Freedom News(letter) 01: musings on newsings

Hello internet! It’s been a long time... I recently changed my name to Freedom - you all knew me as Margie. You can call me Freedom or Free. The choice is yours! :) I think it’s time reimagine the news we consume. What if we got real with each other and started sharing the truth of our lives? Maybe we might see we are all more alike than we thought... There are an infinite amount of ways to reimagine the news. My personal approach is to try out a newsletter sent via email. Here is the first edition! If you want to receive this to your inbox, email me at sistershaman.net@gmail.com much love, free ———— THE FREEDOM NEWS(LETTER) 01 - MUSINGS ON NEWSINGS What a time to be alive. The world seems to be crumbling all around us on a global scale. And oh how the micro loves to mimic the macro. Ive witnessed my own cookie crumble to bits more in the last two years than ever before.

Let’s zoom into the last two weeks I’ve had: first, my mom kicked me and my best friend/sister/ spiritual sparring mate Spirit out of the family house; then, our 21-year old, humble Subaru Forester broke down beyond repair, and thennnnnnn the two of us decided to relocate to Brazil with our dog Sweet Spot (formally known as Lilypad). Then suddenly, my mom was hospitalized due to illness from a rare, tick-borne parasite that attacked her liver and fed on her red blood cells. Ticks are some filthy blood suckers.

Thankfully, Mommy is out of the hospital. She was released yesterday! Most folks know that my mom’s health has been deteriorating at an unpredictable rate over the last 15 years. From what the doctors can tell, she has an undiagnosable autoimmune disease that regularly morphs from myasthenia gravis to lupus to a figment of my mom’s imagination. It all depends on the physician.

Well, my mom is finally tired of depending on hospitals and wants to work with me and Spirit on a holistic and natural healing plan! This is actually a dream project for me because I’ve been studying the use of plant medicine to restore and support our body’s natural ability to heal itself for years now. I know no better person to work with than my mama. (Even though she kicked me out of her house because of my love of nudity 😆 love you Mommy!!)

All this hubabaloo has really got me thinking about the things that matter in life. People have always been super important to me and yet I find myself feeling more isolated than ever before. The last two years isolated us all. But we can’t put all the blame on covid. We’ve been experiencing the breakdown of authentic, heart-centered human connection on a societal level for centuries. Our prisons are overcrowded with black, brown and poor humans; our school systems and health systems (hell, all of our systems) are broken; our youth are drugged and hopeless; our parents are depressed and dejected; our elders are dead. We’ve gone astray, humanity....

I’ve been thinking about the news a lot, too. I’ve come to conclude that the news broadcasted on TV and in print is a projection of our deepest, most raw fears. Put another way: the news is our version of dementors. (That was for all my former and existing Harry Potter lovers.) The nightly news shares stories of doom and gloom, inciting fear and terror in us all. Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, we are all impacted by the stress of this fear. We hate what we see and we refuse to look away. We shan’t look away! Shan’t we?

What if we all stopped looking at the news? If only for an instant?

What if we divested some of the time, energy, and value we put into celebrity gossip, virtual games, and reality shows and put it into people we actually know? What if the news we consumed were of real people told by real people?

What if we put our attention into witnessing people we know from our daily lives: your coworker, your bus driver, your lover. What if we looked to consume the stories of people who were from our community, our village? Village News, if you will.

Geeeee have I got thoughts on villages! I believe villages were deliberately destroyed, much like the family unit. I also believe that the restoration of villages will help usher in a new and more harmonious age. We need to know and connect with each other in the NOW. We need to know our neighbors and hear their stories.

Yes, the world seems to be crumbling. We do not need to tune into the 9pm news or scroll through Facebook to find out. There are some unthinkable things happening to everyday people right now. You don’t need to tune into the drama of Scandal, Game of Thrones, or CNN to witness political deception, death, rape, or pillaging.

So all this got me wondering: what would happen if we all turned our attention away from the burning trash can and put it on the dandelion growing through the pavement beside the dumpster? Maybe we would all see that we have the power to create a world where systems do not keep us enslaved. As my beloved sister Spirit says, “if we all learned to care for ourselves, no one would be left uncared for.”

I’m convinced that an instant spent pondering the vastness of that dandelion next to the dumpster fire can change your life. An instant spent dwelling your mind on trust and love can heal a lifetime of trauma.

So let’s reenvision the news. Can we shift our attention from terror and dread to truth and love?

I would like to start a movement! I refuse to consume toxic news from a media that I know is poisonous. I won’t do it. I want some real news!

We can share our news in an infinite amount of ways - email for those of us feel wordy. Social media for folks like my sister Spirit who are bringing a new energy of openness and authenticity to social networks. Connect with her on Facebook and Instagram (@spiritheartsong) to keep in touch with her unique vantage point of our village’s news, which often features me. Spirit is my spiritual sparring mate and my expansion partner in crime. Her art is visually stunning. As is her voice. I’ll of course be sharing some of her posts with as they often get me thinking or feature my thoughts.

wow, if you made it this far. THANK YOU!!!! “Golly gee!” as my family friend Aunt Bev would say. I have spent so much of my life feeling invisible and unheard. When you read my wordS, you are witnessing me and seeing me. What a gift. Being seen and accepted is more precious than gold. Thank you for connecting with me!

I have no clue how this new form of “news” will shake out but I’m really eager to build community with folks who resonate with what I have to say. Please let me know if you are one of them :)

Yours always,

Freedom