Sustenance and Safety (Part 3 of 5 of "Creating Peace")

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 east 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-indulgences, we have a recipe for problems that can impact the entire gathering.

Prevent the problems by making sure you and the people in your vicinity are eating and staying hydrated. Be on the look out for people who look like they aren't getting food and/or water and help them before they start breaking the peace. 

Now for the tough topic: safety.

Safety is a bit harder to come by because what constitutes a feeling of safety is a very subjective and emotional feeling.  To explain what I mean, we'll talk about the estuary by my house.  The salt marsh and estuary have been channelized to prevent flooding and on either bank is a trail. The east side is a paved path that hooks up with bike paths to the north and south. The west side is a dirt road with trees providing shade on a warm day as shown in the image.

The Estuary

People in my neighborhood have very different perspectives on the estuary. Some people view it as a haven for criminals and are afraid to go down there especially after dark. Other people loving taking their kids down to watch the Great Blue Herons and Osprey trying to rustle up a meal.

Now you would think there is some logic as to who feels safe at our estuary and who is scared, but so far I haven't observed any patterns.  I see people with small kids down there watching the sunset and in the early morning many seniors walk their dogs. Then I meet other people in their thirties and forties who are scared to go down without a large group of people because once upon a time someone had a bike stolen (maybe 10 or 15 years ago).

In addition to the herons and hawks at the estuary, one finds the differentially housed: people who live in tents or throw down a sleeping bag under a bush for the night.  Some people are scared of people with different lifestyles then their own, others exchange pleasantries with everyone. Some people who live in non-portable houses are scared of the differentially housed. Others make friends.

Every time I speak at a community meeting, some people go off the deep end on how dangerous the estuary is and others talk about how it's an asset to the community.  I know that I can't change people's opinions about which is which. Plus trying to address how people feel is tough. Your feelings are neither right nor wrong, they just are.

Low crime rates do not make people feel safe. Community makes us feel safe.

So having said all this, how do we help everyone feel safe at the gathering?

One way we can do this is to treat others the way they would like to be treated -- not the way you would like to be treated.  Try finding gentler voices. Look out for each other in peaceful ways and make sure the people in your vicinity seem comfortable. We all have different levels of tolerance, sensitivity, and fear. Honor that.

If someone looks uncomfortable, they probably are. Introduce yourself. Smile at someone you do not know.  We all feel more comfortable when we are around friends. Share your gathering wisdom. Pay more attention to body language. Learn to pick up vibes from the people around you. If you sense that someone is afraid of a situation, help them to feel comfortable by either staying with them, removing both yourselves from the situation, or trying talking to the other person about their fears in a supportive way.  Just because the situation is comfortable for you, doesn't mean it's comfortable for everyone.

Honor our differences and our need to be treated accordingly. Help each other on this journey.

Please pay special attention to law enforcement officers. A scared cop is a dangerous cop (remember Wyoming 2008?). Turn down the volume on negative energy by oming instead of cussing when you do not like a situation.

Think about how you would like others to act around your three year-old child and your ninety year-old grandmother and act accordingly.

Teaching Our Strengths

In my humble opinion, the gathering is good at many things, but what we are best at is creating communities made up of diverse people.  One of my fondest memories is of the Utah gathering in 2003. Just across the dirt road from INFO and CALM was a small meadow that held three small camps sharing one bliss pit:  Krishna Camp, Jesus Camp, and a punk/anarchist camp.

Evenings when I stopped by the bliss pit, people were discussing and sharing ideas, perspectives, and yes sometimes arguing a bit.  Communication and community were being created. When we gather in rural towns, many gatherers connect with many of the locals in sometimes strange but usually positive ways. Many locals plug into the gathering and give deeply despite disagreeing with some of our behaviors.

On the surface, I feel this is what our entire country needs to do. Have those conversations around a bliss pit or coffee table, online, or via the phone. Talk about what we can agree on. Encourage those who do not want a dictator-in-chief to unite and stand up for quality education for our children, health care for those in need, social justice for all, aggressively address climate change, care for our seniors and special needs family, love and protect our water, air, trees, small creatures, owls, bears, wolves, moose, bees, etc. etc.  We can do this if we realize that "we" are the change that is needed.

