Dreaming of Sea Journeys

Click above to go to Pacific Voyagers website ~

11/5/2011 ~ I don't even remember when I began this draft, but will post it today... so much has happened in my water journeys ~ I hadn't realized that my daily water prayers would bring so many blessings... each day I live I am more enamored with the Creator and all our Universe ~ may light, love and pure sacred waters be safe on our beloved Pachamama ~

I sit here in awe at the power of spirit and the simplicity of listening. I am blessed by my relations, those who walk with me in these sacred times and I am honored to know you and be in your presence. This blessing crosses color lines and is truly representative of the medicine wheel, with all the races of the human being, Black, Yellow, Red and White. I give thanks to life itself, which springs from the beyond, our source, and I honor most of all our Creator, our ancestors, the elements of our Mother Earth (Tierra Madre/Pachamama) that we may live well in the beginning of times into the future. May all my relations be well in this time. May they be strong, may they see with new eyes, hear with open ears, speak truth, remember their beauty, and walk a good road.

I honor and respect my Pilipino heritage, and remember the message from Apo Reyna, received in Los Angeles, California, last year, that it was the Brown peoples that would bring peace and unity to the human beings. I am sharing that message now and calling all mixed blood peoples, the Brown peoples, like myself, a Pinay, to heed to this calling as time is very short and we must turn every soul to the light for our transition towards harmony and balance with the universe.

Many know me by different names, and I have yet to announce my true name, but I am pleased to meet so many people who are here to help save our Mother Earth and bring us into alignment with balance, peace and harmony in the universe. Each day we must walk a good path to bring those lost on a road to the good road, the road to life. We must embrace them with the Mabuhay spirit and bring calm to their hearts and peace to their mind that they join us on a good path. We must remember to pray each day with thanks and send our love deep to the land, to our waters, to our air and to the fire deep with our Mother and to our Sun, which brings warmth into our Solar System. Without these things, life as we know it, as human beings, along with all our relations, cannot exist. We must pray each day, each hour, each minute, each second within our hearts and recognized that, as Datu Vic, Talaandig Elder of Mindanao, told me, "All things are Sacred."

I return from the Canoe Journey to Swinomish Reservation in Washington with a message that the Coast Salish peoples are strong in reviving their traditions. I was blessed to travel with my Sistah Leng & witness together the strength, beauty and wisdom of the Elders in Swinomish. My good Sistah Shelly and her mother, Diane, hosted us and brought us into their family and blessed us with the presence of her wonderful sons, some wives and most importantly, the grandchildren. I am honored to witness the children as they represented both their Swinomish traditions and then joined Sistah Leng and I in the Storytelling Circle at Swinomish by presenting themselves, their fathers and then, along with Manang Juliet Cheatle, our Kalinga friend, some gangsa music to everyone. We danced around the beautiful fire in front of many Elders, including our wonderful Elder from California, Daryl Wilson, and a young woman, whose mother, an IndiPina with Kalinga roots, pulled in the canoe of the Chumash people. I am honored to know the sons of Grandpa Daryl Wilson, the sons he endearling called his Aztec princes & then with a twinkle in his eye, saying, "I must be a king!" I was so proud that CALI was represented in this year's Canoe to Swinomish 2011 that I recall after my volunteer shift, running to the point and saluting the pullers, with their double paddles, for representing the Chumash and peoples of my state in this Sacred Journey. I am blessed to witness the saving of a young girl from her troubles in the home of Elder Ray Williams, and honored that the Elders conducting that ceremony allowed my participation. I salute them in their work and I am honored to be in their presence and will always remember them. I am so thankful to see our dear Makah Grandma Dottie, whose guidance has helped me in this journey of life to be strong, be resilient, and to continue my work in bringing harmony, peace, unity and love back into this world. I appreciate her guidance and her prayers and I am honored to know her in this way.

My journey home from Swinomish was long. It was difficult because what should have been a short drive became almost double from the time we drove to Oregon. Nothing is without purpose. We finally arrived very late to OakTOWN early yesterday morning. Unfortunately, I slept through a midday meeting I had set up with my friend to plan for a healing cooperative we want to start. Next, I missed my own physical therapy appointment for my sprained ankle. Finally, I had forgotten about an evening meeting with my Asian artist friends, to plan our upcoming exhibit at NJAHS. Those meetings were not meant to be. Instead, I had a final meal with my wonderful "Road Perra," Leng Leng, with Joy from HI, and we share our dreams and a meal at No Worries, and met its owner, JR. This meeting was necessary for us to begin our plans for a seaworthy vessel of our own, one created to revive our own sea traditions. Joy then received a message to visit with her friends from the Pacific Voyagers, who just arrived from their own journey. These 6 of 7 vacas, flying flags from the Cook Islands, made their 18 day journey from Hawaii, wading outside at Point Reyes for two days when there was no wind. This voyage made to reconnect with Turtle Island.

I was honored to meet many of the voyagers yesterday, with Papa Koro, taking me on a tour on his vaca, and explaining vaca construction & the vaca fusion of modern & ancient constructions... several days of hanging out with the Pacific Voyagers, Bay Area residents who shared the love of the Pacific Islanders and the Voyagers, the Ohlone Heritary Chief, and my own Pin@y & Latino community ~ who gathered with me for the official welcome at Treasure Island. My life has been so full, blessed by the diversity of the SF Bay Area ~ I was honored to join my Tonga & Native American sisters in song & prayer to welcome the Pacific Voyagers to Turtle Island. There are so many memories of these blessed days, too many to recount ~ but I was to continue on to more water blessings in September, 2011 when I joined my Paiute/Washoe friends for ceremony at Lake Tahoe & traditional Washoe lands in Nevada.

Each day I must give thanks that I have access to clean waters for now and for the generations that follow me. I must pray for all living beings, seen and unseen, that we be in balance, harmony and peace with our home ~ Pachamama.