifestyles then their own, others exchange pleasantries with everyone. Some people who live in non-portable houses are scared of the differentially housed. Others make friends.

Every time I speak at a community meeting, some people go off the deep end on how dangerous the estuary is and others talk about how it's an asset to the community.  I know that I can't change people's opinions about which is which. Plus trying to address how people feel is tough. Your feelings are neither right nor wrong, they just are.

Low crime rates do not make people feel safe. Community makes us feel safe.

So having said all this, how do we help everyone feel safe at the gathering?

One way we can do this is to treat others the way they would like to be treated -- not the way you would like to be treated.  Try finding gentler voices. Look out for each other in peaceful ways and make sure the people in your vicinity seem comfortable. We all have different levels of tolerance, sensitivity, and fear. Honor that.

If someone looks uncomfortable, they probably are. Introduce yourself. Smile at someone you do not know.  We all feel more comfortable when we are around friends. Share your gathering wisdom. Pay more attention to body language. Learn to pick up vibes from the people around you. If you sense that someone is afraid of a situation, help them to feel comfortable by either staying with them, removing both yourselves from the situation, or trying talking to the other person about their fears in a supportive way.  Just because the situation is comfortable for you, doesn't mean it's comfortable for everyone.

Honor our differences and our need to be treated accordingly. Help each other on this journey.

Please pay special attention to law enforcement officers. A scared cop is a dangerous cop (remember Wyoming 2008?). Turn down the volume on negative energy by oming instead of cussing when you do not like a situation.

Think about how you would like others to act around your three year-old child and your ninety year-old grandmother and act accordingly.

Harvest (Fall/Thanksgiving) Counsel (Council/Circle)

Updated 11/16/17 @ 11:30  a.m. PST

For information on what and why, read my post here.  The counsel/council/circle takes place over the four day Thanksgiving Weekend, which this year is November 23 - 26.

This evening, "11/05/2017" there was a conference call to discuss a location to have Harvest Counsel for the 2018 annual, & after a short discussion there was a consensus to have this year's Harvest Counsel near Clayton Georgia.

For all folks looking to fly in for counsel, Clayton Georgia, is a 2 1/2 drive from Atlanta, & a 3 hour drive from Asheville North Carolina.

Directions to Harvest Counsel site will be posted on the Atlanta light line 770~662~6112 a few days prior to counsel.

Counsel time will be... November 23rd ~26th.
Lovin y'all 🌞

P.S. As you drive to counsel, please drive legal..

More information will be posted here as it becomes available. Or you can call the Atlantic Lightline 770-662-6112 - please no collect calls.

Harvest Council Flyer

October 28 - Georgia Family Potluck and Counsel

For folks in and around Atlanta, there will be a get together for folks working towards creating positive energy in Georgia. Call the Atlanta Lightline for info 770-662-6112.

Love (Part 2 of 5 of "Creating Peace")

The rainbow family is full of love. We shout "we love you" to the sky, to other gathers, to the earth upon which we gently walk.  I have many friends whose children were conceived at the gathering.  We shower love as best we can on people who are unhappy about our presence in their neighborhood. We love all our siblings (brothers, sisters and transgenders), even the ones we do not like all that much.  We love the person who didn't pick up their dog shit, but we want to talk to them about it as well.

We even have a somewhat sarcastic phrase "loven you" to indicate our concern without being too mushy. With all these types of love floating around, how does love contribute to creating peace? Does the manner in which we love matter or does it matter more how we express our love?

In English we are limited as we have one word for love. The ancient Greeks had four separate words for love:

• storge - kinship or familiarity
• philia - friendship
• eros - romantic and or sexual feelings
• agape - self-emptying or divine love

Spanish has many words for love:

• encantar - indicating strong like
• gustar mucho - indicating strong like
• querer - to love romantically, to want
• afición - enthusiasm
• amado - sweetheart 
• amor - pure love, romantic love
• caridad - charity

Love is also an emotion. A very strong and powerful emotion.  How many of you have made decisions based on amar, agape, caridad, eros, and storage? I'm guessing everyone.

For the romantics among us, love is what creates beautiful art, amazing music, and sleepless nights.

