(The following letter is from longtime friend Charla Hermann at Hawkwind Earth Renewal Cooperative in Valley Head, Alabama, northeast corner of the state at the foot of Lookout Mountain. She wrote in the aftermath of the great tornadic storms which ripped across the Southeast United States April 28-30, 2011, about a month after the historic earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan on March 11, just prior to the impending all-time record flood of the Mississippi River. – S.M)

In case any of you are waiting for the Earth Changes, please head on over to Alabama or Tennessee right now. Hawkwind IS the front row seat

For many, there is no electricity for maybe weeks with at least 90 towers down. No cell service. The neighbors did get a shower at the Hawkwind shower house, because we still had water. The Mayor is grateful that his wife can wash her hair at our place. No cell signal from all of the bent towers unless you drive out someplace. But you have to have gas to get there and in many places you can only buy $10 worth at a time. Go to Wal-mart and you are guided to be allowed to buy FIVE items. Try to find a way to fill or transfer a life impending prescription and you are pretty well screwed. Go to Dollar Store and you can knock on the door and tell them what you want and pay cash. They shop for you. The water must be boiled in many towns. Places have guards and check points. Granny Ruth and Tarwater played cards by candle- light, while she put up clotheslines to hang wet things. Most folks have no way to cook or clean. It’s getting smelly. Priorities shift when one knows how little is available to them.

The local police car is trapped under his overturned trailer. He had just purchased it, after his house burned down. They deputize locals to help with the protection process, which means you have untrained and sometimes gun bearing bad boys with some idea of new power. AND yet we are grateful that they are ready to help clean up in something that will take years to restore.

Oh yeah, and want to try to find a bank open or a credit card machine to use????? THINK ABOUT THIS.  TODAY IT IS OUR TOWN, TOMORROW IT COULD BE YOURS. They day it becomes all of us……………………get the drift. The portal of 2012 is alive and well in the South. We have had seven years of droughts, floods, worst winter, hurricanes, tornados, oil spills, and on and on and on.  The people are in chronic PTSD. We use lots of rescue remedy and pray more than ever.

During the last purification lodge I reminded everyone what Chief Phil Lane and Grandfather Arvol Lookinghorse had recently shared about the dates and times of shifts along with the prophecies and the need to stay alert. I reminded them of Sun Bear and Grandpa Wallace’s lessons of survival back -packs and preparedness. I told them of the Mayan predictions of the Angel of Death passing the South Gate in April. Along with many other brilliant messages we had received from councils all over the world. KNOWING THIS DOESN’T MAKE IT EASIER. We have an advantage, because we practiced living in a tipi and tiny cabin with no utilities for several years. We are way older now and it is not so much fun. Oddly right now my being in Atlanta is easier than being on the land. That could change just as fast with another storm. AND MY BACKPACK IS AT HAWKWIND. DAHHHHHH.

Oh my, bedlam has many faces. We are seeing many of them right before our eyes. Fear has many responses and we are only seeing a few of them and are keenly aware that they could change on a dime. We place ourselves in that protective bubble and pray it won’t burst open with crazed, hungry folks. Not that we have any food for them to snag, as we had just taken everything from the cupboards to the shelters and had planned to restock as soon as we made some bucks with the tax season. OOOOPS. And still we are glad someone got to eat the food that was about to expire.

I have spent the weekend in North Carolina at Wise Wolf Council, attempting to wax wise. I have been being blessed with acupuncture and biofeedback daily to guide me back to Atlanta to the infectious disease center next week. I already know that this storm means I might not be able to get back to Hawkwind for weeks or months, and my favorite clothes are there, or my latest project is there. I am here, loving the grandkids and holding space for my family as best I can. I limp forward having hoped to be much more graceful in this dance of change. I thank creator each moment for the safe haven of the soul.

Tarwater and Lulu invite you all to come to the Mother’s Day lodge and pray for all the mothers. AND MOTHER EARTH. You can bring things for the local shelters, like soaps, shampoos and cleaning supplies. They will get delivered to the designated places. We will try to publish a list of what is needed, but please don’t bring us more things for us to sort through, as we have plenty of our own challenges.

We are asking folks to be mindful that we have limited resources as well. Our propane costs have doubled, as have all of the utilities to keep the place going.  If you want to come early and help chop wood or mow the camp- grounds, awesome. If you have time to help in the garden, that would be great. Tarwater is trying to do everything he can by himself and we are SO GRATEFUL for Jay, Doug, Lee, and Ben. Michelle, Krista and a few more who have been dropping in to help when they can. I am simply not able to do any of this right now.  Lulu sews for a few hours, tattoos for five days, tills the garden and loves her grandchild who comes to help as well. Then she gets up to sing for the lodges that I can no longer help lead. She hauls the lodge covers to Granny Ruth to wash, and then Granny smiles as she does the dishes and cleans the mess hall. She plans the next menu and heads to the store to buy more food to feed the next folks who will arrive. She is in her mid-80’s and is helping keep the place going.

We are working on time appropriate Spirit Dance instructions and will send them out later in the month. Right now we have a few personal challenges to address before we can vision that bigger piece for everyone else. It’s a pretty intense time in our family, just like many more of you. We are grateful to have Medicine tools, insights and faith. And still some days that just doesn’t feel like enough. No pity parties here, just the facts.

Life style just changed for everyone.  Pray for everyone and all of the elements no matter where you are, PLEASE. Pray for children who thought it was fun that school closed, until they saw that they had to stay home with no video games.  When the batteries ran dead, there weren’t any for the flashlights. Pray for folks who have no place to go or are trying to bury family while they have no means to even take a bath, much less get proper funeral services. Pray for the stranded old folks who can’t get out to get help or a phone signal and no one knows they are in trouble, alone at home. Pray for the animals that are in trauma. Tarwater tells me when the storms hit, Mr. Muggins our dog-child tried to hide in the downstairs bathroom shaking like a leaf.  Pray for harmony and compassion as people get more and more stressed by the day.   Remember Katrina, the oils spills, the waves of destruction in Japan and beyond. Pray for the wars that keep dropping bombs when we just need to feed and hug the children. Pray for someone, everyone to WAKE UP and hold each other in love and devotion. Pray like you never prayed before. IT MATTERS. Pray that the super bowl of earth destruction is not being held in your arena anytime soon.

We send you all gratitude and blessings. We accept those blessing back.

Rev. CJ Pumpkin (Charla) picking up the pieces in the patch
Hawkwind Earth Renewal Cooperative