Take the time to listen to people, especially people who perhaps are socially more conservative than you are and see where you might make a personal connection.

Some people want a return to a more faith based world, but many of us have beliefs that are less than traditional and equally important but are coming from a faith in something, be it Gaia, Buddha, Krishna, or Ifa. So let's share our beliefs.

Many of us are full of love for the world.  Let us take this blissed out, hippy love into the small towns and cities, and infect everyone.  Let's build relationships with those we do not know and find areas of commonality. Let's hug and love everyone. We do it at the gathering and it works magic. Let's take this to every street in the USA and show the world how we create peace through love, compassion, and amazing food.

Love (Part 2 of 5 of "Creating Peace")

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 or sexual feelings
• agape - self-emptying or divine love

Spanish has many words for love:

• encantar - indicating strong like
• gustar mucho - indicating strong like
• querer - to love romantically, to want
• afición - enthusiasm
• amado - sweetheart 
• amor - pure love, romantic love
• caridad - charity

Love is also an emotion. A very strong and powerful emotion.  How many of you have made decisions based on amar, agape, caridad, eros, and storage? I'm guessing everyone.

For the romantics among us, love is what creates beautiful art, amazing music, and sleepless nights.

For the biologists among us, love is a biological function like hunger or thirst that creates attachments between people, thereby insuring their survival in a dangerous and hostile world.

For the psychologists among us, love is not only a feeling, but a series of actions. 

Unconditional love is a common theme of most of the major belief systems and is one of the often unspoken foundations of participating in the phenomenon commonly called the Rainbow Gathering.

So what does all this have to do with creating a culture of peace?

Well besides being a slogan from the 1960s, using love as a way to create connections strengthens our interpersonal relationships. If we love someone with whom we disagree, we are highly motivated to find a solution that meets the needs of everyone.  If we have no personal attachment to other living beings, then we can more easily ignore their perspective and we often do not care about their  happiness.

Yet loving each of our siblings all the time is challenging. Some of our siblings act out, behave poorly, don't clean up after themselves, steal, fight, or are just downright mean. What then?

Then we muster our agape and our caridad and try to make that connection. We try to befriend our siblings. By finding a connection, we are creating a relationship. It may be storage it may be afición, but if we can love another person in the worst situation, then maybe we can use that relationship to work towards peace.


But to be clear, loving someone does not mean you accept all their actions.


True love is being able to love your siblings person while calling them on their bullshit (in a loving manner). 

True love is being able to communicate in a loving way why specific actions are hurting you, the planet, or other living creature.

True love is a meditative practice we undertake as we deal with the frustrations, interruptions, disappointments and annoyances that fill our lives.

 Let your mantra for this year's gathering be I love all my siblings and this beautiful planet we call home.

Love is the path towards peace.

Respect (Part 1 of 5 of "Creating Peace")

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 then does respect contribute to creating peace?

Peace needs nurturing and dialog to plant its roots and grow.  Peace needs food and water.  If we do not respect the needs of peace and honor those needs, we are doomed to failure.  So how then do we go about creating respect at our gatherings?

When we gather, we are a community with a diversity of backgrounds, religious beliefs, political affiliations, interests, hopes and dreams. Honor that diversity in each of us -- our differences are what make us capable and interesting. Our connections are what make us strong.


The following ideas are commonly shared ideas, I didn't invent them, but I find it helpful to be reminded of them.


Respect is one of the core values in our attempts to create an egliterian culture. By approaching my family with respect I am laying the roots for a relationship. By treating people the way they wish to be treated, I can connect with others. If I offer respect to another person, that person is more likely to offer respect to me and to others. People who are treated with respect, learn how to treat others with respect.

We are all part of this big, wonderful planet called earth and hence we are all connected. Rather than trying to severe these connections, let's strengthen them. In 1994 at the Wyoming annual gathering, a forest fire occurred at the edge of the gathering up on a ridge. We formed a human bucket line from the creek at the bottom of the meadow to the ridge. None of us could have individually carried enough water up that hill quickly enough to put out that fire. But standing shoulder to shoulder and passing buckets hand to hand, we connected water and fire and extinguished the flames.


