Wow, what a beautiful idea for a group! This saved me from having to compose a blog post that might have been lost to obscurity.
Back in the day when I was young I considered myself a hippie. As a high school student we had sit-outs and protested school policy and actually caused effective change, we found our voice. But my stint in the ARMY and years of higher education and working in Babylon had changed me into one that sought comfort, money, and things. That’s not so bad in it’s self but it was my stuff. That’s how I looked at it; these things were for my pleasure and me.
I was deceived and ripped off in a very big way that left me broke, possession less, and homeless. Early in 1999 I found myself at my paternal brothers house (David) known as Wrongtree in the Rainbow family. He introduced me to his group of friends (Rainbow Family) and I found them gentle, caring and likeable enough. Just being them selves was not what impressed me though. They had a circle on Sundays at the time and what they would do every Sunday was discuss what events had happened during the past week and how they would effectively make the best of things. Several instances stood out in my mind that attracted me to this Family of individuals. First they were an entity as a whole. And second they took care of their own. A sister with a child was going to have her power turned off soon, so they passed the magic hat and collected enough money to keep that from happening. Then someone brought up that a brother was very sick and two of the attending sisters volunteered to take him food, see to his needs and clean up his house. These meetings were direct and to the point (Focused). Afterwards they would have a drum circle where anyone that wanted to could debate philosophical and other many facetted issues. In that way the events (circles) didn’t go off focus. I fell immediately in love with that family. I also fell in love with a sister from that family and followed her on her journey, traveling around the country feeding the homeless & Rainbow family for 5 years with our mobile kitchen.
Now this next part is important, while in Humbolt county Momma had the idea to have an ice cream kitchen at the Idaho Nationals and we would make Tortillas for the main circle so the bliss ninnies without blisswear could have a plate they could eat at main circle. (We had often seen kids saying “just put it in my hand” around the circle). So we took 30 hippies from Arcada into the National forest to have a test run for Kitchen crew. A local gave us a 5-gallon bucket of Grass and we were off. After 2 weeks and all the smoke being gone, half of the crew left back to town. I myself went back for supplies. The beautiful sister gave me another 5 gallons and I had a very good laugh at the kids that had abandoned us. Two weeks later we left caravanning with a SOLID crew of 10 not counting Momma and myself. The message I always pass on to my crew is this. What you learn along the way you need to take home with you, make your local family strong and teach them as well.
An important lesson I personally learned at that gathering I’d like to pass along here as well. We wound up being main supply from Family donations at the front gate and the clean-up kitchen for the weeks after the gathering that year. Half our crew would feed the family and the other half would work out in the field cleaning up. We alternated from day to day so everyone would be involved in the clean-up process. It was my first time cleaning up and when I came back to camp I told Momma I couldn’t believe how the Babylonians had come into our gathering and trashed it. Momma said that wasn’t Babylon that was family. I had a sudden revelation at that moment. We are not a Counterculture… We are a Subculture. The Rainbow family is directly connected to Babylon. The pot you use was made in Babylon; the food was bought or donated from Babylon, The tents, sleeping bags, etc. The ultimate truth is:
“Babylon in its entirety is Rainbow Family. It is our duty to learn and teach our brothers & sisters our ways. We are each and every one of us emissaries and ambassadors. We must remember the prophecy we clammed to hold so dear. When the earth is ravaged and dying a new tribe of people will come; make the earth green again and be known as the Warriors of the Rainbow.” Make your Family strong….
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