Minnesota / Wisconsin Gathering 2019

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 midwest 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...

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 o...

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 the...