Separate issues from people in a respectful manner. When someone is engaging in non-respectful behavior, respect the person enough to explain why the behavior is creating an issue that needs to be addressed.

Acknowledge the emotions behind the inappropriate behavior and ask the person if they could refrain from the behavior and share their feelings with us instead. We all do this with our children when we refrain from saying "you're bad" and instead say "you made a poor choice"  or "please use your words to tell your brother why you are upset instead of hitting him."  Why can't we use this same method with adults?  Especially those of us who are children in the bodies of adults.

As the early gatherers (or earlies as they are more commonly known) wrote a long time ago "we are all of us children" as we are just now learning how to live with each other.  Be patient. Some of us learn more quickly and some of us learn less quickly. We all started from different places so we all have different journeys ahead of us. Let's be fellow travelers on this uncharted sea.

Everyone has an opinion and their opinion is no better nor worse than my opinion or your opinion. When we create space for people to freely share their thoughts without fear or judgement, we are creating a space where we respect each other.

Listen. We show our respect to others by listening to what they have to say. We not only listen with our ears, but our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our hands.  When people feel heard, they feel respected. When they feel respected, they are more likely to respect others.

Respect is an important starting point for creating peace.

Fall (Thanksgiving) Council Notes

These Notes were compiled and put together by a Circle of folks who attended the Council.--  They all requested to be anonymous. Please forward these Notes to your friends (after deleting any personal contact info that may be at the start of the message), post on your blogs, -- newsgroups, Facebook pages etc. --  Love and Light !

2016--  Fall-- (TG) Council Notes

I.--We had 2 concensus:

1.-- An invitation to any and all to participate in scouting-- There will be a scout rendezvous on Monday, May 15, 2017-- at a place in Oregon to be later decided.

2.-- Spring Council will begin on Saturday, June 10, 2017 at Rainbow Noon.

II.--Banking Council

4 people volunteered to be Magic Hat holders (aka Banking Council). They exchanged contact info with each other. They will keep records of any pre--Gathering donations and any pre--Gathering expenses. After Spring Council selects the Gathering site and Seed Camp begins, a new group of Magic Hat holders will be formed.

III.----Other topics discussed during Fall Council included:

A.-- Logistics

1. Scouting – all parts of Oregon are being considered. The answer (prior to Spring Council--€™s decision) to the question: Where exactly will the Gathering be?:  is: In Oregon! We ask that folks do not post details of scouting on social media. Scouts can stay in touch with one another by telephone and at the scout rendezvous. They can also utilize the NW Lightline (503) 727--2498 to coordinate scouting.  Scouting by maps can be done at any time-- especially when weather does not permit walking the land. Suggested maps include: Forest Service maps, Fire maps, Gazeteers and topo maps.

2. Work Parties are encouraged to prepare for the Gathering where things such as shitter seats, hand wash stations, dishwashing set up, recycling signs, and other useful items are assembled

3. Co-operations – a place at the Gathering where there are Councils and also a place where useful items including tools and other resources are available

4. Waterline needs: the Gathering will need items such as food grade poly pipe, fittings-- (T valves etc.), pre-filters and drinking-quality fine filters.

5. Sanitation and Health-- provide washable sit-on shitters (boxes or something else) for elders and children. Whoever brings them take them home; Suggestion for a "Shitter camp" for people dedicated to shitter business

6. Kid Village and Teen Village

7. Dirty Kidz Village--  (DKV)

8. Women’s Teepee Space -- including our trans, queer and gender fluid/nonconforming family as well.

9. Front Gate: an enjoyable, safe place to welcome folks

10. Shanti Sena (Peace Scene)

11. Supply-- start making local contacts for bulk wholesome foods

B. Visions, Ideas, Heartsongs

1. Family Traditions

2. Terminology

3. Leave No Trace

4. One-up the Operating Plan (do better than they ask)

5. Personal Safety, Consent (see Vermont Vision Council consensus)

6. Rainbow Family and Indigenous People-- Good relations, suggestions for best ways to move forward-- communicating our intentions to gather in Oregon in 2017, -- respecting sacred sites.