For the biologists among us, love is a biological function like hunger or thirst that creates attachments between people, thereby insuring their survival in a dangerous and hostile world.

For the psychologists among us, love is not only a feeling, but a series of actions. 

Unconditional love is a common theme of most of the major belief systems and is one of the often unspoken foundations of participating in the phenomenon commonly called the Rainbow Gathering.

So what does all this have to do with creating a culture of peace?

Well besides being a slogan from the 1960s, using love as a way to create connections strengthens our interpersonal relationships. If we love someone with whom we disagree, we are highly motivated to find a solution that meets the needs of everyone.  If we have no personal attachment to other living beings, then we can more easily ignore their perspective and we often do not care about their  happiness.

Yet loving each of our siblings all the time is challenging. Some of our siblings act out, behave poorly, don't clean up after themselves, steal, fight, or are just downright mean. What then?

Then we muster our agape and our caridad and try to make that connection. We try to befriend our siblings. By finding a connection, we are creating a relationship. It may be storage it may be afición, but if we can love another person in the worst situation, then maybe we can use that relationship to work towards peace.


But to be clear, loving someone does not mean you accept all their actions.


True love is being able to love your siblings while calling them on their bullshit (in a loving manner). 

True love is being able to communicate in a loving way why specific actions are hurting you, the planet, or other living creature.

True love is a meditative practice we undertake as we deal with the frustrations, interruptions, disappointments and annoyances that fill our lives.

 Let your mantra for this year's gathering be I love all my siblings and this beautiful planet we call home.

Love is the path towards peace.

ALERT: Fees for group use on Forest Service Lands

Hi Family, 

Paying to gather on our public lands is rearing it's head again.

HR289 has passed the house on October 8, 2017 and is headed to the Senate.

Please contact your senators and ask them to oppose HR 289 that would charge a fee for "specialized individual and group use of Federal facilities and Federal recreational lands and waters, such as, but not limited to, use of special areas or areas where use is allocated, motorized recreational vehicle use, and group activities or events." 

No doubt, this would apply to Rainbow Gatherings. 

For more info, click here.

Thanks to our friends at the Western Slope No Fee Coalition for the alert.

Please contact your senators today and tell them no way!

Hurricane Irma Relief Kitchen

Hi all,

Hear rumor that the kitchen in Florida should be getting set up Monday or Tuesday (Sept 18 or 19)  Once I have details I will share what the team wants shared.

Much love,
Karin

Rainbow Spirit Video

This video was originally made after the 1997 annual 4th of July gathering.  It was not filmed at the gathering, but is a great resource from some of the songs you will hear played around a campfire at a gathering. 

Altruist Relief Feed Texans - the Video

Hurricane Irma Rainbow Teams

Hi folks,

Just an FYI to let you know that a number of crews are gearing up to help in Florida once Hurricane Irma passes through.  I will update this page once I have details and locations on how to plug in.

Mama Earth is angry. Please listen to her.

Respect (Part 1 of 5 of "Creating Peace")

The gathering of the tribes is dedicated to creating peace on earth and the positive evolution of the planet. Sometimes peace seems so hard to attain, it can be helpful to focus on strategies that create opportunities for peace.  Today's concept is "Respect."

From the beginning, the gathering included concepts of respect. The invite to the first gathering in 1972 started off:

We, who are brothers & sisters, children of God, families of life on earth, friends of nature & of all people, children of humankind calling ourselves Rainbow Family Tribe, humbly invite:
All races, peoples, tribes, communes, men, women, children, individuals -- out of love.
All nations & national leaders -- out of respect
All religions & religious leaders -- out of faith

 If I were authoring the invite today, I would modify it to:
All races, peoples, tribes, communes, men, women, children, individuals -- out of respect and love.

So how then does respect contribute to creating peace?

Peace needs nurturing and dialog to plant its roots and grow.  Peace needs food and water.  If we do not respect the needs of peace and honor those needs, we are doomed to failure.  So how then do we go about creating respect at our gatherings?

When we gather, we are a community with a diversity of backgrounds, religious beliefs, political affiliations, interests, hopes and dreams. Honor that diversity in each of us -- our differences are what make us capable and interesting. Our connections are what make us strong.


The following ideas are commonly shared ideas, I didn't invent them, but I find it helpful to be reminded of them.


