day of healingThis Friday, November 9, has officially been declared a Day of Community Healing by the Aruyveda Institute of Tompkins County and the Ithaca Mental Health Association.
Activities planned for that day include workshops on Making Racism Go Away, Healing Childhood Wounds, Curing Those Relationship Blues, and Dealing with the Loss of Beloved Aquarium Fish.
At 9am Friday morning, a bus will leave from the library to take community members to Buttermilk Falls for a Ceremony of Remembrance conducted by descendants of the Tutelo tribe, who originally occupied the area around Cayuga Lake. The focus is to allow today's Ithacans to commune with the spirits of the first Native American residents.
"They're not mad at us, you know." Wanda Glimmerhope, AITC Coordinator, told this reporter. "The spirits just want us to be happy and pick up after ourselves."
Coordinators for the event have designated DeWitt Park as site of what they are calling The First Annual Community Group Hug. The event will kickoff at noon on Friday, and will feature demonstrations of Reiki, Falafel Making, Building Backyard Cairns, and Faerie Balloon Art.
"If we all get together and give each other a big hug, we won't have the kinds of problems like we have today in the schools. We can send all the pain away. There, poof, it's gone."
Glimmerhorn was referring to recently reported incidents of racial tension and harassment in the Ithaca public schools. She went on, later in the interview, to affirm the possibility that we can all be loved for who we are,and that even the most painful childhood injuries can be soothed.
Capping off Friday's activities will be the disposal of deceased aquarium fish in a ritual mass sendoff at the East Shore of Cayuga Lake.
"We know from first hand experience what it's like to lose a beloved Vermiculated Angel. We give them so much love and attention, then they die. I guess it's natural but it hurts. So what do we do with their little bodies? Here's a chance to send our beloved pets back into the Waters of Life. That's what we intend to do. Starting at 3:30 pm, we'll be having a little service and then we'll just give them a little push and watch them float off to their eternal resting place."
Glimmerhope wiped a tear from the corner of one eye.
"It's all about healing, you know."
Comments invited at: ezrakidder@gmail.com - Peace, Ezra at 1:32 AM
