A post on the Gill-Tract/Boycott-Sprouts(Fake)Farmers-Market/ Ohlone-Ceremonies/ Native-American-Women-leadership/ Urban-Farming is long past-due. Together with the nudge I got from an inspector from the smiles-inbox ;-) and the paradigm shift of this story, made me share it right away.

Despite the Gill Tract "Wiki Leaks", the voice of local elders, and two sisters locking themselves to a bulldozer last week, Yesterday, a part (~6.5 acres) of the Gill Tract was deeply hurt as massive heavy machinery started to remove thousands of pounds of incredibly rich-black soil. It was painful to witness. As a way to serve the movement to save this piece of land we, in Casa de Paz, volunteered to be on the sidewalk of San Pablo Ave. from 7am to 4pm to start preparing our escalation of satyagraha.

Casa de Paz crew's signature is to start and end with receptive silence. So, I put an Earth flag, a couple of banners --one of them that read "We Are Not Defending the Earth. We Are Earth Defending Herself"--, a couple of yoga mats, a milk-cradle with fliers and a clipboard to collect signatures to halt the devil-opement. Then invited the bells and started meditating as the morning traffic commute started to pickup in this part of the Bay Area.

After half an hour or so, I could start feeling the vibrations and sounds of the heavy machinery on the land, but then a very gentle --almost whispering--, kind and cordial female voice said: "You cannot put your banners on the fence. This is property of Ghilotti brothers". I continued to meditate and noticed this person left. The 60 minutes of the meditation were up, and a few minutes to send loving-kindness to all over the Planet, specially in that moment, were more than necessary.

Over the course of the day, I had many interactions with the security guard who came during meditation. Deep down, this African American sister was supporting our cause to honor the Earth, to serve the people and to farm and grow healthy organic food for the community. In her own terms, she even stressed the fundamental point of constructive programme and how her grandma was part of the Black Panthers. As destruction was happening in our face, I was feeling a tremendous kinship and a big wall been demolished between her and I. We connected in so many ways, like understanding violence and been capable of violence but choosing not to, in order to embody principled nonviolence. She even lives in Fruitvale (East Oakland) in 35th ave! But this was nothing in comparison with what she was about to share.

She confessed something like: "You know, earlier in the morning as I was walking towards you, I felt a very strong presence of my grandfather. He was Muslim and an Imam. And this energy told me: 'if you mess with this man when he is meditating, you are gonna get in big trouble.'   Then later she added: "I told you that you couldn't have the banners on the fence, but you still have them there. If my supervisor comes, I'm going to tell him I did my job but that you decided to keep them up anyway. I'm going to tell him I didn't want to start a fight because I want peace."

She had so many gestures of kindness as when the wind blew up a little banner from the sidewalk, and she didn't want to step on it. "I don't want to ruin your banner" she said. She helped a drunk woman to board a bus with so much love as if she were her own mother. Those hours I share with her, she was always smiling, she was a fierce embodiment of love and the change we want to see and live in the World. As a true humble rebel, she wanted to remain anonymous, no name, no photos.

As the day ended, Tyler, Sunibell and I headed to the Medicinal Garden of the Gill Tract where brother Richard --the creator of healing spirit plants-- and us host weekly meditations on Thursdays at the Occupy Garden. As you can see from this photo of yesterday's meditation, he is even taking care of a Bodhi tree!

If we all were paying attention to what our ancestors are saying, we would not be hurting each other and desecrating Mother Earth for profit. I'm so grateful that this sister --the black security guard-- was kind enough and generous enough to share her wide-open heart with us in this amazing way.

May we listen to the mysterious and powerful silent discourses of the stars, our oldest ancestors to have a more compassionate, harmonious and loving Earth.