Respect is one of the core values in our attempts to create an egalitarian culture. By approaching my family with respect I am laying the roots for a relationship. By treating people the way they wish to be treated, I can connect with others. If I offer respect to another person, that person is more likely to offer respect to me and to others. People who are treated with respect, learn how to treat others with respect.

We are all part of this big, wonderful planet called earth and hence we are all connected. Rather than trying to severe these connections, let's strengthen them. In 1994 at the Wyoming annual gathering, a forest fire occurred at the edge of the gathering up on a ridge. We formed a human bucket line from the creek at the bottom of the meadow to the ridge. None of us could have individually carried enough water up that hill quickly enough to put out that fire. But standing shoulder to shoulder and passing buckets hand to hand, we connected water and fire and extinguished the flames.


Separate issues from people in a respectful manner. When someone is engaging in non-respectful behavior, respect the person enough to explain why the behavior is creating an issue that needs to be addressed.  And always focus on the behavior that is the issue.

Acknowledge the emotions behind the inappropriate behavior and ask the person if they could refrain from the behavior and share their feelings with us instead. We all do this with our children when we refrain from saying "you're bad" and instead say "you made a poor choice"  or "please use your words to tell your brother why you are upset instead of hitting him."  Why can't we use this same method with adults?  Especially those of us who are children in the bodies of adults.

As the early gatherers (or earlies as they are more commonly known) wrote a long time ago "we are all of us children" as we are just now learning how to live with each other.  Be patient. Some of us learn more quickly and some of us learn less quickly. We all started from different places so we all have different journeys ahead of us. Let's be fellow travelers on this uncharted sea.

Everyone has an opinion and their opinion is no better nor worse than my opinion or your opinion. When we create space for people to freely share their thoughts without fear or judgement, we are creating a space where we respect each other.

Listen. We show our respect to others by listening to what they have to say. We not only listen with our ears, but our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our hands.  When people feel heard, they feel respected. When they feel respected, they are more likely to respect others.

Respect is an important starting point for creating peace.

Hurricane Harvey Rainbow Teams

Updated 7:45 PM 9/10/17 Cali Time
Hi all,

As promised, here is additional information on what and who is on site and feeding people.

FFRE

Family of Friends Relief Effort (FFRE) Hurricane Harvey 2017 is looking for volunteers. First read the Volunteer Info Sheet. If this sounds like something you are interested in plugging into, fill out the F.F.R.E Hurricane Harvey Volunteer Application.

If you would like to donate dollars, click here and select "FFRE Kitchens."
 
They are located on the Houston/ Pasadena border! They are set up and feeding!!👍. Working along side the Cajun Army at there HQ. We are feeding them and local communities as well. the Cajun Army is delivering Organic Valley food we cooked as they work in local areas! As well as Perfect connection!!
Landing a spot has grass and secure. Crucial location.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS PLEASE PLEASE!!
Many Parts of Texas still have long way to go with recovery efforts.
Please visit www.unitedpeacerelief.org for information on F.F.R.E and our volunteer and donation links.
One Love!!

Altruist Relief

This is an off-shoot of Shining Light Kitchen. Folks are on-the-ground in Texas and feeding.  If you want to get plugged into their efforts and volunteer, email them. If you would like to donate dollars, click here.

Front Gate Kitchen

The kitchen known as "Front Gate Kitchen" (not to be confused with the front gate function) is on the ground and feeding people. They are at 10967 River Oaks Dr, Conroe, TX 77385.

Misc. Rainbow Kitchen

My apologies but I don't know what this kitchen is called. They have put out a call for volunteers to help prep, cook, and clean at our kitchen at 6105 Allendale Re. Houston.

Non-Rainbow Related Information

For general info on the situation, click here.

Misc. Info for people impacted by the flooding or those looking to see what is going on./

Confessions of a Rainbow Newbie

A lot of people who have never been to a gathering before have trepidation about what it's like. This great video talks about a woman's first trip to a gathering and what a culture shock it was.  For those of you who are long time gatherers, this is really funny. For those who are thinking of coming home for the first time, it's a great perspective from a newbie who approached the gathering with positive intention, love in her heart, and who found her own way to gather.

Enjoy!