7. Black lives matter

8. White privilege

9. Regional Families needing support (such as Ocala family)

10. Homelessness-- What can be done?

11. Moving to a money--less system-- outside of Rainbow

12. Work parties outside of Rainbow to help local communities

13. Solidarity-now, any time, especially on July 4^th ----  during the silent prayer for Peace

14. It’s all about Love -- the rest is just tinsel.

15. Time to Plant the Seeds for The Best Gathering Ever?

IV.The following is a personal account of Fall Council by one person who was there:

Aproximately 70 folks came to the 2016  Fall (TG) Council in Eugene, Oregon. Most were from Oregon, several from California, a few from Washington, a couple from Montana and several folks who are on the road.--  We had 2 pre--teen boys, 2 pre--teen gals, not too many dogs and some brave kitties.--  One big bus, a couple motorhomes, live-in vans, tents in the rain, and people bunking in the Council Space.--  Overall, there was a lot of comradery, sharing and caring.

--  The -carport kitchen served nutritious, delicious meals-- with ingredient cards and options for vegan, gluten free and lacto intolerant. They even served pop-overs (savory and sweet) to the Circle one day as we were in council. We started Friday and Saturday morning Councils with the feather going entirely around the Circle -- everyone sharing one-at-a-time.  Friday we began with the folks who have not yet been to a Rainbow Gathering, ending with those who have the most experience, and Saturday we began with the children. During these go-rounds, folks shared their Visions and suggested topics they wanted to see addressed by the group. 

After these mini heartsongs, the feather went around and around as the person holding the feather spoke on a topic/ topics of their choice and facilitated others discussing that subject. Lots of ideas were shared and connections made. There were a few Break Out Sessions between Councils, where folks met to discuss things that may not be of interest or difficult to discuss in a bigger group-- such as Scouting. There was a year-old interpersonal relation/ physical violence issue  between 2 people present which was handled by both a smaller circle on Saturday morning and by others over the weekend. To say the least, it was challenging and hard on many folks present. Over the weekend, the recurring themes seemed to be : Safety, Health, Support, Choice, Ease, Fun and Friendship.--  We had a Reggae show on Friday night and some homegrown music on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Last two conference calls before Fall/Thanksgiving/council/counsel/circle

Conference Call on Sunday, November 13, at 6pm PST/ 9pm EST. 

The call in # is 641 715 0700. The access code is 185117. 

On this call, the nearest airport to the council location will be announced as well as discussions for how to create a positive council.

Conference Call on Sunday, November 20, at 6pm PST/ 9pm EST. 

The call in # is 641 715 0700. The access code is 185117. 

On this call, the actual directions to the council location will be announced as well as any other outstanding topics.

Click here for the information as it becomes available.

On Belonging

I often find it hard to explain to people my perspective on what my Rainbow family means to me. Some gatherers argue that we are individuals, but I have always felt that while we are individuals, we mean more to each other than the random people who show up at a football game. I view the gathering as a big dysfunctional family. However, the word ‘family’ is loaded with baggage so sometimes it’s easier to use other words.

In The Values of Belonging by Carol Lee Flinders (co-author of the Laurel's Kitchen cookbooks), she puts forth the principles of belonging in the introduction to the book. Reading them, I felt she was expressing what the gathering means to me in terms of our relationships to each other. She makes the point that the values of belonging say “This is where I belong” while the values of mainstream Western civilization would stay, “This belongs to me.” If you want to learn more about her and her work, visit her website. In the interest of sharing, I’ve included the bullet points of her values of belonging which for me expresses some of the best aspects of gathering. 

• Intimate connection with the land to which one “belongs.”
• Empathetic relationship to animals
• Self-restraining
• Custodial conservatism
• Deliberateness (being present)
• Balance
• Expressiveness
• Generosity
• Egalitarianism
• Mutuality
• Affinity for alternative modes of knowing
• Playfulness
• Inclusiveness
• Nonviolent conflict resolution
• Openness to spirit.

What do you think?