In my last article, I announced that I would be writing about Enchanted Forest Farm, the 365 acres that we live on, so that is what I will be discussing this month.
Enchanted Forest is my refuge. It is where magic can and does happen. It is a mystical place where I can connect most easily with the Great Mother. When the Great Mother speaks, she speaks of Love, Acceptance, Oneness, Harmony, Balance, Beauty, and Peace. She guides me on my path.
Enchanted Forest is where I do my “Grandmother Work,” which is directed by the Great Mother. She asks that I pray or meditate regularly so that I may channel the light in its purest form. She reminds me that what I channel is only one aspect of the truth as it is filtered through the unique experiences that I encounter in this life as a woman. The many truths that are out there must come together in Love to find common ground. In the balance, which we can find if we look, are the solutions that we need to solve the problems before us.
Our future will be in the hands of the next generations to come. The wise grandmothers in the past realized this and looked to the next seven generations when taking action in the present. Education is probably the most important issue to consider in the now. We need solutions that will provide the appropriate education for each child on this planet that will allow them to become all they can become. As we find the solutions, we need to form new paradigms; paradigms that will work for everyone as we share our individual truths about what we each see or feel.
Enchanted Forest is sacred space in nature, where our grandchildren and their friends can come and have an opportunity to interact with one another and the natural world in a beautiful and fun filled setting. It is here that they learn to appreciate the simple things in life and how precious our natural resources are.
Enchanted Forest is also known as Granny and Papaland and is where we hold our annual Granny and Papa’s Forest Camp for kids. The purpose of our camps is to explore ways to improve the quality of life on our planet. Camp attendees are always a bright and talented group of young people and we have no intention of teaching them what to learn. Instead we present them with some basic information and encourage them to learn what is true and works for each of them as individuals. Then through meaningful and respectful dialogue with one another, they learn to come up with answers and solutions that will work for us all. Through team building, trust building and leadership activities, the youngsters learn to care for one another and find the value of working together without giving up their individuality.
The Universe gave us opportunity to own the land but as stewards we believe we have the commitment to restore balance and harmony. The land was hurting and our relationship to the land was out of balance. Caring for this land has given me a sense of how people belong to the land rather than land belonging to the people. I realize that, even though the predominant culture in Southern Oregon has only been here a short three hundred years or so, humans have had a relationship with this land for over 40,000 years.
Our land has been logged twice in the last fifty years and we acquired it shortly after the second logging. It was basically a cut and run job and we were looking at devastation. In our restoration efforts, we realized that we needed to restore the balance and part of that balance was the one between man and nature. To this end we started learning about indigenous practices and Grandmother Aggie Pilgrim came into our life.
Aggie came to live here as result of our search for information to restore native ways and ceremonies to this land. Her very important destiny is to bring a healing to our planet through indigenous awareness. When she came into our life she needed to be introduced back to this, her native homeland, and supported while she patiently waited for her family to heal. Happily, her family healed and she is back with them and travelling the world, with her message, as the Chairwoman of the Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers.
During her ten years with us at Enchanted Forest, Aggie brought indigenous ceremonies (such as the Sacred Salmon Ceremony) and healing circles back to the land. I learned many things about being a wise “Rainbow Grandmother” from Aggie and appreciate the blessings that she brought into my life. I do much of my work in the “Rainbow Grandmother’s Lodge” that we built on the land and feel the loving presence of the old ones when I am there.
As we learned about the indigenous methods of managing the land we decided to put on a camp to train first nation people in these forestry practices. We wanted to help them restore their connection to the land and give them a vital skill to improve their economic status. I wrote a grant to put on a workshop for Native American youth in indigenous forest management and submitted it to the Forest Alliance who awarded us a $4000 grant to put it on. It was a very successful workshop that provided training to seven young people. Three were able to find work in the field of forestry and four received college credits for the training.
I share this land with my wonderful and masterful husband, Jan. He is actually a wizard and is affectionately known as Papa to our grandchildren and their friends. Even though I was the one who made the dream happen, he is the one who takes care of it all. As we walk together on our path through this mystical land, we work amazing magic.
Brenda Patton
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